Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak
Muslim activist Abdul-Ghafur edits this book of essays and poems, all related to the experience of growing up Muslim and female in the United States. Two of the best and most absorbing essays come from African-American women: Khadijah Sharif-Drinkard, who grew up in Harlem and became a successful corporate attorney and public servant, and Precious Rasheeda Muhammad, who describes her childhood in the Nation of Islam as a dynamic, educational experience. But the tone of some of the other contributors can be whiny. Many seem marked by tragedy, varying from things unrelated to Islam (having an autistic child) to tensions arising from ethnic cultures (marrying a non-Muslim, enduring abusive semiarranged marriages). Some of the authors engage in vague spiritual discussions about the omnipresence of God and compare Islam to a forest, with male chauvinism being the weeds in the forest, but their ideas are too abstract to enhance one's understanding of Islamic spirituality. As with many anthologies, there is some repetition of ideas, not only within the book itself but also echoing themes from the authors' previous writings. Although the contributions are uneven, this anthology opens the door for other writers to explore the important and understudied topic of Muslim American women.(Sept.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.