Sumbul Ali-Karamali

God’s Big Blog: What a Billion Muslims Really Think

Sumbul Ali-Karamali, author of "The Muslim Next Door"

Attention San Francisco Bay Area Folks:

The Bay Area premiere of ”Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think” will be screened at 5 p.m., Saturday, February 20, at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California in Oakland. For details go to the ICCNC website. Admission is $15 at the door. Doors open at 4 p.m.

The film is a documentary based on the Gallup Poll of Worldwide Muslim Public Opinion. Executive producers are Alex Kronemer and Michael Wolfe.

This Gallup Poll was a very big project. I’m curious about how this documentary uses the material.

John Esposito, Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown University and author of The Future of Islam, will deliver a keynote address. Also present for discussion will be Hamza van Boom and author Sumbul Ali-Karamali.

Sumbul is a writing buddy of mine from the Religion Newswriters Association. A neat lady and an attorney, her book takes a thoughtful look at Islamic law. If you can’t make the event, do check out her book. Also, she’ll be speaking on Shari’ah Law at the Commonwealth Club public forum in San Francisco on March 11.

Book Openers: An American Attorney Looks at Islamic Law

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

The Muslim Next Door: The Qur’an, the Media, and that Veil Thing, Sumbul Ali-Karamali, White Cloud Press, 287 pages, $16.95

Two days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, a friend emailed Sumbul Ali-Karamali to ask if she would be displaying an American flag the next day. People all over the country would be putting out their flags, the friend said, and she was worried for Ali-Karamali. “Because if you don’t display a flag, someone might think it’s because you’re Muslim that you’re not doing it.”

In her new book, The Muslim Next Door: The Qur’an, the Media, and that Veil Thing, Ali-Karamali reports that on September 11, she was as frightened as every other American. She grieved for the victims and feared further attacks on her country. But she had another fear – that there would be a backlash of hatred and even violence against Muslim Americans, including herself, her husband and her small children. [Read more...]