Books

Interview with G. Willow Wilson

Rearrange Your Head: An Interview with American Muslim Convert and Memoirist G. Willow Wilson | RDBook | ReligionDispatches. Sheikhas and alimas [female spiritual and religious authorities], if you can find any — and you have to look pretty hard — will totally change the way you think about Islam and gender. There is a long and revered tradition of female scholarship in this religion, but it’s dying out. Most of the female scholarship we have now is part of a new tradition—postmodern academia—not a continuation of the old. Old school sheikhas, educated the traditional way, will rearrange your head. In…

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Art Politics

Asia Society Releases Report on the Arts

The Asia Society has released a new report “Making a Difference through the Arts: Strengthening America’s Links with Muslim Communities in Asia.” I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but it looks very interesting. From the Executive Summary: This report offers examples of the diverse ways in which stakeholders in cultural development and ex- change initiatives in and with Asian Muslim communi- ties have built successful projects by drawing on cultur- ally grounded knowledge and strategies . The panoramic range of projects, the impressive degree of imagination and innovation with which they have been designed and carried out, and the…

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