Pres. Obama gave a shout out to Naif al-Mutawa, creator of the comic book series The 99, during the Entrepreneurship Summit this week. It’s a great series, and Naif is a great guy. If you haven’t seen the comics yet, you must read them.
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Event: Art of the Qur’an
For those in the NY area, the Asia Society is host an exhibition on the art of the Qur’an and on calligraphy. Asia Society link. New York Times review. Qur’an, calligraphy
Reading Iran
Via MoorishGirl (have you bought her book yet?) I found this wonderful list from Azar Nafisi (of Reading Lolita in Tehran fame) on books on Iran. Her list: (asterisks are ones I’ve read) Encyclopedia Iranica (*as much as one reads an encyclopedia) The Blindfold Horse: Memories of a Persian Childhood Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope www.TehranAvenue.com www.fis-iran.org www.abfiran.org My Uncle Napoleon (*I just saw the new edition of the English translation. I’ve read the original Persian, and it’s a hoot.) Persepolis [vol. 1 and vol. 2] (*love it) Strange Times My Dear The Secret of Laughter Rubaiyat…
Velveteen Rabbi: The voices of American Muslim men
Velveteen Rabbi: The voices of American Muslim men. Because I've been blessed to know Hussein for years, I paid special attention to his essay. He writes eloquently about growing up "painfully normal" in Queens, New York. His grandmother and his grade school were both located in Forest Hills, Queens, "one of the most diverse Jewish communities at the time." He writes about how he developed racial identity consciousness first, and religious identity consciousness later. (Indeed: as a good second-generation American teenager, he rebelled against his parents, which naturally meant steering away from religiousness. For a while.)