It can probably be said that the number of books on Islam published in the decade since 9/11 is double that published in the decade before. While initially larger publishers mostly engaged in an “Islam 101” frenzy, that page seems to have turned, with more specialized and personal titles coming from smaller, niche houses. Today titles vary from personal narrative to scholarly analysis of a particular sub-genre within Islam.
From Tupelo Press comes Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice by Kazim Ali (April), whose his bio includes stints as a lobbyist and yoga instructor as well as poet and critical essayist. Divided into two sets of daily meditations, one for each of the days of Ramadan, his musings will be especially meaningful for Muslim readers who are pacing themselves through their own fasts this upcoming Ramadan, expected to begin on August 1.
Turkish sociologist Nilüfer Göle authors Islam in Europe: The Lure of Fundamentalism and the Allure of Cosmopolitism, out in April from Markus Wiener. Göle, an authority on modern Muslim women, writes an engaging yet scholarly tribute to those European Muslims, particularly women, who participate in modern society and still uphold their Muslim values. Though a work in translation, the writing and diction are seamless. In similar spirit is I Speak for Myself: American Women on Being Muslim (White Cloud Press, May), edited by Maria Ebrahimji and Zahra Suratwala, a compilation of forty essays by women under 40, all in praise of their American-Muslim identities.
Harvard University Press offers a micro-detailed look at Islamic interpretation with Awakening Islam: The Politics of Religious Dissent in Contemporary Saudi Arabia (April). Looking at the Muslim misfits of the past half-century and how many received refuge in Saudi Arabia, Parisian professor Stéphane Lacroix argues that the resulting movement has yielded two opposing camps—the Islamo-liberals and the neo-jihadis, both headquartered out of that Islamic heartland.
British publishing house Kube has books at two ends of the trend toward personal narrative. With Wandering Lonely in a Crowd: Reflections on the Muslim Condition, Kube publishes the essays, speeches, and other writings of community activist S.M. Atif Imtiaz, who ruminates on the plight of Muslims in Britain and laments the inaction of the world while hundreds of thousands of Bosnian Muslims died. Praised by the British mainstream press, Imtiaz’s writing presents his feelings raw and almost stream-of-consciousness.
On the other end of the spectrum is Kube’s Abu Hanifah: His Life, Legal Method & Legacy (May) by Mohammed Akram Nadwi, a British researcher and expert on the Hanafi school of thought and interpretation of Islamic law. This detailed study of the founder of the Hanafi approach, which is believed to be followed by the majority of Muslims worldwide, explores its sources and processes.
Perhaps the most highly anticipated book is Allah, Liberty and Love: The Courage to Reconcile Faith and Freedom (Free Press, June; reviewed in this issue) by controversial Canadian Muslim Irshad Manji, author of the bestselling The Trouble with Islam Today. Manji’s second work is more personal, featuring e-mail correspondence with her readers and critics.
Asma Gull Hasan is an attorney and the author of Red, White & Muslim: My Story of Belief (HarperOne, 2009).