Shelina Zahra Janmohamed blogs at spirit21, and she is the winner of brass crescent awards for best blog and best female blog.She writes:

I took the book to a number of publishers whose commissioning editors loved the story, but couldn’t see it fitting with the existing mould of books about Muslim women. “We need an ‘alias’ of a book that is already out there so people understand how it relates to previous books,” they explained, meaning it should be either a forced marriage story or one of escape from Islam.

With such black and white views about the stories that Muslim women are permitted to tell, how can it ever be possible to create an understanding of our diversity and complexity?

I hope my book brings a fresh perspective to the discussion about Muslim women. But there is a serious question to be asked – will it provoke the Muslim community to look into itself and wonder why these lazy stereotypes exist? Sometimes as Muslims we lack an intellectual honesty about ourselves, and are not brave enough to tell our stories as human beings on a journey, with all our flaws. If publishers are guilty of monolithic misery memoirs, then Muslims must also take some of the blame for not sharing our universal experiences in a language and context that everyone can relate to.

To find out more, click here.

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We did not read their books, but we checked a video based on one of their stories, and the story was nice, Masha’Allah,- even though the video was a little amateurish, it seemed to me that on print it will look a better.  There is need for more such efforts.

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The Art of Integration is a graceful and visually poetic reminder that Muslims have been a part of British life for well over a century and have made and continue to make an important contribution to the United Kingdom’s rich cultural diversity. Contrary to the headlines and editorializing, the vast majority of Muslims live peacefully and productively in Britain and many have significantly enriched the intellectual and cultural landscape of this great island nation.

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His latest entry is just as inspiring as his audio works, as he writes about the positive consequences of his imprisonment:

I was in an underground solitary cell made up of four concrete walls with an iron gate on one side and on the opposite side a small window -rather a hole- covered with iron mesh to allow for some fresh air to come in. I couldn’t see much from it because it was about four meters high. Then there was the roof with a bulb hanging from it which was on continuously day and night. Then the floor with a mattress 2-3 inches thick, a blanket, a worn off pillow, a plastic plate, a bottle for water, and an empty bottle “just in case”. And then there was a Quran…

In this environment there is nothing to do and nothing to read but the Quran, and that is when the Quran reveals it secrets. When the hearts are clean; when there is nothing clouding the spirit, the Quran literally overwhelms the heart.

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Before the end of Jumada Ath-thani, 1429 (June 8th, 2008), please help Sister Linda (Widad) Delgado, who runs the one-sister-show of Muslim Writers Publishing, to help teachers by publishing five teacher study guides (TSG).

You are not helping a lazy dude who opt to beg, NO, this sister didn’t ask for help, but the community recommeded HalfDate to help her. She had TWO HEART ATTACKS, yet, ma-sha-Allah still serving our community and doesn’t want the focus to be on her.

If you contribute between May 24 to May 31, LivingHalal.com will match $1 for $1 towards this cause.

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Quote:

We’ll look first at the Afghanistan-based Reuters reporter, who can’t seem to stop judging women’s appearances. The writer interviews a few women who have turned to prostitution to support themselves. For each interviewee given more than a line in the story, the writer notes her appearance.

(more…)

Wajahat Ali reviews the much talked about summer movie; Sex And The City (btw; Jerusalem says ‘no sex in this city’).

Some quotes:

Along the way, the ladies travel to Mexico to cheer up their depressed friend. They also drink lots of product placement Starbucks and intoxicating beverages, wear several high-end shoes, buy ridiculously expensive clothing, and check out fashion week in New York City. They also acquire some model minorities in the form of Jennifer Hudson, who represents the only color and middle class component of a very White and affluent narrative. Admirably, she brings charm to a secretarial “Bagger Vance” character whose job is to “organize” Carrie’s post breakup, faltering life. Thankfully, after fixing Carrie’s life, Hudson’s character also gets a reward in the form of a designer purse and romantic fulfillment. It’s amusing to me how a show that celebrates materialism, selfishness, class-ism, and Whiteness can have such a broad following. When looking for an apartment in a “low income” district, Miranda and her White nanny remark disapprovingly about the all-Asian neighbors. In fact, Miranda says, “Oh, look! One white person! Follow him” and, much to her relief, finds one White person living amongst the minorities. But, I digress.

My initial plan was to simply replicate the current formula we have been using the past few months for blogs, which is to subscribe to a bunch of Islamic podcast channels, and every week listen out for the ones I like the most, to post on my day (that’s Saturday, by the way – even though by my timezone, it is already Sunday!).

However, looking at the Islam section of the iTunes directory, I was faced with a whole bunch of new channels that weren’t there a year or more ago, when I last checked it out. I wasn’t familiar with most of the names shown, and had no idea which ones would be worth my time subscribing to – so how was I going to fulfil my new online mission?!

Then it hit me… I can’t be the only one thinking that way when faced with such a long list! With this revelation, I decided that what might be more useful, would be if I took the trouble of going through every channel on said list, and basically outlined what’s ‘hot’ and what’s ‘not’, from a somewhat Islamic perspective.

So from next week insha’Allah, you can expect a weekly review of so-called ‘Islamic’ podcasts – including the ones that have clearly been planted by people who are most likely not into their Islam, so much (like the guys behind the “Arabic Audio Bible” podcast, perhaps?).

I pray that my opinion – although personal, and mostly uninformed – is hopefully not irrelevant, and helps you to make wiser choices when it comes to selecting your online source of Islamic knowledge, and Muslim news, insha’Allah.

To end, I may as well plug the latest Islamic podcast to hit the scene, produced by Muslimmatters.org. I won’t bother reviewing it as such, due to my involvement in setting it up – I wouldn’t want to be accused of bias now – even though it’s, like, the best podcast out there, masha’Allah (except for the other podcast I help to produce for Nisaa.ca ).

Until next week, insha’Allah…

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The flaws are not hard to spot. This is basically Jihad Watch or Little Green Footballs as a film, and is not intended to try and convince anyone not of that mindset. For a start, only a small minority interpret the verses Wilders cites to justify the acts depicted; the majority of Muslims in the world simply do not behave like this and mainstream scholars reject such interpretations.

Austrolabe also presents some interesting legal ramifications of “Fitna” within its own review:

As far as such things go, Wilder’s film is quite a weak effort. It’s unlikely to provoke anyone to anything except, perhaps, fall asleep or yawn. [...] The thing that strikes me more than its offensiveness is its lack of originality. Wilders, apparently unable to come up with a suitably offensive shtick of his own, attempts to ride on the coattails of the Danish cartoons; appropriating one of their cartoons — without permission — and using that to start and close his video. He’s now being sued for that. He used footage from an interview with Theo van Gogh without permission. And the owner of that footage is considering legal action too. Where he was original — perhaps too original — was in using the photo of a Dutch-Moroccan rapper instead of a terrorist. He’s now being threatened with legal action for that. Fitna is proving to be more of a fitna for Mr Wilders than for anyone else.

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“Do Muslims misunderstand the West?
Asked what they most admired and most resented about the West, they answered first technology and second, democracy. People would mention their support for freedom of speech, the rule of law, and the transparency of government. What they most disliked was the perceived moral laxity and libertinism of the West, which, interestingly, is exactly what Americans said when we polled them on those two questions. There is common ground on that issue.”

The whole thing here.

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