Threading My Prayer Rug

Threading My Prayer Rug
Author: Sabeeha Rehman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2016-06-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1628726660

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING. ONE OF BOOKLIST'S TOP TEN RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY BOOKS. ONE OF BOOKLIST'S TOP TEN DIVERSE NONFICTION BOOKS. Honorable Mention in the San Francisco Book Festival Awards, Spiritual Category A 2019 United Methodist Women Reading Program Selection This enthralling story of the making of an American is a timely meditation on being Muslim in America today. Threading My Prayer Rug is a richly textured reflection. It is also the luminous story of many journeys: from Pakistan to the United States in an arranged marriage that becomes a love match lasting forty-five years; from secular Muslim in an Islamic society to devout Muslim in a society ignorant of Islam, and from liberal to conservative to American Muslim; from bride to mother; and from an immigrant intending to stay two years to an American citizen, business executive, grandmother, and tireless advocate for interfaith understanding. Beginning with a sweetly funny, moving account of her arranged marriage, the author undercuts stereotypes and offers the refreshing view of an American life through Muslim eyes. Sabeeha was doing interfaith work for Imam Feisal A. Rauf, the driving force behind the Muslim community center near Ground Zero, when the backlash began. She recounts what that experience revealed about American society and in a new preface discusses Islam in America in the time of Trump.

We Refuse to Be Enemies

We Refuse to Be Enemies
Author: Sabeeha Rehman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2021-04-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1951627636

For readers of The Faith Club, Sons of Abraham, and The Anatomy of Peace, a call for mutual understanding and lessons for getting there We Refuse to Be Enemies is a manifesto by two American citizens, a Muslim woman and Jewish man, concerned with the rise of intolerance and bigotry in our country along with resurgent white nationalism. Neither author is an imam, rabbi, scholar, or community leader, but together they have spent decades doing interfaith work and nurturing cooperation among communities. They have learned that, through face-to-face encounters, people of all backgrounds can come to know the Other as a fellow human being and turn her or him into a trusted friend. In this book, they share their experience and guidance. Growing up in Pakistan before she immigrated to the United States, Sabeeha never met a Jew, and her view was colored by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his youth, Walter never met a Muslim, and his opinion was shaped by Leon Uris's Exodus. Yet together they have formed a friendship and collaboration. Tapping their own life stories and entering into dialogue within the book, they explain how they have found commonalities between their respective faiths and discuss shared principles and lessons, how their perceptions of the Other have evolved, and the pushback they faced. They wrestle with the two elephants in the room: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and polarizing material in their holy texts and history. And they share their vision for reconciliation, offering concrete principles for building an alliance in support of religious freedom and human rights. "As members of the two largest minority faith communities in America, we must stand together at a portentous moment in American history. Neither of our communities will be able to prosper in an America characterized by xenophobia and bigotry.”—Sabeeha Rehman and Walter Ruby

Unashamed

Unashamed
Author: Leah Vernon
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2019-10-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0807012629

A Muslim woman’s searingly honest memoir of her journey toward self-acceptance as she comes to see her body as a symbol of rebellion and hope—and chooses to live her life unapologetically Ever since she was little, Leah Vernon was told what to believe and how to act. There wasn’t any room for imperfection. ‘Good’ Muslim girls listened more than they spoke. They didn’t have a missing father or a mother with a mental disability. They didn’t have fat bodies or grow up wishing they could be like the white characters they saw on TV. They didn’t have husbands who abused and cheated on them. They certainly didn’t have secret abortions. In Unashamed, Vernon takes to task the myth of the perfect Muslim woman with frank dispatches on her love-hate relationship with her hijab and her faith, race, weight, mental health, domestic violence, sexuality, the millennial world of dating, and the process of finding her voice. She opens up about her tumultuous adolescence living at the poverty line with her fiercely loving but troubled mother, her absent dad, her siblings, and the violent dissolution of her 10-year marriage. Tired of the constant policing of her clothing in the name of Islam and Western beauty standards, Vernon reflects on her experiences with hustling paycheck to paycheck, body-shaming, and redefining what it means to be a “good” Muslim. Irreverent, youthful, and funny, Unashamed gives anyone who is marginalized permission to live unapologetic, confident lives. “Vernon’s determined advocacy for body positivity as a feminist and mental health issue, and her painful journey to self-acceptance, are moving and powerful, forcing readers to examine their own preconceptions about beauty standards and health.” —Booklist

Proustian Uncertainties

Proustian Uncertainties
Author: Saul Friedländer
Publisher: Other Press, LLC
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2020-12-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1590519124

Named a Times Literary Supplement Best Book of the Year A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian revisits Marcel Proust’s masterpiece in this essay on literature and memory, exploring the question of identity—that of the novel’s narrator and Proust’s own. This engaging reexamination of In Search of Lost Time considers how the narrator defines himself, how this compares to what we know of Proust himself, and what the significance is of these various points of commonality and divergence. We know, for example, that the author did not hide his homosexuality, but the narrator did. Why the difference? We know that the narrator tried to marginalize his part-Jewish background. Does this reflect the author’s position, and how does the narrator handle what he tries, but does not manage, to dismiss? These are major questions raised by the text and reflected in the text, to which the author’s life doesn’t give obvious answers. The narrator’s reflections on time, on death, on memory, and on love are as many paths leading to the image of self that he projects. In Proustian Uncertainties, Saul Friedländer draws on his personal experience from a life spent investigating the ties between history and memory to offer a fresh perspective on the seminal work.

Making Miniature Chinese Rugs and Carpets

Making Miniature Chinese Rugs and Carpets
Author: Carol Phillipson
Publisher: Guild of Master Craftsman Publications Limited
Total Pages: 93
Release: 2002
Genre: Crafts & Hobbies
ISBN: 9781861082541

Twenty-five original dollhouse patterns for making your own Chinese rugs and carpets provide a way to decorate your dolls’ house with hand-made treasures. Needlework instructions for stitching and finishing techniques come with color charts, and use only ordinary materials and equipment. “This book will help you turn an enjoyable hobby into an elegant investment.”—Doll Castle News.

Stranger Magic

Stranger Magic
Author: Marina Warner
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 577
Release: 2012-03-03
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0674065077

Our foremost theorist of myth, fairytale, and folktale explores the magical realm of the imagination where carpets fly and genies grant prophetic wishes. Stranger Magic examines the profound impact of the Arabian Nights on the West, the progressive exoticization of magic, and the growing acceptance of myth and magic in contemporary experience.

Civil War Legacies

Civil War Legacies
Author: Carol Hopkins
Publisher: Martingale
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2012-03-13
Genre: Crafts & Hobbies
ISBN: 1604685468

Step back in time with 15 favorite patchwork-quilt patterns from the Civil War Legacies collection by Carol Hopkins. Each pattern design features classic blocks evocative of the era, beautifully showcasing today's reproduction quilt fabrics. Wonderfully scrappy, small quilt patterns in sizes perfect for wall hangings and doll quilts Simple, step-by-step instructions with clear diagrams and pressing directions Value-packed collection with something for every skill level

Muslim Prayer in American Public Life

Muslim Prayer in American Public Life
Author: Rose Aslan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2024
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0190079223

Drawing on a variety of literature, poetry, films, TV shows, and social media posts, and an original survey of 350 US Muslims, Muslim Prayer in American Public Life provides an in-depth examination of the lived experiences of Muslim prayer practices in the United States today.