Meandering musings on being Muslim.
A scattered tour through the Islamic world.
Moghul, who gained acclaim for his memoir, How To Be a Muslim: An American Story, returns with a second exploration of Islam from his perspective as a Pakistani American author, professor, professional writer, and “thought leader.” Less evocative and introspective than his memoir, the author’s latest doesn’t advance a true vision so much as “describes what Islam has been and what it is, who its heroes are, what its big ideas are.” A hodgepodge of personal experience, Islam 101, and advice for “the ummah, the global Muslim community,” the narrative is disordered and often unclear. If there is a common theme, it is a call to a kinder, gentler Islam. Moghul decries the “religion of coldness, hardness, and distance” that he has too often experienced. Using pointed historical analysis, he questions the misguided political nature of Islamic cultures through the centuries. Based on the tenets of statecraft, Moghul calls for a new version of the “Caliphate of God,” but this concept remains vague throughout his text. “We can and must free Islam from the grip of religionized politics and politicized religion, returning it to what it was always meant to be. How to talk to God. How to turn back to God. How to instill life with everlasting meaning.” It’s an admirable goal, but the book lacks concrete action items. The author presents readers with an intriguing contrast, writing as a Muslim insider, explaining and deconstructing his religion, while at the same time making himself out to be an outsider who doesn’t fit easily into his religion and admits, “I cannot stay within the confines of traditional Islam.” Moghul also embarks on numerous confusing rhetorical side trips and employs a number of clumsy metaphors. He is knowledgeable about his subject, but he needs to refine his message and his method in order to reach more readers.
Meandering musings on being Muslim.Pub Date: April 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8070-2465-2
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Beacon Press
Review Posted Online: March 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.
Memories and life lessons inspired by the author’s mother, who was murdered in 2021.
“Neither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words ‘Think you’ll be happy,’ ” Avant writes, "but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.” The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. “One of my first thoughts,” she writes, “was, ‘Oh God, please don’t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.’ ” Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the “Black Godfather” due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up “in a house that had a revolving door of famous people,” from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. “I don’t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,” writes Avant. “And I recognize my unique upbringing…..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.” The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author’s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers—e.g., “I don’t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother…so I’m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable”; "Success and feeling good are contagious. I’m all about positive contagious vibrations!” Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer “that everything is in divine order.” Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, “We have to always find the blessing, to be the blessing.”
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9780063304413
Page Count: 288
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
