Review: Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capó Crucet

I first heard about Jennine Capó Crucet's Make Your Home Among Strangers when students at Georgia Southern University burned it after she spoke there about white privilege in the Fall of 2019.

The novel deals with many vital themes, but I recommend it especially for students in high school & college who may have mixed feelings about stretching their wings for personal achievement.

Review: "Experience & Education" by John Dewey

John Dewey (1859-1952) wrote Experience and Education in 1938, twenty-two years after his most famous work, Democracy and Education. In Experience and Education, he assumes that the reader has accepted the "new" education model and rejected the "traditional" education model and thus proceeds to warn against mistakes in the implementation of the new education model.

Book and Film to Teach About Refugees

Shabana Mir describes her class's use of Laila Lalami's Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits and Meenu Gaur's and Farjad Nabi's film Zinda Baag to learn about refugees.

Read her blog entry.

Review: "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business" by Neil Postman

This review is based on the 1st edition of Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. There is a 20th Anniversary Edition with an introduction by Professor Postman's son.

Professor Postman's book claims that electronic media, characterized by immediacy, compels our discourse to be decontextualized and trivial, i.e. entertaining. Even worse, their dominance has shaped consumers' expectations of all other media so that they must also become decontextualized and trivial to gain acceptance.

Man, this guy is a buzzkill!

Review: God Sent Me: A Textbook Case on Evolution vs. Creation by Jeffrey Selman

Jeffrey Selman (website) was the lead plaintiff in a suit against the Cobb County, Georgia Board of Education which resulted in an order for it to remove a disclaimer from its public high school biology textbooks.

I've met Jeffrey twice in my activities for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the first time to lobby against Georgia's Religious Freedom Restoration Act legislation in March 2015 and the second time to hear him speak at our Augusta, Georgia chapter meeting about his book in August 2015.

Review: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain (Twitter). The author maintains a website.

At one time in my life, I read many self-help books. I've read other books which deal with behavior and psychology, but this one made enough insights to me for me to consider it a self-help book, and I mean that in a positive way.

Part One introduces the personality traits which cluster into the opposite poles of introvert and extrovert and how the modern United States has adopted "The Extrovert Ideal." Young adult broadcast media protagonists are rock stars (Hannah Montana), spoiled scions (Suite Life of Zack and Cody) and teen detectives (Veronica Mars). Business leaders are portrayed as having boundless energy and charismatic personalities. Politicians are "deciders." Introverts are potential Unabombers. "If you don't toot your own horn, nobody will" is almost a truism.

Teacher Confronts Islamophobia with "The Garden of My Imaan" by Farhana Zia

"You mean a Muslim is coming here?!” http://t.co/OBr5Hpqvbu pic.twitter.com/gnIakR3qaf
— Teaching Tolerance (@Tolerance_org) March 19, 2015

Amy Vatne Bitliff used Farhana Zia's The Garden of My Imaan in her public middle school.

Then two days prior to Zia’s visit, one of my students who had really been pushing against the text said, “You mean a Muslim is coming here?! They chop people’s heads off. If she’s coming here, I’m not coming to school." ... read more ...

The level of fear and prejudice that fell from my student's mouths this week as we read a book about a Muslim American girl was staggering.
— Amy Vatne Bintliff (@amybintliff) October 16, 2014

As an anti-bias educator, preparing for Farhana Zia's visit has propelled students to explore anti-Muslim fear. We have all grown so much!
— Amy Vatne Bintliff (@amybintliff) October 16, 2014

Review: Does God Belong in Public Schools? by Kent Greenawalt

Does God Belong in Public Schools? by Kent Greenawalt (Princeton University Press, Paperback, 9780691130651, 261pp.)

Professor Greenawalt's book examines different common claims made by parents, students and school employees that public schools have violated the Free Exercise clause by interfering with their practice of religion.

Documentary Film "American Promise" Free Online Thru Nov 8, 2014

The United States Public Broadcasting Service's POV series is streaming American Promise online through November 8, 2014. A February 2014 interview with the film's producer and director, Michèle Stephenson (Twitter) updates the 2004 film. A companion book to the film is Promises Kept: Raising Black Boys to Succeed in School and in Life by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson with Hilary Beard. The film has an official website.

I haven't yet watched the movie or read the book.

To-Read: Muslim American Women on Campus: Undergraduate Social Life and Identity by Shabana Mir

Updated August 4, 2014: 52-minute interview with author

Check out my new subliminal BUYMYBOOK twitter home page.
— Shabana Mir (@ShabanaMir1) March 7, 2014

Muslim American Women on Campus: Undergraduate Social Life and Identity by Shabana Mir

Does sublimal Twitter marketing work? Maybe :-) You can also read a review at The Washington Post of March 7, 2014 and altmuslimah.com of March 12, 2014.

Here's the book's page at the publisher's website. Professor Shabana blogs and tweets. I have not read the book.

Update March 13, 2014.

My book "Muslim American Women on Campus" was voted recipient of the National Association of Ethnic Studies Outstanding Book Award 2014!
— Shabana Mir (@ShabanaMir1) March 13, 2014

Review of my book 'Muslim American Women on Campus" in Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs http://t.co/ENrygas84e +

— Shabana Mir (@ShabanaMir1) April 5, 2015

Review: Burqas, Baseball and Apple Pie by Ranya Tabari Idliby

After listening to an interview with Ranya Tabari Idliby, author of Burqas, Baseball, and Apple Pie: Being Muslim in America, I published a response/rant the guilt from which compelled me to buy and read the book.

My response to the interview reflects my views, but the book impacted me more deeply and, upon reflection, helped me appreciate Ustaza Ranya's positions. I present some criticism unique to the book and a few observations, and I end with a strong promotion of the book and Professor Ranya.

Review: “I Am Malala” by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb

Yomna El-Saeed reviewed I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb on the website OnIslam.net on 19 December 2013. I have not read the book.

Review: Democracy and Intolerance: Christian School Curricula, School Choice, and Public Policy by Frances R. A. Paterson

Democracy and Intolerance: Christian School Curricula, School Choice, and Public Policy by Frances R. A. Paterson

The author reviewed textbooks commonly used in Christian private schools' social studies and history classes in the United States and found that they prepared the reader to accept narrow political, social and religious views. Because many in the United States seek government support for these private schools, the author urges that no public support be given because these books promote intolerance of others' viewpoints in an undemocratic manner.

Review: Light Without Fire: The Making of America’s First Muslim College

Bushra Burney, the Caffeinated Muslim, reviewed Scott Korb's book Light Without Fire: The Making of America's First Muslim College. You can follow Bushra on Twitter.

I have not read the book.

H/t to Ebadur Rahman

Caffeinated Muslim: Review of “Light Without Fire: The Making of America’s First Muslim College” ow.ly/2wW7b9
— Ebadur Rahman (@i_baad) May 17, 2013

Review: The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children

Katherine Stewart. The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children New York: Public Affairs; 2012. 290 pp. Subject index.

Katherine Stewart claims that Christian Nationalist groups have used misguided court decisions which transformed religious practice into protected speech, culminating in the 2001 Good News Club v. Milford Central, to use public schools for evangelism.

Al-Mutannabi Street Coalition Deserves Your Support

There's a meaningful project I recommend that you support called al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition.

Film: Bilal's Stand

I really thought I had reviewed Bilal's Stand last year, but I see that I never actually posted it. I'm not going to try another review. Just see it. It's a good movie.

Help Muslim Journeys Reach Your Local Library

This blog has long promoted Unity Productions Foundation (UPF). In its September 2012 newsletter, it asks its supporters to encourage their local libraries to apply for the American Library Association (ALA) Muslim Journeys Bookshelf and to offer their services as content experts (or recruit one!). The deadline to apply has been extended to October 25, 2012.

Review: Palestine in Israeli School Books

Asa Winstanley (Twitter) reviewed Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education by Nurit Peled-Elhanan for Electronic Intifada. I have not read this book.

“The Light in Her Eyes” Sheds Some Light on the Women of Syria

Muslimah Media Watch posted a review of The Light in Her Eyes, which premiers on PBS on July 19, 2012. It is part of the POV series of documentaries.