Thursday, August 30, 2012

Young Adult novels feature Muslim female protagonists

Muslima Media Watch published Rebels By Accident: Telling Muslim Girls’ Stories in Young Adult Fiction. It highlights a recent trend in Young Adult novels to portray Muslim girls neither "as nameless victims nor some veiled, orientalist fantasy in need of saving."

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

iPad App - Muhammad Asad's Translation and Explanation of the Quran

Mohammad Asad's The Road to Mecca is a good read, and many friends recommend his translation and explanation of Quran. It is now available as an iPad application, and it is free during the last 10 days of Ramadan this year.

To Read: Torture and Impunity: The U.S. Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation by Alfred W. McCoy

Torture and Impunity: The U.S. Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation
Torture and Impunity: The U.S. Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation by Alfred W. McCoy. Alfred McCoy is a professor of history at University of Wisconsin - Madison. His History Department web page includes his CV and current courses. Professor McCoy writes regularly for TomDispatch. I heard about this book from an August 14, 2012 posting there, via Professor Juan Cole on Twitter.

Documentary: These Birds Walk - A Portrait of Poverty Relief in Pakistan

Promo from the movie website:
In Karachi, Pak­istan, a run­away boy’s life hangs on one crit­i­cal ques­tion: where is home? The streets, an orphan­age, or with the fam­ily he fled in the first place? Simul­ta­ne­ously heart-wrenching and life-affirming, THESE BIRDS WALK doc­u­ments the strug­gles of these way­ward street chil­dren and the samar­i­tans look­ing out for them in this ethe­real and inspi­ra­tional story of resilience.


You can read a review at PBS.org.

The movie also has a Facebook Page and a Twitter account.

Watch the movie on iTunes or Google Play.

You can follow the director Omar Mul­lick on Twit­ter and check out his website. You can follow the other director Bas­sam Tariq on Twitter and check out his website.

Also, check out my review of Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo. It's about poverty in Mumbai, India.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

"Xenophobic racists ... [have] compiled a MUST READ list."

Updated September 2, 2017 - Interview with Dr. Curtis Acosta, an early plaintiff in the lawsuit which ended in the overturning of this ban.
Look, the xenophobic racists over at Arizona has compiled a banned books MUST READ list. Take this time to read these books. There’s a reason they’re banning them. They’re trying to erase our culture. [Archived web page of original source: AZEthnicStudies.com]
The only book I've read off of this list is Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya. It was excellent.

Bless Me, Ultima

Updated July 24, 2016. Hear Tony Diaz (@LibreTraficante) & Roque Planas (@RoqPlanas) & Jose Gonzales, a teacher from Tuscon, talk about this issue.

Updated July 4, 2021: I've also read and reviewed Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea.

Updated July 4, 2021: Texas: Hold my karkadeh

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Kickstarter: Meow, Meow, Maulana: The Story of Muhammad

Support Alexis Lombard's project on Kickstarter.

"Deen Tight" - Documentary Film, Directed by Mustafa Davis

"DEEN TIGHT" is a documentary film :: directed by Mustafa Davis from Mustafa Davis on Vimeo.
Music, considered taboo practice by many traditional Muslims, has also become one of the most prominent methods for Muslims to share their faith internationally through Muslim Hip Hop. Read more ...

H/t  E-Baad-E News (Twitter)