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Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Why I Am a Muslim An American Odyssey by Asma Gull Hasan Why I Am a Muslim: An American Odyssey by Asma Gull Hasan. “All Muslims are terrorists.” While clearly a stereotype, many Americans are convinced it’s true. Just as some also believe that Muslims silently approved of 9/11 and are against the War on Terror, that Muslims pray to a different God than Christians and Jews, and that Islam oppresses women. Misconceptions abound. In her new book, WHY I AM A MUSLIM: AN AMERICAN ODYSSEY (Thorsons Element, March 2004), attorney and practicing Muslim Asma Gull Hasan distinguishes the facts from the myths. She explains how the Qur’an and the core values of American society are strikingly similar, and why she, and more than a billion people in the world (seven million in America alone), are Muslim. Part memoir, part guide, WHY I AM A MUSLIM presents Islam as it is seldom seen on the evening news. Asma Hasan puts a fresh face on Islam, and rebuts the terrorist image of Muslims perpetuated by Osama bin Laden, Al Jazeera, and the fear-mongers. Her hope – that non- Muslims will appreciate Islam as a religion of peace, and understand that Muslims are not the enemy after all. A first generation American, Asma Hasan says that to her, being a Muslim is not merely a matter of birth, but a matter of choice. Born in Chicago of Pakistani parents, Asma was raised in Colorado , where she attended Catholic school. She graduated from Groton and Wellesley , and studied law at NYU. Asma considers herself an all-American girl, and she looks the part. What differentiates her from most 20-something professionals is her commitment to a faith that, is more often than not, vilified in her own country. But she has never been ashamed to be Muslim – not after 9/11, not now. Asma Hasan gives voice to a new generation of Muslims. She has appeared on CNN, Politically Incorrect, NPR, and Fox News, and her articles have been published in The New York Times, The Denver Post, and The San Francisco Chronicle, among others. She is also the author of AMERICAN MUSLIMS: THE NEW GENERATION (Continuum, 2000). Thank you for considering WHY I AM A MUSLIM. We look forward to speaking with you soon. Why I Am a Muslim: An American Odyssey by Asma Gull Hasan. Writer Brings Muslim Faith to the People. By HOLLY LEBOWITZ ROSSI Religion News Service. When she was in kindergarten, Asma Gull Hasan was sent to the principal’s office at her Catholic school for telling the class that Jesus was not the son of God. Muslims, she explained, believe that Jesus was a prophet, but not a divine being. After that episode, Hasan kept her religious beliefs under wraps, but she recalls now that she enjoyed knowing that she had her own identity and views different from her classmates. “I kind of felt like it was a little secret I had to myself,” she said. Today, however, Hasan cannot keep her secret any longer. The 29-year-old daughter of Pakistani immigrants has just published her second book designed to educate non-Muslims about Islam and present the religion in a way that clarifies the basics and provokes discussion about the world’s second-largest religion. The book, “Why I am a Muslim: An American Odyssey” (Thorsons Element) is a followup to her 2002 volume, “American Muslims: The New Generation” (Continuum). In sharing her faith through her writing and public speaking engagements, Hasan articulates the experience of many young American Muslims, who are working out their religious identities within the context of American culture. Hasan considers herself completely American, referring to “we” when she talks about American policies and positions in the world. Her identity as a Muslim is strong — but not mutually exclusive with being an American. She has dubbed herself a “Muslim cowgirl feminist,” a moniker that fits her background of a religious Muslim upbringing — in “cowgirl” country in Colorado — and her later education at Wellesley college, which Hasan describes as a “hotbed” of feminism. Her parents immigrated from Pakistan as a young married couple in the early 1970s. Hasan was born in Chicago, and after a brief stint in Kentucky, where the family was “mystified by Southern culture,” the Hasans settled in Pueblo, Colo. Educated in a private Catholic school at an early age, Hasan later went to the Groton School, a prestigious Episcopalian boarding school in Massachusetts. She was always a minority in her classes, but it wasn’t until college that she began to feel the need to speak out about her faith. “I felt this was one of my jobs in life, to talk about Islam to people who aren’t Muslim,” said Hasan from her home in San Francisco. Hasan, who is a lawyer at a securities litigation firm, took on her writing as a second job, working 10-hour days at the firm before spending her evenings and weekends writing. Particularly after Sept. 11, 2001, when many Americans expressed a desire to learn about Islam, it became not only an ability, but a duty, Hasan says, for Muslims to educate others. “It’s important for me to share it. If we don’t, then the terrorists are going to tell us what they think Islam stands for, and that’s not true Islam,” she said. Hasan admits that it can get tiring to constantly be presenting the basics of her religion. “Sometimes I feel like I’m explaining my religion all the time,” she said, but added that “there is no foundation, there is no background” of knowledge about Islam among most Americans. “People aren’t even ready to talk about `young Muslims’ yet,” she said, “They need to learn, what is Islam.” Hasan cites the Muslim concept of “dawah” when she talks about her writing — the idea that when someone asks a question about Islam, a Muslim is religiously obligated to answer. A positive development since Sept. 11 is that Americans are genuinely interested in learning about Islam. “They realize they have a knowledge gap about Islam, and they really want to fill that gap,” she said, “I really have to give Americans credit, we really make an effort to learn more.” Hasan is not only speaking to non-Muslims in her writing, but also writes for members of her own community. “The message that young American Muslims should take away is that Islam is between you and God,” she said. “Islam does not belong to the mullahs or al-Qaida or the imam at your local mosque. You have to take control of your own Islam.” At the same time, though, Hasan argues American culture is a viable lens through which her readers should consider their interpretations of Islam. “For every Muslim out there, there is a culture they use to interpret Islam,” Hasan said, “I think of myself as a product of American culture,” even though her upbringing included traditional Pakistani teachings, like a prohibition against slumber parties because a child’s free time should be spent with his or her family. When it comes to the controversial arena of women’s roles in Islam, Hasan says her views are shaped by both the strong female role models in her family and her exposure to American feminist thought in college. “It is demeaning for a Muslim American woman who everywhere else is treated equally” to face things like women’s prayer areas in local mosques that are nowhere as nice as the men’s areas, she said. “As an American woman, you have full rights, you have equal rights,” she added, so in mosques, “the areas for women should be as nice as the areas for men, if not nicer.” Hasan has achieved some notoriety and recognition among her peers in the American Muslim community, but her views also open her up to scrutiny. “Her attempt was to make Islam something a lot more accessible for ordinary Americans,” said Ayesha Ahmad, a young, traditional Muslim woman who is a reporter for a community newspaper in Prince George’s County, Md. However, Ahmad, who reviewed Hasan’s first book for the Web site IslamOnline.net, was disappointed at Hasan’s dismissal of such traditional Muslim practices as wearing a headscarf, or “hijab.” “My approach to my faith is different from hers,” said Ahmad, who does wear a headscarf. “I think she is speaking predominantly for young Muslim women,” said Ahmad, “Just no young Muslim women that I know.” But despite this, Hasan’s writing is a useful beacon for American Muslims who may be struggling to articulate their identities as both Americans and Muslims. “She’s one of the few people among our age group and among our generation who is putting her voice out there,” she said. I am a Muslim and a Feminist. Asma Gull Hasan, 29, considers herself an All American Girl. Her hobbies include collecting Barbie dolls, skiing and snowboarding. But she is also a serious-minded Muslim who continues to be in her faith because of the guidance and ecstasy she receives from it. Two years ago she published American Muslims: The New Generation. Now she has a new book Why I am a Muslim, published by Thorson Element, a division of Harper Collins in England and America. She wrote her first book as she was graduating from the New York University School of Law, where she was a staff editor on The Review of Law and Social Change. The book came out as she accepted an offer with the world's largest law firm, Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells, to work in international corporate law.

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