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“I realized that it was precisely because of America’s glaring imperfections that I should seek to participate in its progress, carve a place in its promise, and play a role in its possibility. And at its heart and at its best, America was about pluralism.”
― Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation
― Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation
“(Imagine a world where all religious groups can simply freeze their beliefs and not have to interact with the culture.)”
― God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty
― God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty
“My confusion about the separation between the servant class and the upper middle class revealed a quintessentially American point of view. Status is much more fluid in America, at least within the wide range of the population that can loosely be characterized as middle-class. I wait tables at a restaurant, and after my shift is over, I go out to a lounge and someone waits on me. Even if I get a graduate degree and earn a six-figure salary, I don’t treat waiters like a permanently lower class. After all, I was one and know what it feels like. And who knows when someone serving me in this restaurant will get their own graduate degree and be my boss. Better to be friendly. My “American-ness” was starting to stare me in the face in India: not the America of big-screen televisions and Hummers, but the America that, despite its constant failings, managed to inculcate in its citizens a set of humanizing values—the dignity of labor, the fundamental equality of human beings, mobility based on drive and talent, the opportunity to create and contribute.”
― Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation
― Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation
“In one of the moments when my father was feeling especially righteous about his “Muslim-ness,” I overheard him expressing concern to my mother that the YMCA, which was after all the Young Men’s Christian Association, was teaching us Christian songs. “Do you think they are trying to teach Christianity to our kids?” he asked, the tone of his voice a kind of auditory chest thumping. “I hope so,” my mother responded. “I hope they teach the kids Jewish and Hindu songs, too. That’s the kind of Muslims we want our kids to be.”
― Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation
― Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation
“Even when we feel like we have found theological common ground—like Abraham as the patriarch of Jews, Christians, and Muslims—we quickly discover that even those paradigms have their limits. There are a million Hindus in this country, and over three million Buddhists, and neither of those communities would be called Abrahamic. But they live in America, too, and we have to have a paradigm that includes them.”
― Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation
― Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation
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R. T. Jones has an adult book club open to the public and staff! Book club members take part in the shaping of the book club and help pick out future ...more
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OUR SHARED SHELF IS CURRENTLY DORMANT AND NOT MANAGED BY EMMA AND HER TEAM. Dear Readers, As part of my work with UN Women, I have started reading ...more
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