Living Islam Out Loud

Living Islam Out Loud presents the first generation of American Muslim women who have always identified as both American and Muslim. These pioneers have forged new identities for themselves and for future generations, and they speak out about the hijab, relationships, sex and sexuality, activism, spirituality, and much more. Contributors: Su'ad Abdul-Khabeer, Sham-e-Ali al-Jamil, Samina Ali, Sarah Eltantawi, Yousra Y. Fazili, Suheir Hammad, Mohja Kahf, Precious Rasheeda Muhammad, Asra Q. Nomani, Manal Omar, Khalida Saed, Asia Sharif-Clark, Khadijah Sharif-Drinkard, Aroosha Zoq Rana, Inas Younis

Hammer looks at the work of significant female American Muslim writers, scholars, and activists since 1990, using their writings as a lens for a larger discussion of Muslim intellectual production in America and beyond. Centered on the controversial women-led Friday prayer in March 2005, Hammer uses this event and its aftermath to address themes of faith, community, and public opinion. While gender is the catalyst for Hammer's study, her examination of these women's intellectual output touches on themes central to contemporary Islam: authority, tradition, Islamic law, justice, and authenticity.

Examining the intellectual output of female American Muslim writers and scholars since 1990, Hammer demonstrates that the themes at the heart of women's writings are central to the debates of modern Islam worldwide.

It is not what we know but what we do with it, which makes the difference. This is the foundational principle in Islam where Allah combined Imaan (Faith) with A'amaal us Saalih (good deeds). If we claim to have Imaan (faith) we have to prove that claim by practicing that faith. That is not restricted to outward appearance and formal worship alone but goes far beyond to permeate every aspect of the life of a Muslim. That is the purpose of the coming of Rasoolullah(s)who demonstrated how to live this life such that every action is converted to an act of worship. That is the power of the Sunnah - the practice of Islam. As long as Muslims lived by this code and ensured that Islam was reflected in every aspect of their lives, Islam spread in the world. When Muslims left the way of their own Prophet and started following the false messengers of commercialism, Islam became the target of the world. What we need to realize is that Allah sent us to show the world how to live - not to learn from them. Allah sent us to stand out as beacons of goodness, justice and compassion for all those who live on this planet - not for Muslims alone. Allah sent us to live as benchmarks for others to follow not as chickens scratching in the dirt competing for worms. Allah sent us to win hearts - not to win arguments. This book is an attempt to help us to do that once again by concentrating on practicing Islam in every aspect of our lives - not restrict ourselves to simply talking about it and lecturing others. I ask Allah for His Pleasure and acceptance for that is the only thing that matters. Mirza Yawar Baig

This publication documents the voices of Muslims who live in secular democratic countries and who are gay, lesbian, and transgender. It weaves original interviews with Muslim activists into a picture which showcases the importance of the solidarity of support groups in the effort to change social relationships and achieve justice.

Interviews with young Muslims in Chicago explore the complexity of identities formed at the crossroads of Islam and hip hop This groundbreaking study of race, religion and popular culture in the 21st century United States focuses on a new concept, “Muslim Cool.” Muslim Cool is a way of being an American Muslim—displayed in ideas, dress, social activism in the ’hood, and in complex relationships to state power. Constructed through hip hop and the performance of Blackness, Muslim Cool is a way of engaging with the Black American experience by both Black and non-Black young Muslims that challenges racist norms in the U.S. as well as dominant ethnic and religious structures within American Muslim communities. Drawing on over two years of ethnographic research, Su'ad Abdul Khabeer illuminates the ways in which young and multiethnic US Muslims draw on Blackness to construct their identities as Muslims. This is a form of critical Muslim self-making that builds on interconnections and intersections, rather than divisions between “Black” and “Muslim.” Thus, by countering the notion that Blackness and the Muslim experience are fundamentally different, Muslim Cool poses a critical challenge to dominant ideas that Muslims are “foreign” to the United States and puts Blackness at the center of the study of American Islam. Yet Muslim Cool also demonstrates that connections to Blackness made through hip hop are critical and contested—critical because they push back against the pervasive phenomenon of anti-Blackness and contested because questions of race, class, gender, and nationality continue to complicate self-making in the United States.