Category Archives: Books and Reviews

Muslim Women in Young Adult Fiction

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Melinda of Muslimah Media Watch reviews two fictional titles that center around the experiences of various young, female, Muslim characters:

Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah

So, before anything, masha’Allah! Muslim teenage girls are finally represented in young adult/teen fiction. Not as terrorists. Not as child brides. Instead, they’re average high school girls. Author Randa Abdel-Fattah takes this responsibility seriously and she tries to tackle every issue facing Muslim teen girls. That’s where she trips.

Ask Me No Questions: A Novel, by Marina Budhos

The book is one in the recent trend of female Muslim characters as sympathetic protagonists, especially ones outside the Orientalist fantasy of what Muslim women and their families are like. Nadira Hossein is 14 years old and the biggest problem of her life is that she and her family are in the United States illegally; the government has caught on, and they face possible deportation. The plot of the book is driven by politics, but it is clear that Nadira’s family faces increased problems because they are Muslim and from a Muslim country.

Britz: Reviews & Reactions

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Britz is a two-part thriller about a brother and sister, British-born and Muslim, who are pulled in different directions by their conflicting personal experiences in post 9/11 Britain. The first part – told from the perspective of the brother – was aired last night, in the U.K. Here are three related entries from around the blogosphere:

Yahya Birt posted an advanced review of the show, several days ago:

Like a lot of political dramas, the situations and characters seem engineered to get a political point across, and the interweaving of the personal and political is not as artfully done as it could have been. So what are the big points that Britz tries to make?

Two early reactions to part 1:

Unique Muslimah wonders whether the production is “pyschological warfare or an innocent film?”

Is this drama part of a psychological warfare to threaten and frighten Muslims to believe that they are being watched every single second of the day? I think so. And I believe it is also a tactic to scare the British public that the terrorist threat is something the MI5 have to tackle daily. It makes one suspect that their neighbours could be terrorists, or their colleagues at work. Any group of men having fun at a paint-ball park will also be suspects; perhaps they are training to be terrorists. Every Muslim is a suspect.

Safiya of Outlines, thought Sleeper Cell was bad, until she saw Britz:

He works for M15, she is a trainee terrorist. “Which Side Are You On?” is the tag line. Err, neither actually, thanks for asking. Oh sorry, you didn’t ask me did you? As I’m just a normal law-abiding Muslim and my life is not very dramatic.

It will be interesting to see what the reviews and reactions to Part II – the sister’s story – will be like.

The Language of God, a Muslim Review

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Filled with academically enriching, spiritually enlightening and emotionally stirring moments, The Language of God keeps readers deeply engrossed. The book can be appreciated from various angles; it can be seen as a lesson in the history of major benchmarks in science, or as a spiritual refresher that resonates with readers from diverse traditions. Even I can attest to this, as despite my Islamic convictions, the words of this devout Christian author have been spiritually moving. The book has reminded me of the indisputable signs of God’s existence, signs that we often forget to appreciate in our busy lives. Perhaps I can call the arrival of this book into my hands a fortuitous event, although, with Collins’s reminder fresh in mind, it would be more accurate to ascribe this event to fate, to God’s long-term plans. God has already written a script for the course of history, and His cast includes planets, mountain ranges, trees, reptiles, and even human beings. However, this script is written in a text incomprehensible to us, a text we will never decrypt in our lifetimes: This is the Language of God.

Link.

Book review: I Am Muslim

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icelily reviews the book by Dina Zaman

there is one particular paragraph that answers my question: “the women commented on how their scarves, their hijabs were perceived by the non hijab clad world. najah naseri said: people are always suprised that i speak and write fluent english, and that i am assertive. they think we scarved women are passive and stupid. that we are not capable of, if not equal to them.”