Rate this book

Muslim Next Door: The Qur'an, The Media, And That Veil Thing (2014)

by Sumbul Ali-Karamali(Favorite Author)

3.62 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1282464604 (ISBN13: 9781282464605)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

White Cloud Press

review 1: Since I wrote a lengthy review on Amazon, I will try to keep this short. She seems like a very intelligent, educated and thoughtful woman, which, perhaps ironically, is why I'm so hard on this book; I think she could do way better. I am definitely sympathetic toward her unhappiness and frustration at the bigotry and ignorance of her fellow Americans, but it sometimes comes across as whiny, and I question whether her confiding tone about her personal emotional injury pairs well with the attempt to educate people about what the Q'uran really says and mainstream Islam and Muslims. It does seem like they belonged in separate books.That is not my main complaint; that would have docked it only one star. My main complaints are how the book is riddled with double standards an... mored poor reasoning, and that she ignores or barely discusses extremely significant, and important events or people, such as the Shia/Sunni schism. I have read a few books on Islam, am finishing up another and was looking forward to an educated Muslim's perspective, which you do get, and when she sticks to actual Islamic theology and scripture it's great, but the rest of it ultimately made it a book I simply cannot recommend to others.
review 2: In this eye-opening primer on Islam for non-Muslims, the author reveals the absurdity and unfairness of some of the most common Western misperceptions about Muslims. She presents a scholarly (but very readable) exploration of Islamic religious and cultural history, pointing out that a major point of misunderstanding is the tendency to equate religion and culture, rather than see them as distinct – an important point because Muslims live all over the world and come from many different cultures. Combined with this is a personal recounting of her own experiences as an American Muslim, which showed admiration for America’s freedoms compared to other countries, but showed where we sometimes allow ignorance and fear to unfairly judge others – particularly in the anti-Muslim sentiment that roiled the country in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. I thought I was relatively well informed about Islam, but in reading this book I learned how little I actually knew, and how easily my misperceptions (for example, about the meaning of “jihad” and “shari’a”) have been shaped by media portrayals that are colored by a long-standing antagonism toward and ignorance of Islam. As the author described how terrorists are unequivocably committing horrific sins from the Islamic perspective, I was struck by how zealots from ALL religious groups have historically cherry-picked scripture passages (often out of context) and misinterpreted or twisted them to justify their actions, and how important it is not jump to the conclusion that such extremists in any way represent the religion they might claim for their justification. less

Download links for: Muslim Next Door: The Qur'an, the Media, and That Veil Thing

Advertising