Burqas, Baseball, and Apple Pie: Being Muslim in America

by Ranya Tabari Idliby

Overview

For many Americans, the words ‘American' and ‘Muslim' simply do not marry well; for many the combination is an anathema, a contradiction in values, loyalties, and identities. This is the story of one American Muslim family—the story of how, through their lives, their schools, their friends, and their neighbors, they end up living the challenges, myths, fears, hopes, and dreams of all Americans. They are challenged by both Muslims who speak for them and by Americans who reject them. In this moving memoir, Idliby discusses not only coming to terms with what it means to be Muslim today, but how to raise and teach her children about their heritage and religious legacy. She explores life as a Muslim in a world where hostility towards Muslims runs rampant, where there is an entire industry financed and supported by think tanks, authors, film makers, and individual vigilantes whose sole purpose is to vilify and spread fear about all things Muslim. Her story is quintessentially American, a story of the struggles of assimilation and acceptance in a climate of confusion and prejudice—a story for anyone who has experienced being an "outsider" inside your own home country.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137279941
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/17/2015
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Ranya Tabari Idliby is a writer who lives in New York City. She co-authored The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew: Three Women Search for Understanding , an intimate dialog on faith and identity in America. She has spoken in churches, temples, and mosques, as well as at interfaith organizations, the United Nations, and the State Department. She was interviewed by Diane Sawyer for a special program on moderate Muslim voices, in addition to many other media engagements, including CNN, Oprah radio’s Dr. Oz , The Diane Rehm Show, USA Today , and the Today Show.

Table of Contents

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1: Why Would Anyone Choose To Be A Muslim?

Chapter 2: Accidental Muslims

Chapter 3: The Faith Club, My Abrahamic Family

Chapter 4: A Crisis Of Faith: Sticks and Stones Can Hurt My Bones but God Should Not Hurt Me

Chapter 5: Food For Thought

Chapter 6: In God We Trust: An American-Muslim Knight

Chapter 7: How To Beat A Wife

Chapter 8: Who Speaks For Islam?

Chapter 9: Foolish Fatwas

Chapter 10: "Mommy, Sometimes I Don't Want To Support The U.S. Team"

Chapter 11: Thumbs Up!

Chapter 12: I Heard It On Hannity

Chapter 13: "No Muslim Parking"

Chapter 14: "Mom, Are All Terrorists Muslims?"

Chapter 15: The Path To The Watering Hole

Chapter 16: "Mommy, Can I Marry Jew?"

Chapter 17: Burqas and Pornography: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Chapter 18: Apes and Swines

Chapter 19: Islam, Not "Hislam": On Muslims Feminists

Chapter 20: In Any War Between The Civilized Man And The Savage, Support The Civilized Man

Chapter 21: Proud Muslims, Not Lesser Muslims: Let There Be Joy

Chapter 22: Proud Americans, Not Lesser Americans: America, a Love Story

Editorial Reviews

Idliby is an eloquent and informed spokeswoman for her faith, and voices like hers are needed in today's charged political climate.” —Publishers Weekly

“An unflinchingly intimate and honest examination of some of the most difficult issues that have come to define the ‘coming of age' experiences of American Muslims. This is essential reading for those who have ever feared or been feared and anyone who has ever asked, ‘Where are the moderates?'” —Reza Aslan, author of Zealot and No god but God

“Burqas, Baseball and Apple Pie is a lovely and lyrical look into the life of one American Muslim woman and her family. It will expand and enrich your view of Islam and America.” —Eboo Patel, author of Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice and the Promise of America

“A powerful memoir of being a Muslim woman and mother in post-9/11 America. It touches the soul of the reader and brings home the simple truth that the heart of America and the heart of Islam can indeed beat together as one.” —Kamran Pasha, author of Mother of the Believers

“In this thoughtful and courageous memoir, Ranya Tabari Idliby takes on the intolerance of so-called ‘patriots' and the fundamentalism of those who consider themselves religious ‘purists' and teaches us all important lessons about what it really means to be an American and a Muslim.” —James Zogby, founder and president, Arab American Institute, and author of Arab Voices

From the Publisher

2013-11-11
One woman's personal examination of Muslim and American values. In this follow-up to her comparative study of Muslim, Christian and Jewish identity (The Faith Club, co-authored with Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner, 2006), Idliby hones in on her family's experiences as American Muslims immediately following 9/11. The author and her husband, then longtime Manhattanites and self-described "secular Muslims," suddenly found themselves and their children challenged by "Muslims who speak for us and Americans who reject us." Thus confronted with repeated calls to account for the whole of Islam, and skewed views of a violent Islam at that, Idliby was forced to look within at what Muslim and American values she held dear. The author charts that reflection, as this daughter of a Palestinian father and Kuwaiti mother who had spent her youth shuttling between Virginia and Dubai painfully relates to her own children's post-9/11 sense of being the "other." Hoping for better for her American-born children, Idliby tailors her remarks for a largely Islam-illiterate American audience, debunking a number of widespread misconceptions about Islam. Refusing to have her children's worldviews constricted by "clerics who peddle seventh century absolute orthodoxy as the only true Islam," Idliby strongly advocates for reading the Quran in the cultural context of its time and not as literal doctrine for 21st-century society. For example, the author explains that female head-covering is a social convention and admonishes those donning the niqab (full face covering) for opting to be "buried alive under a black tent" and, thereby, "erased of their identities." In Mecca, Islam's holiest city, Idliby also points out, "face coverings are banned," underscoring one of the memoir's central points--that "Islam is not a nationality, but a faith, as diverse and varied as its many billion adherents." Such diversity of belief, Idliby compellingly argues, aligns well with American individualism and cherished beliefs in equality, diversity and justice. A bold, intimate, welcome examination of reconciling one's faith in America.

Kirkus Reviews