If You Want To Learn More About Muslim Life, Read These Books

In this intense YA fiction debut published earlier this year, a teenager named Hanan stands up for herself and the rest of her British Somali community after a white teen attacks her twin brother. She decides to finally face a bullying classmate and a teacher who continues to use her as an example of a token Muslim to the school board. 

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In this graphic novel, Khan, a British artist, steps away from the codependent relationship she has with her mother and embraces her Kashmiri/British/Muslim identity on her own terms. And despite her parents’ strained marriage, she manages to find a healthy adult relationship of her own. Khan’s beautiful illustrations transport the reader, especially “Layers” and “The 99 Names of Allah,” and it’s no wonder this book was one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Top Ten Spring 2022 Graphic Novels.

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With his first cookbook, Atassi brings a refreshing point of view of Syria. Rather than focusing on the current strife in his home country, Atassi emphasizes the beauty of family time. The high point of his book is his obvious reverence for the matriarchs in his life, especially his mother. Now living in Amsterdam and no longer able to visit Syria every summer (since the war started 13 years ago), Atassi stays connected to his family by cooking the dishes he grew up eating with them, like Sambusak and Shorbat ameh during Ramadan, and Lob el kossa.

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High school senior Danyal has his eyes on overachieving hottie Kaval, but she's not completely sure. Although he's good-looking (so he says), his career choice of chef causes him to be an undesirable match in the community, leading the family matchmaker to set him up with Bisma. Danyal doesn't understand why this cool and cute girl would be set up with someone as "unworthy" as him, until he finds out one incident has ruined her reputation in the community. The more they spend together, the more they realize they have in common: keeping it real despite what their community dictates. 

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If you read one memoir during Ramadan, make it Unashamed. Anyone feeling like an outsider, outcast, or underdog will relate to Vernon's honest rendition of her childhood and teenage years. Although some of Vernon's lifestyle choices may offend orthodox Muslims, Vernon's persistence in attending grad school and reaching financial independence, despite growing up poverty stricken with a single mom with mental health issues, is beyond inspiring. Her consistent faith in Allah and her wearing hijab despite being shunned by more mainstream Muslims are heartwarming to read, especially during Ramadan and especially for those who have felt judged at the masjid (who hasn't?). 

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Asghar, known for her poetry, turns to prose in this debut novel about three sisters, or “mother-sisters,” as the youngest, Kausar, calls them since they lost their parents at such a young age. Kausar holds on tightly to the remnants of her family, even her absentee, selfish and hypocritical uncle, throughout her childhood and adolescence, until she finally heads out on her own as an adult. When We Were Sisters is a raw look at the innate importance of family and society’s heartlessness toward a vulnerable child. 

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Diaz uses poetry to discuss her identity, both as a Puerto Rican American and as a new Muslim. In her powerful poem “I Am…The Muslim,” Diaz says she is an “army brat” since she is the third generation of a military family who fought for the “red, white and blue,” but they “like to call her an immigrant” because all they see is her veil. Many different types of people can process their own struggle to be accepted by reading Diaz’s beautiful book.

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This beautifully written, sweeping war-time family drama is reminiscent of Isabel Allende’s A Long Petal of the Sea. The story centers on a young woman named Ghosnelban, the daughter of an aristocratic family in Baghdad. Left with only her long-time family housekeeper Mamulka and army vet brother SIlwan after the death of her parents and disappearance of her communist sister, she alone must deal with death threats from political scavengers and marriage proposals from arrogant opportunists. 

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Debut author Bilal gives an insightful glimpse into the world of Black Muslims in this fiction anthology. One especially enlightening story is "Woman in Niqab," where teenage Imani visits Egypt with a family friend who explains that the country was built by Black people, although they instead credit the Greeks, like much of the world. 

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In this eerie thriller reminiscent of the 1993 movie The Firm, Anisa is unsatisfied with her job translating Bollywood films. So she is all-in when her boyfriend refers her to an exclusive language school known as The Centre. With the success her new multilingualism brings, including becoming a renowned book translator and entering an exciting new relationship, Anisa is willing to do whatever the Centre's policy and director tell her to do.

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