Children of Dust

I've written before about my admiration of the work of Sufi Comics. They do outstanding work engaging with Muslim spirituality in a modern context. In fact, I have an academic article about their work on Imam Ali coming out in an anthology on Muslim Superheroes.   They now have a new collection of Rumi stories out, and they are making sure that Rumi is not divorced from his Muslim roots. As in the previous volume, the story is end capped by a verse from the Qur'an and quote from either Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) or Imam Ali (AS). Unlike in the…

Young Writer Tackles Race, Religion, American Identity – The Takeaway. Every year, the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards honor the best high school and middle school students in a variety of categories, including painting, journalism and fiction. Past winners include leaders and luminaries in their respective fields, including Joyce Carol Oates, Andy Warhol and Truman Capote. Some 185,000 pieces of art and writing submitted this year, and eighteen-year-old Haris Durrani was one of seven high school seniors to win a gold medal for a portfolio of writing, out of 3,000 portfolio entries.

I’ve been sitting on this idea for a little bit; when I work with Muslim kids I often explain to them that The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe is not a Christian allegory, so much as it is a Muslim one, specifically a Shi’ah Muslim allegory. Let me walk you through my ill-thought thinking. First, we know Lewis was opposed to a live-action version of the Chronicles, calling the representation of Aslan “blasphemy,” strong words from a religious person. The presence of an anti-iconic can be felt in such a statement. Second, we know that the lion is named…