Open AccessThe Butterfly Mosque
Author(s) -
Hussein Rashid
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
american journal of islam and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2690-3741
pISSN - 2690-3733
DOI - 10.35632/ajis.v28i3.1241
Subject(s) - memoir , islam , butterfly , biography , economic justice , history , phenomenon , art history , art , literature , aesthetics , philosophy , law , epistemology , archaeology , political science , finance , economics
Autobiography, as it relates to Muslims and to America, can be a difficultgenre in which to write. There are numerous works that have appearedsince 2001 that cover the spectrum from an anti-Islamic polemic to anapologia. G. Willow Wilson, author of the Butterfly Mosque, managesto avoid the extremes and writes a meaningful memoir that reflects thebeauty and ugliness of being a Muslim and an American. The difficultyin reviewing a memoir is that a sequential summary does not do it justice.Instead, a thematic approach seems to make more sense. For example,the subtitle of the book, “An American Woman’s Journey to Love andIslam,” could as easily read “An American Woman’s Journey to the Loveof Islam.” The work is highly personal, and it is an exploration of the loveaffair she had and was having with this phenomenon called “Islam.” ...