The Muslim Next Door: The Qur’an, the Media, and That Veil Thing
Posted On : March 8th, 2010
Tags: Ali-Karamali, american muslim, daily basis, DescriptionBronze, door, fastest growing religion, independent publishers, Islam, Islamic, islamic fundamentalism, Medal, Muslim, Next, Product, Religion, scholarly overview, sound answers, status of women in islam, sumbul, Women In Islam, World
Product Description
Bronze Medal Winner of the Independent Publishers Award 2009
Since 9/11, stories about Muslims and the Islamic world have flooded headlines, politics, and water-cooler conversations all across the country. And, although Americans hear about Islam on a daily basis, there remains no clear explanation of Islam or its people. The Muslim Next Door offers easy-to-understand yet academically sound answers to these questions while also dispelling commonly held misconceptions. Written from the point of view of an American Muslim, the book addresses what readers in the Western world are most curious about, beginning with the basics of Islam and how Muslims practice their religion before easing into more complicated issues like jihad, Islamic fundamentalism, and the status of women in Islam. Author Sumbul Ali-Karamali’s vivid anecdotes about growing up Muslim and female in the West, along with her sensitive, scholarly overview of Islam, combine for a uniquely insightful look at the world’s fastest growing religion.
The Muslim Next Door: The Qur’an, the Media, and That Veil Thing
I’m aghast at the positive reviews this steamy pile has garnered, but not at all surprised given the complete ignorance and gullibility of westerners in general. Trash like this takes advantage of the fact that relatively few people in the west have any knowledge of Islam at all, and even less inclination to go looking for facts themselves.
From telling fairy tales regarding the age of Aisha to informing us that Islam actually means ‘peace’ (LOL – no it does not), this fraudulent pack of lies has it all. Unfortunately for the reader, her sanitized and dishonest version of Islam has little to do with what is actually preached in the Q’uran and accompanying hadiths. This is taqqiya, folks.
Her book is irrefutably eviscerated at
http://revuse.wetpaint.com/page/Ten+Questions+for+the+Muslim+Next+Door?t=anon
The author of that site takes 10 of the biggest whoppers served up by this book and, using many of the same sources that the book author ‘claims’ to use, and shows precisely how she lies and distorts.
Yawn…. The book supposedly addresses the so-called “difficult questions.” I got this hoping to find a sincere analysis of important issues but found just another politically correct catalog of “you don’t understand,” “out of context” and “it is cultural” excuses. Not only that, it is full of inaccuracies relating to both the Quran and Islamic traditions (ahadith). For example, the word “lightly” she uses does not appear in the original when permitting the beating of women. It is added by modern translators for obvious reasons. Some older versions use the word “scourge.” Note that Ms. Ali-Karamali overlooks relevant passages in the hadith in which Aisha is beaten by her husband (unless “he hit me and caused pain” means something else) or in which the young girl states “she has never seem women so abused as the wives of the believers.” She said that polygamy is condemned in the Quran without providing us with a reference to this yet undiscovered verse.
In summary, this book is about how the writer would like Islam to be, not what it is. She ignores or explains away any element she dislikes. She pretends that the Quran doesn’t say what it says. She ignores the verses that teach hate and violence against non-Muslims. She ignores the violent history of Islam and the many evil things done by Muhammad recorded in Islam’s own Traditions (of course, this only applies if one considers dozens of attacks on non-Muslims, plunder, enslavement of men women and children, murder, torture and rape to be evil). She ignores the discrimination and oppression of Non-Muslims in Islamic societies today. I say “ignore” because I don’t consider “it is cultural” or some other flippant excuse to be an acceptable response to these issues. She wants us to believe that none of these problems are representative of Islam because they differ from her personal interpretation of it.
Ms. Ali-Karamali is a typical of Muslims in the West. She benefits from the freedoms of Western cultures but works through her ignorance and denial to end these freedoms. I would say that she has double standards but the fact is that she has no standards for Muslims except to take the irrational position that the acts and ideology of many Muslims have nothing to do with Islam as she believes it to be. She seems to argue that her personal interpretation or beliefs are to be taken more seriously that the hate preached in many mosques or the actions and attitudes of Muslims around the world.
Her preconceived “Islam is perfect, some Muslims not” attitude precludes any serious analysis of issues and therefore limits her narrative to finding a seemingly proper excuse or somebody to blame for the actions of Muslims. This is a good book to understand why Islam doesn’t change. It provides a clear understanding of why Muslims condemn terror and why the terror continues.
Having said this, I say buy this book. Don’t buy it, however, without also buying a book that is critical of Islam. Study both. Compare how they explain the issues. Check verses and sources. Look at how Muslims act and react to current events. I recommend Spencer’s “The Truth about Islam”. This, I believe, is a fair way to learn about and evaluate any subject.
Jay
Be one of the first to say you discovered it before it goes through the roof! Sumbul is the perfect “Muslim next door.” Rejoice in her sharing her views!
This is an interesting and educational explanation of what it means to be Muslim. If you are ready to leave the media stereotypes behind and truly get insight into a world religion with billions of followers, this is the book to read. I highly recommend it. Growing up as a Muslim American, I can finally recommend a book that explains, with sensitivity and intelligence, to my friends that Islam is not a religion of hate and intolerance, but a religion of peace.
The Muslim Next Door – a review
Suppose you are in the bookstore, or the library, and you are looking for information on Islam. You head toward the Religion section, find Islam, and immediately, you are stumped. There are several Qur’ans, and various books claiming to have the “true” portrait of Muslims contained within its pages. But, wait, what it this? Do you want to learn about the Shi’a revival, the Sunni law making procedures, or the Sufi meditation practices?
Confused yet?
Sumbul Ali-Karamali has written a solution to the initial confusion. Titled “The Muslim Next Door: The Qur’an, the Media, and that Veil Thing”, this is one book that gives a very informed introduction to some of the most pressing questions about Islam in the 21st century. Beginning with an explanation of the 5 pillars of Islam, Ali-Karamali takes the reader on a brief journey through history and ends with an overview of being an American Muslim in a post 9/11 world.
Initially, I wanted to give this book 3.5 stars (out of 5). The author began well enough, but at times seemed to be contradictory and overly apologetic. Her emphasis that certain widely known (and misunderstood) practices were the result of culture and not religion quickly became repetitious. However, as I continued to read, I gained more respect for Sumbul Ali-Karamali’s simplistic writing style, as well as her candid way of sharing her personal experiences as a South Asian-American Muslim woman.
With ease, she describes the differences between sects, the alien concept of “clergy” to most Muslims, and analyzes several problematic verses in the Qur’an. The longest chapter in the book is chapter 7, “Women In Islam.” Here she goes into detail, citing historical and anecdotal evidence that Muslim women are not the sheltered, oppressed women that they are thought to be.
Overall, this book is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to quickly learn more about “real” Islam. I give it 4 stars (out of 5) and recommend it to people who crave knowledge of “what’s really going on.”