Media and Islam

UK publishing firm Legend Press is about to publish a new, revised limited edition of the book Unimagined: A Muslim Boy Meets the West, a book I reviewed a few years ago. The following is that review from 2007.

In Unimagined: A Muslim Boy Meets the West, Imran Ahmad narrates life growing up Pakistani and Muslim in England. Born in Karachi, he migrated to England with his family as a very young boy. Ahmad did his best to fit in a land dominated by those with a different religion and color of skin who were wary of the influx of immigrants living in their land. He weaves a heart-wrenching tale in which his struggles to overcome prejudices will surely leave you in tears.

Well, actually, not really.

Ahmad tells the tale of his life with an ever present humor which is evident from the start, beginning with mention of his entry in the “Bonnie Baby” contest in Karachi. He ended up losing to a boy who was the judges son, a sure sign of nepotism. It was that incident, Ahmad wrote, that began his lifelong struggle against corruption. In the recollection of his life, Ahmad weaves in humor so we may laugh, or at least smile, at all the good or bad that happens in his life.

At the bottom of every page, Ahmad includes the time period and his age so the reader can know exactly how old the author was at any particular point in the book. The reader follows Ahmad along while he learns about Islam, his experience in the different schools he’s been to, his struggles with women, and encounters with Evangelical Christians.

Those who were ‘born Muslim’ to immigrants in a place like American or England may find something in common with Ahmad, as he didn’t even know about the fundamentals of Islam until he was put in Islamic school. There, he learned the ‘why’ of all the things that he was doing or supposed to be doing. Before that, he was oblivious of the facts of Islam. Ahmad then shares his knowledge of Islam in a few of his sub chapters, obviously meant for readers who have little or no knowledge of the subject to aid in their understanding of what Ahmad believes in. Unfortunately, at times Ahmad passes on something he learned in Islamic School that isn’t quite right, such as the belief that Satan, Iblis to Muslims, was a fallen angel while Satan is actually a jinn.

Generally, I really liked the book. However, I took offense at one part as a Muslim. Close to the end, Imran Ahmad stated that he was lucky to have grown up the way he had, by parents who were not ignorant or fundamentalists. He then followed the line by stating that his dad was always clean shaven and that his mom never wore the hijab. Those two sentences one after the other suggests that Ahmad equates a bearded man and a woman wearing hijab as ignorant. Whether or not Ahmad thinks a beard or hijab are necessary, he shouldn’t pass judgment on those who choose to adopt them.

I do think Unimagined: A Muslim Boy Meets the West is worth reading since it’s funny and entertaining. It was also incredibly ‘readable.’ I wanted to keep on reading it and find out what was going to happen next. Do keep in mind that these are memoirs and not a religious book. With that in mind, Unimagined is a good read.

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Check out the comments from the original post in which the author responded to a couple of things in my review.

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by Bushra Burney

Meet G. Willow Wilson. She’s an American. She lived in Egypt for a while. She converted to Islam. She fell in love with a local. She wrote a book about all of this called The Butterfly Mosque. You should read it.

After graduating from college in the summer of 2003, Wilson leaves for Cairo to work as a teacher in an English-language school. Thanks to a series of events beforehand, Wilson, who had been brought up as an atheist, knew one thing: that if she boarded that plane to Cairo, she would become a Muslim. Keeping that bit of information from her family and friends, she starts her life in Cairo as a closet Muslim and that’s when she meets Omar, who she soon marries.

With The Butterfly Mosque, the author really has something great on her hands. She strikes a balance with all three of the stories she tells – the travel memoir, her discovery and path to Islam, finding love with someone halfway across the world, and presents a narrative that is never preachy nor self indulgent while offering a unique insight into life abroad.

This book isn’t just about Wilson though, it’s also about all the people with whom she interacts. She gives Egyptians, and with her trip to Iran, Persians, an identity that sometimes gets lost among all that we hear about the Middle East here in the United States. This reminds me of something my Arabic teacher once said – as an Egyptian who had moved to the U.S. a few years ago, he had not even considered himself Arab until he came here and was instantly classified as such.

I have to admit, I’m already fan of Wilson’s. I liked her graphic novel Cairo and her comic Air is one of only two monthly comic book titles I read. Yet, this book isn’t just limited to fans of her comic books. The author succeeds in writing a book that can be appreciated by many audiences. One can read The Butterfly Mosque to get a glimpse into the life of an American living in another country while someone else may be curious about the issues Wilson discusses that inevitably result from a cross cultural relationship and from her odyssey into Islam.

In the end, The Butterfly Mosque isn’t just another memoir. G. Willow Wilson’s voice differentiates it from so many other books. Her affable manner in conjunction with her sense of humor and resolve has the ability to really connect with the reader. Simply put, I really liked this book and can’t recommend it enough.

The Butterfly Mosque is published by Atlantic Monthly Press and was released June 1st. Read it! I command you…

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Comics books are mostly associated with superheroes and fantastical stories. Yet, some use comic books, or graphic novels, as a medium to tell a compelling narrative.

Journalist Joe Sacco is one of those people. He had previously documented and illustrated his time in Palestine and Bosnia with his books Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde. With his new graphic novel, Footnotes in Gaza, Sacco sifts through stories from the towns of Khan Younis and Rafah in the Gaza Strip to find testimonials regarding two events from 1956 in which hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed by the IDF. He also provides the historical context that led to these massacres, citing key players from multiple countries.

Over two trips in November 2002 and March 2003, Joe Sacco visited the Gaza strip and with his guide Abed, Sacco interviewed Palestinians who were old enough to be present at that time in 1956. Sacco illustrates their stories in the pages of Footnotes of Gaza, drawing gruesome pictures to go along with the almost unreal stories: IDF soldiers forcing their way into homes, shooting men where they stood while sometimes forcing them outdoors, lining them up along fences and shooting many of them at a time. About 265 men died in that single event in Khan Younis. In Rafah, about 111 men were estimated to have been killed in a screening process gone wrong.

Sacco provides a healthy dose of objectivity to the stories he hears. He admits in his book that relying on witness testimonials for something that happened more than 50 years ago may be a bit troublesome. While the horrific events became etched into those who witnessed it, some of those memories tend to be a bit murky. In other cases, his subjects simply have too much to talk about. In one instance, Sacco found himself talking to an old man whose story kept on switching from 1956 to events in 1948, then to 1967 and so on.

On his quest, some Palestinians openly question Sacco’s need to dig up stories from ’56. A kid at a pastry shop he and Abed frequent voiced what many Sacco came across in his journey were thinking: “Forget the past, what about now?” to which Sacco replied “One day, 50 years from now, they’ll forget about you too.”

Footnotes in Gaza is an amazing read but admittedly, a bit difficult at times. When you look upon Sacco’s depiction of one particular interview subject when he’s telling his story of that day in 1956, bloody, rising from a pile of bodies, everyone dead around him, lucky because the multiple bullets he was sprayed with missed anything vital, then the reader has to take pause and just wonder how someone could mentally come back from something like that.

In the end, Footnotes in Gaza provides a look into events that are almost entirely unknown except to those who were alive in Khan Younis and Rafah in 1956. Sacco provides the historical context that leads up to these events within the book.As a journalist, Joe Sacco continues to give a voice to people in war-torn lands and in the case of Footnotes in Gaza, provides a look into the lives of Palestinians.

Highly Recommended.

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