Middle East/North African Lit discussion

Hello All! We're doing an open read for MENA/SWANA nonfiction reads. Anyone reading something you want to share? I haven't started mine yet, but I plan to read If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran.

Looks interesting but I don’t have time to read it now.
In a few weeks I am hoping to read Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History for the challenge, so if anyone else wants to read it that would be great!

Interesting! Thanks for sharing, Jalilah.

I am still checking what to read.
Both of your choices are very interesting.
I had to books need to be finished ( Orientalism) and ( A peace to end all peace).

Currently reading On Zionist Literature and Critical Conditions: My Diary of the Syrian Revolution (charting the Syrian revolution through a journalist's diary entires)

Thanks for sharing!

I finished my nonfiction pick, If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran. I think the book's greatest strength is the friendly conversations the author (secular journalist) carries out with Muslims (especially one Sheikh from India who lives in England). Hopefully it will help people to relate to one another, for example making Muslims more relatable to non-Muslims. The author is not an erudite expert on the Qur'an, but a layperson and an American approaching the Qur'an and Muslim culture(s) generally from a place of curiosity and respect.

The author has values, such as a commitment to diversity, which is good to see. Sometimes she finds values in her Muslim participants that she would like to emulate and learn from (for example, gratitude for everyday blessings). Sometimes she finds the Sheikh's views less inspiring (for example, in relation to child marriage), but then he can also revise his opinions, which is good to see. I think my favorite parts are her conversations with his daughters, including reflections on how Surat Rahman (a chapter in the Qur'an) is inspirational for readers/listeners.

Another book readers of this book might like is The Faith Club: A Muslim, a Christian, a Jew: Three Women Search for Understanding. It follows women from several different faiths and their lived practice, not theory/law, and how they work on relating with and supporting one another.