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How to Be a Muslim: An American Story
A young Muslim leader's memoir of his struggles to forge an American Muslim identity.
Haroon Moghul was first thrust into the spotlight after 9/11, as an undergraduate leader at New York University's Islamic Center. Suddenly, he was making appearances everywhere: on TV, talking to interfaith audiences, combating Islamophobia in print. He was becoming a prominent voice for A ...more
Haroon Moghul was first thrust into the spotlight after 9/11, as an undergraduate leader at New York University's Islamic Center. Suddenly, he was making appearances everywhere: on TV, talking to interfaith audiences, combating Islamophobia in print. He was becoming a prominent voice for A ...more
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Haroon Moghul is best known because he was an undergraduate leader at New York University s Islamic Center before, during, and after 9/11. He became a spokesman for a religion that internally, he was not actually all that sure of.
I learned so much in this book, and I think it is important reading. The central conflict between Muslim teachings and American culture and how Haroon struggles through them, relationships that he fails, his struggles with depression and identity.
This would have been ...more
I learned so much in this book, and I think it is important reading. The central conflict between Muslim teachings and American culture and how Haroon struggles through them, relationships that he fails, his struggles with depression and identity.
This would have been ...more
The trials and tribulations of Haroon Moghul are certainly an interesting tale to be read not only by Muslims but by anyone wanting to understand about Muslims in general. Certainly, being a minority is hard enough and add to the current Islamophobia surrounding the world it is indeed challenging for the writer to convince non-Muslims and even himself of the sanctity of the religion.
A great memoir by an author I know well. It is in a sense of coming-of-age story for someone caught in the position of being stuck between two identities, and very sincerely struggling to believe in something that they feel they cannot deny. The writing was often very funny, but above all it is a heartfelt and sincere account of one persons own struggles in the modern world. Light, easy and thoughtful reading that is highly recommended to people of all backgrounds.
This book turned up in my mailbox a few weeks ago, a surprise gift from the publisher. It was a nice surprise: an intensely personal spiritual memoir, authentic, ironic and redemptive, written in a conversational style that occasionally turns into poetry.
I have heard the violent story of 9/11 so many times, but never have I paid attention to the quieter story of how a group of students at NYU, led by the author, built up their Islamic student ministry from a tiny student club to a full-fledged c ...more
I have heard the violent story of 9/11 so many times, but never have I paid attention to the quieter story of how a group of students at NYU, led by the author, built up their Islamic student ministry from a tiny student club to a full-fledged c ...more
Forest Park. Brightwood Hardware. Amostown Road. The author and I grew up, oblivious to one another, sharing stomping grounds. We also shared a lack of social graces, and inner rebellion against our religious upbringings; his Muslim, mine Roman Catholic. The whole, "God, why did you makes me a skeptic if you wanted me to believe?"
If you might like a peek into the somewhat anguished life of a wannabeliever, as he seeks his path in locales East to West, join Haroon for this look back at his New E ...more
If you might like a peek into the somewhat anguished life of a wannabeliever, as he seeks his path in locales East to West, join Haroon for this look back at his New E ...more
"...Islam is a religion, yes, but Islam is also a cultural identity, a heritage, an ethnic marker, a civilization, and sometimes more these things than faith."
"To be Muslim is to be the stunted descendant of giants, to live in the ruin of your own civilization."
"When we're not taught about boundaries, about the value and dignity of our bodies, we're rendered vulnerable to anyone who preys on our ignorance."
"To be Muslim is to be the stunted descendant of giants, to live in the ruin of your own civilization."
"When we're not taught about boundaries, about the value and dignity of our bodies, we're rendered vulnerable to anyone who preys on our ignorance."
One of my favorite things about How to be a Muslim, was the authors honesty. He was very open about his life and the struggles he faced while he was a young kid in high school to a college student in NYC. We all spend great portions of our lives trying to find ourselves so it was interesting to read about how the author navigated through life to find himself. I'm a huge fan of memoirs and How to be a Muslim is certainly one worth reading.
Review forthcoming.
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| RD Book Club: What makes this "An American Story"? | 1 | 3 | Jun 16, 2017 01:44PM |
Haroon Moghul is the author of “The Order of Light” and “My First Police State.” His memoir, “How to be Muslim”, is due in 2016. He’s a doctoral candidate at Columbia University, formerly a Fellow at the New America Foundation and the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School, and a member of the Multicultural Audience Development Initiative at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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