Morgantown resident and journalist Asra Nomani, upon the opening of the new mosque, found that the women had a separate entrance in the back. The day she went in through the front door to pray right behind the men in the men’s section was the day she began her ordeal with the mosque, directly going against the conservatives of the mosque while using this issue as a platform for women’s rights in Islam.

Nomani’s methods to bring awareness of how she felt about the mosque included trying to pray behind the men in the men’s section, airing her grievances in front of the mosque, organizing a protest march with a group of activists, and even posting her very own 99 precepts on the front door of the mosque, all in front of the media.

While the creators of the documentary could have just shown Nomani’s side, they also talked to those who did not share in Nomani’s view, creating a balanced documentary. Various people who were part of the mosque were interviewed, such as Hazem Bata, a moderate Muslim. He wondered why Asra Nomani went to such extremes to air her issues. Why not talk to the Muslims who belong to the mosque before going right to the press? Bata wondered. I have to say, I agree with Bata’s point of view. It’s too late to say how things would have turned out had Nomani picked another way to fight her battle but one would think that sitting down and having a proper discussion with the community before going straight to the media may have fared a better outcome.

The Mosque in Morgantown isn’t necessarily about who’s right and who’s wrong but instead offers an interesting look into the events that highlight an issue that is still being debated today in the United States. However, this documentary isn’t just about the issue of barriers in the mosque and women’s rights. It also documents the struggle that a Muslim community faces and how they all go about trying to solve it. The Muslim community is far from perfect and it’s definitely intriguing to see how one such group deals with dissent. At one point, the Muslims of the Morgantown mosque even discuss banning Nomani from the mosque, which seems to be a bit extreme.

The Mosque in Morgantown premiers tonight on PBS at 10 pm. Check your local listings since timings may differ in your area.

I also recommend Zarqa Nawaz’s Me and the Mosque for a documentary that really explores the theme of women’s place in the mosque (Asra Nomani appeared in this documentary as well). It doesn’t appear to be readily available, but if you have a chance, watch it.

Part 2 of this interview will be posted on the site on Friday.

Born Jason, Hamza used to be a drug dealer in Massachusetts before he found Islam and turned his life around at the age of 21. Although only 83 minutes, New Muslim Cool covers many aspects of Hamza’s life: how he fits in with his (mostly) non-Muslim relatives, his marriage, his work as an activist, his hip hop career, even how he and the rest of the Muslim community deal with an uncalled for FBI raid on their mosque.

Taylor and editor Kenji Yamamoto worked well to make the film as cohesive as possible. Despite the fact that one is watching scenes that have been filmed over a few years, the documentary has an underlying theme. It’s about Hamza maturing, becoming a better person, understanding who he is, and embracing the responsibilities he feels are incumbent on him.

The great thing about New Muslim Cool is that you don’t have to be a Muslim or a convert to appreciate this film. The message given is universal and Hamza is entirely relatable. Check it out if you can. There’s one more screening in San Francisco at the Sundance Kabuki Theater on May 4 and screenings in other parts of the country as well. In addition, New Muslim Cool also has the distinction of airing on June 23 on PBS to start off the new season of POV.

The book is told from Aisha’s perspective under the guise of writing a journal for her nephew Abdullah as a way to recount the events of her life. We are there from her birth, her childhood as part of the persecuted group of Muslims, the migration to Medina, her marriage to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), and so on and so forth. Pasha touches on many of the significant events that are representative of the time of the Prophet (pbuh) while including a cast of characters who are familiar to many Muslims. However, while Kamran Pasha has obviously spent a great amount of time researching the life of Aisha, Mother of the Believers is not exactly a book I would recommend for those who wish to learn about Islam due to the manner in which this book is presented and the lack of true understanding of the religion that may come from reading Pasha’s novelized account.

Pasha telling the story from Aisha’s eyes and as a form of communication to her nephew doesn’t work too well here. First of all, there are too many scenes without Aisha in them where the first person point of view can’t even come into play, never mind the fact that there would be no way she would be able to relate these scenes to her nephew in her journal. Second, if Aisha is writing with the her nephew as the audience in mind, there would be no need to explain the Islamic concepts that she does for the benefit of the reader. I mean, why should she have to define such terms as hadith for someone like Abdullah? I realize that many may look at these as minor grievances, but these alone made this book hard for me to digest.

In addition to the aforementioned contentions, the actual topic of this book did not sit too well with me. In the Author’s Note in the beginning of the book, Pasha writes “My intention in writing this novel has been to give Westerners a glimpse of the richness that exists within the Muslim historical tradition and invite all my readers to learn more about Islam and draw their own conclusions.” That is definitely noble. Yet, despite these intentions, I’m still not quite sure how I feel about the novelization of the most revered Prophet for Muslims and other people that are held in high regard, like Aisha herself.

The reader may come away from this book without being able to distinguish what was real or not. One may believe that some of the more fantastical elements that Muslims believe happened are the work of Pasha’s imagination while thinking other events and pieces of dialogue are true when it’s something that Pasha added to give more color. It is not up to the author to add his own elements to true accounts (for Muslims anyway) that may end up misrepresenting the actions of historical figures or even Islam itself.

In the end, I don’t believe that fictionalizing these religious icons is in the best interest of one who wants to learn about Islam. I understand that not everyone may agree with me and that’s fine, but hopefully if someone really wants to learn about the religion, he or she will go to a different source.

Also check out:
Kamran Pasha recently wrote an article about the controversy that he expects to face with his new book.

There is still a broad lack of familiarity with the world’s second-largest religion — 55 percent of those polled said they are without a basic understanding of the teachings and beliefs of Islam, and most said they do not know anyone who is Muslim. While awareness has increased in recent years, underlying views have not improved.

In fact, 48% of those polled view Islam negatively and 29% overall think of it as a violent religion. Funny enough, those who do not hold Islam in a positive light are people who do not know too much about
the religion itself and most likely have never even met a Muslim.

Apparently despite all the work Muslim Americans have done in this country in terms of public outreach, it is clearly not enough.

Also if you are in the San Jose/Campbell areas, be sure to check out Channel 15 this Friday Feb. 27th at 3:30pm for the special episode of “The Muslim Round Table Telvision Show” about “American Muslim Views on the Obama Presidency.”

Peace

Irfan

Muslim investors profit by adhering to faith

From the article:

Renouncing interest is the high-profile element of Islamic finance that relates to the current economic crisis. For Islamically correct investors, that means there are limits to how much debt a company can have or how much profit it can derive from interest-based investments. That criterion eliminated the possibility of holding stocks in financial services companies, like Citigroup or Washington Mutual, whose stocks lost 86 percent or all of their value last year, respectively.

The Islamic Index in the Dow Jones has been outperforming many non-Islamic indexes while the Amana Income and Growth Funds have also been outperforming the S&P 500. The article also touches on much of the housing crisis was avoided by those who went through Islamic financing methods.

Generally speaking, while not every Islamic Fund has been more successful than other funds, the Islamic method of investing is giving people pause and has them thinking if there just might be something to it.

But really though, check out the whole article.

Kuruvila really works with the Islamic community in the Bay Area whenever he needs to write an article that deals with Islam. Because of this, his articles are always well balanced.

Just a quick note: In an email that I got that was forwarded from someone who helped him on the article, Kuruvila said that he did not write the actual headline and that the “online headline is definitely too strong an assertion.” So just keep that in mind.

With this book, Curiel delves into many aspects of the American culture to discover Arabic or Muslim beginnings. He writes about Islamic roots since the time Columbus set foot on America, slaves that were Muslim, origins of words that take root from Arabic words, buildings that were created with Arab architecture in mind, and amazingly enough, the origin of one of the most popular surfer songs, Miserlou, has an Arab point of reference as well.

One interesting story is about one of the most American things, the ice cream cone, which was created through happenstance in 1904. When an ice cream vendor at the World’s Fair in St. Louis ran out of plates to serve ice cream, a zalabia, a flat pastry with a grid-like pattern that a Syrian was selling, was shaped like a cone and used to serve the ice cream instead. Even something like coffee can be traced to Muslim countries where it was initially used by Sufis to help them stay up late and pray. In fact, the first coffeehouse was in Mecca around the 1500s.

The biggest shock to many could be that Minoru Yamasaki, the American architect, was inspired by Arab architecture when he designed the World Trade Center. In fact, the original plan had a lot more archways that are present in mosque designs before he had to change the design.

While I can go on and on about what Curiel tied to Arabic and Muslim culture while he researched this book, it’s worth talking about the ramifications of such a book. Americans have lived in fear of Muslims and Arabs for quite a while now and Curiel will force one to reexamine this misunderstanding and for that, Al’ America is an important book and worth adding to one’s bookshelf. Well written and well researched, this book benefits many people, whether it is someone that thinks of Arabs and Muslims living in the United States as ‘the other’ or even Arabs and Muslims who live in the United States. The former will understand that a lot of what they thought to be “American” can be traced to Arabs and Muslims while the latter may acquire a closer association to this country as they learn about roots planted a long time ago.

In his preface, Curiel writes “..the history of these pages will require a popular reassessment of America and its relation to Arab and Muslim culture. It’s not “their” culture, but “ours.” American culture. The culture of America.” Hopefully, Jonathan Curiel will accomplish this with Al’ America.

Be sure to check out Jonathan Curiel’s website as he has pictures of some of the buildings he writes about in his book.

Check it out the story, Is Peace Out of Reach, below or on CBS’s site.

From the article:

When dealing with the Muslims, Obama urged: “We can have legitimate disagreements but still be respectful.” However, his reinforced commitment to Israel – despite the humanitarian crisis and global condemnation surrounding its actions in Gaza – is both polarizing and contentious to Muslims worldwide. When Obama firmly stated: “I will continue to believe that Israel’s security is paramount,” many Muslims lost hope in Obama’s promise – and by extension the desire for a new and “improved” US Middle East foreign policy – due to perceptions of his unconditionally-biased loyalty towards Israel.

Check out the entire article.