For March 2012, our Online Book Club continues by discussing The Butterfly Mosque by Willow Wilson, another featured title of this year's community reading program, Silicon Valley Reads, which focuses on the theme "Muslim and American."

Each week, we'll put forth a different question to prompt reflection on the book and its ideas.  We hope you will participate in the discussion by leaving comments below!

For Week 4, we'd like to ask: After reading about Willow's experience living in Egypt, how has your perception of life in the United States changed or deepened? Have any personal trips abroad had a similar effect on you?

Reading about Willow's life in Cairo, it really hit me how fortunate we are in the United States to have relatively clean environments in which to live.  Dealing with our air pollution is one thing, but I'm not sure how long I would last breathing in smelly dust from desert dirt.  And I'd gladly risk pesticides and preservatives over having to dodge maggot-infested fruit and contaminated meat.

I also was struck by Willow's surreal experience with Patriot Act survelliance in the Denver airport.  Of course, she still has no idea what really happened - that trenchcoat-wearing man who snapped her photo could have just been an ordinary guy who wanted a picture of an odd white woman in a hijab.  But clearly survelliance was going on - as evidenced by the experience of her friends who were questioned.  I guess I'd hope the authorities would've concluded much earlier that she didn't pose a threat.  It's scary that this could happen to you for so long without any obvious signs and then that innocent people would continue to have their lives inconvenienced by their own government.

Finally, I could relate to the embarassment she felt in the taxi when the other American girls launched into a loud, sexually-explicit, conversation.  In my first trip overseas, I was intent on experiencing life in another country on its own terms and not my own.  Unfortunately, I had to share this experience with other American college students who were only interested in getting drunk on a daily basis and made no attempt to modify their behavior to fit their new environment.

What about you? How has your perception of life in the United States changed or deepened after reading the book? Have personal trips abroad had a similar effect on you?

See our Online Book Club page for more information about this book and the previous weeks' questions

For March 2012, our Online Book Club continues by discussing The Butterfly Mosque by Willow Wilson, another featured title of this year's community reading program, Silicon Valley Reads, which focuses on the theme "Muslim and American."  While The Muslim Next Door helped us to better understand the beliefs and practices of Muslim Americans living in the United States, in The Butterfly Mosque the author lets us share her experience as an American whose faith leads her eventually to Cairo, Egypt and a life very different from the one she may have imagined growing up in America.  

Each week, we'll put forth a different question to prompt reflection on the book and its ideas.  We hope you will participate in the discussion by leaving comments below!

For Week 1, we'd like to ask:
Early after Willow moves to Cairo, Ahmad told her she was "becoming a little bit Arab."  She wrestled with the idea that this somehow represented a betrayal of her American self (p. 4-5).  Do you think that through her decisions and choices Willow does in fact become a different person or do you essentially hear the same voice throughout her journey?

I found Willow's story very interesting and engaging.  I enjoyed watching her grow and develop as she made choices very different from those of her parents and friends.  As someone who grew up in a family where Christian faith has always been a central part of my life, it was interesting to watch how Willow moved from a nonreligious background to embrace a faith that seemed right for her.  Throughout the book, even as she changed from a pink haired tattooed teen to a young wife who chose to don a headscarf, her character remained consistent for me.  Even when hesitant to share her newfound beliefs or her decision to marry, she remained true to what felt right for her.  While always respectful, she was willing to speak up and question beliefs and practices she did not understand.  The Butterfly Mosque is a very personal story of the author's life journey.  As she says herself on p. 107, "I never tried to become a mascot; I was just a person, with the usual quirks and faults, who was now Muslim."

How about you?  Do you think Willow's decisions and choices cause her to become a different person? 

See our Online Book Club page for more information about this book and to preview the next weeks' questions

For February 2012, our new Online Book Club is discussing The Muslim Next Door: The Qur'an, the Media, and that Veil Thing, by Sumbul Ali-Karamali.  This is one of the books chosen for the community reading program, Silicon Valley Reads, which this year focuses on the theme "Muslim and American."

Each week, we'll put forth a different question to prompt reflection on the book and its ideas.  We hope you will participate in the discussion by leaving comments below!

For Week 4, we'd like to ask:
What was your perception of Islam before reading this book and has it been transformed or confirmed after reading The Muslim Next Door?

Years before reading The Muslim Next Door, I read a translated interpretation of the Qur’an as a college assignment. I remember being surprised by how similar it was to the Bible. I grew up in a small town that wasn’t particularly friendly towards non-Christian ideas, so it was a transforming experience to learn about different religions and discover that I could to relate to them.  As a result of my college education, my perception of Islam prior to reading The Muslim Next Door was that the religion is strikingly similar to Christianity, but largely misunderstood (and even feared) in America. Ali-Karamali confirmed this perception.

Despite my (admittedly cursory) study of Islam, I was surprised to learn in The Muslim Next Door that nuances of the Arabic language allow for a large degree of gender neutrality in the Qur’an. The English interpretation of the Qur’an that I read defaulted to male pronouns. This choice may have been intentional, or it may simply have been the interpreter’s generic use of so-called gender neutral English. Either way, according to Ali-Karamali, English interpretations of the Qur’an feed into the idea that Islam is a male-centric religion. Though I have never subscribed to the stereotype that Islam was an inherently sexist religion, I was surprised to learn that the Qur’an was actually quite feminist for its time.

What was your perception of Islam before reading this book and has it been transformed or confirmed? Let us know!

See our Online Book Club page for more information about this book and to preview the next weeks' questions

For February 2012, our new Online Book Club is discussing The Muslim Next Door: The Qur'an, the Media, and that Veil Thing, by Sumbul Ali-Karamali.  This is one of the books chosen for the community reading program, Silicon Valley Reads, which this year focuses on the theme "Muslim and American."

Each week, we'll put forth a different question to prompt reflection on the book and its ideas.  We hope you will participate in the discussion by leaving comments below!

For Week 3, we'd like to ask:

Can you think of aspects of your own tradition/culture/religion that could be misunderstood or perceived in a negative light?

Throughout her book Ms. Ali-Karamali writes about how Islam is misunderstood and often confused with culture/politics.  She writes about the misunderstandings her friends and co-workers had about her religious beliefs and practices, ranging from dating to the role of women, to evolution. 

As a child, my family was never involved in any organized religion.  Upon leaving my hometown for college, I was surprised to have new friends and acquaintances ask me how I could live a moral life without a religion to guide me.  My parents had taught me much about evaluating a situation and acting in a responsible manner; yet my friends wondered how I could know I was doing the right thing if I didn’t have a religious text or tradition to turn to.

This is only my personal experience, but perhaps you have a completely different experience you would like to share.  Tell us:  Can you think of aspects of your own tradition/culture/religion that could be misunderstood or perceived in a negative light?

See our Online Book Club page for more information about this book and to preview the next weeks' questions

For February 2012, our new Online Book Club is discussing The Muslim Next Door: The Qur'an, the Media, and that Veil Thing, by Sumbul Ali-Karamali.  This is one of the books chosen for the community reading program, Silicon Valley Reads, which this year focuses on the theme "Muslim and American."

Each week, we'll put forth a different question to prompt reflection on the book and its ideas.  We hope you will participate in the discussion by leaving comments below!

For Week 1, we'd like to ask:
What information, anecdote, or argument in The Muslim Next Door surprised or left a deep impression on you?

Before reading this book, I had some exposure to the very basics of Islam from overview-history courses in college and Muslims I've known; things like the five pillars, prayers, fasting, dietary restrictions, how Islam fit into the Judeo-Christian tradition, Muhammad's life, and the Sunni/Shi'a split. 

I appreciated the chance to learn much more from this book.  As basic as this may sound, I don't recall ever reading translated portions of the Qur'an before - and found it wasn't what I expected. Several things surprised me about the Qur'an:

• It's actually a very lyrical work (more so in Arabic, it would seem) that appeals to the heart as much as the head.  Hearing so much about "Islamic law", that is basically what I expected the Qur'an to be - dry "laundry lists" of rules.
• Many of the translated verses (at least, those Ali-Karamali chose here) sound like they could fit right into the Bible without any difficulty; in their tone, subject matter, and message.
• The Qur'an is not translated in order to avoid altering its meaning.  This is an interesting approach for a religion to take. Seems it might make it more difficult to convert followers if they have to learn another language too.

There's much more I could bring up, but what did you think?  What information, anecdote, or argument in The Muslim Next Door surprised or left a deep impression on you? Let us know!

See our Online Book Club page for more information about this book and to preview the next weeks' questions

The Bread of Angels: A Journey to Love and Faith by Stepanie Saldana

Stephanie Saldana spent a year in Syria, living in a Christian community in Damascus, learning colloquial Arabic and studying the Koran. Her memoir is a personal exploration of faith and love.