IRAN AUTHOR · HISTORY
Reza Aslan
Iranian-American author, commentator
IN THE ARID, desolate basin of Mecca, surrounded on all sides by the bare mountains of the Arabian desert, stands a small, nondescript sanctuary that the ancient Arabs refer to as the Ka'ba: the Cube.
— from No god but God
Most acclaimed
Tablet & pen
Spans a century of poems, short stories, novels, memoirs, and essays by Sait Faik Abasiyanik, Azra Abbas, Ghulam Abbas, Abu Salma, Adonis (Ali Ahmad Sa'id Asbar), Jalal Al-e Ahmad, Pegah Ahmadi, Tawfiq al-Hakim, Nazik al-Malāʼikah, Mozaffar al-Nawwab, Melih Cevdet Anday, ʻArrār (Mustafa Wahbi al-Tal), Manouchehr Atashi, Reza Baraheni, Faraj Bayraqdar, Simin Behbahani, Alireza Behnam, Sadeq Chubak, Ismat Chughtai, Zayd Mutee' Dammaj, Simin Daneshvar, Mahmoud Darwish, Parvin E'tesami, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Forugh Farrokhzad, Altaf Fatima, Khalil Gibran, Hoiushang Golshiri, Melisa Gürpinar, Yahya Haqqi, Haydar Haydar, Sadegh Hedayat, Nâzim Hikmet, Abdullah Hussein, Intizaar Hussein, Yusif Idris, Muhammad Iqbal, Ali Sardar Jafri, Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh, Ghassan Kanafani, Orhan Veli Kanik, Refik Halit Karay, Cemil Kavukçu, Yaşar Kemal, Naguib Mahfouz, ʻAbd al-Raḥīm Mahmud, Saʻādat Ḥasan Manto, Miraji (Muḥammad S̲ānāʼullāh Dār), Zakaria Mohammad, Nader Naderpour, Kishwar Naheed, Aziz Nesin, Orhan Pamuk, Zoya Pirzad, Hamid Reza Rahimi, N.M. Rashed, Fahmida Riaz, Oktay Rifat, Zeeshan Sahil, Ahmad Shamloo, Cemal Süreya, Zakariyya Tami, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar. Goli Taraghi, Akhtar ul-Iman, Saadi Youssef, Can Yücel, Nima Yushij, and Haifa Zangana.
Muslims and Jews in America
Jews and Muslims make up less than 3% of the total population of the United States. Yet, despite their relatively small numbers, the members of these two minority groups often find themselves the focus of a disproportionate amount of media attention, particularly when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Beyond such international issues, American Jews and American Muslims find themselves struggling with similar inter-communal concerns when it comes to matters like education (for example tensions between student populations of Jews and Muslims on university campuses), politics (such as the swearing in of the first Muslim Congressman in the House of Representatives, Keith Ellison, or the omnipresent emails and robo-calls linking President Obama to the Muslim community that emerged during the 2008 Presidential election), or even pop culture (think of such recent Hollywood productions as Kingdom in Heaven, Munich, Paradise Now, and Traitor, to name but a few).^ In all of these matters, American Jews and American Muslims have consistently engaged each other in conversation - whether directly or indirectly; constructive or not - in ways that have usually eluded their co-religionists throughout the rest of the world. This has partly to do with America's ethos as a "melting pot" of different religions, ethnicities, and cultures. But it also has to do with the innovative ways in which Judaism and Islam have absorbed, and been radically altered, by the so-called "American experience." This book is an exploration of contemporary Jewish-Muslim relations in the United States and the distinct and often creative ways in which these two communities interact with one another in the American context. Each essay discusses a different episode from the recent twentieth and current twenty-first century American milieu that links these two groups together.^ Some deal with case examples of local inter-communal interaction, such as "dialogue groups," which can help us better understand national trends of similar activities in other parts of the country. Others focus on national trends themselves, thus giving us greater insights into individual incidents. -- Publisher description.
God
In Deepak Chopra's powerful, groundbreaking, and imaginative new work, a unique blend of storytelling and teaching, the" New York Times" bestselling author explores the evolution of God. By capturing the lives of ten historical prophets, saints, mystics, and martyrs who are touched by a divine power, Chopra reveals a riveting portrait of a constantly changing God. Our belief--and therefore God itself--transforms with each passing century. In this new novel, Chopra brings to life the defining moments of our most influential sages, ultimately revealing universal lessons about the true nature of God. Job in the Old Testament experienced something completely different from Paul in the New Testament, Socrates chased a mercurial spirit almost unrecognizable to the strange voice that called to Rumi, and Shankara moved from town to town sharing the truth about a God that stood in marked contrast to the one that guided Anne Hutchinson--yet one sees an undeniable pattern. These visionaries took the human race down unknown roads, and Chopra invites us to revisit their destinations. Tearing at our hearts and uplifting our souls, "God" leads us to a profound and life-altering understanding about the nature of belief, the power of faith, and the spirit that resides within us all.