Day: July 27, 2012

Another great review for an anthology in which I have an essay. Buy early and buy often. Spiritual Living Reviews, July 15, 2012 — Library Journal Reviews. All-American: 45 American Men on Being Muslim. White Cloud. (I Speak for Myself). 2012. c.256p. ed. by Wajahat Ali & Zahra T. Suratwala. illus. ISBN 9781935952596. pap. $16.95. REL Too various for a simple description, this fascinating book brings together 45 brief testimonies from American men who are Muslim, men who run the full range of experience, identity, and persuasion—gay and straight, convert and birthright, immigrant and native, conservative and radical. These candid…

The book Brian is talking about sounds fascinating. His last paragraph is important for understanding the transformation that is taking place in Islamic studies regarding the place of Shi’ism. Brian’s Coffeehouse: Tales of Ibn Saba. Anthony’s book, together with Najam Haider’s work showing that there were distinct Shi’ite practices in Kufa in the early 700’s, makes 2011 an important year in the growth of our understanding of what the sectarian landscape was like in Islam’s first century, as well as how it was articulated and how it slowly evolved into the more established Sunni and Shi’i Islam of the 800’s. …