New Releases

The Messenger of Mercy: The Covenants of Coexistence from the Prophet of Pluralism

John Andrew Morrow 2021. Pp 288. PB Sanbun Publishers, New Delhi, India

The Messenger of Mercy overviews Islam’s ideals and the Prophet’s (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) life with a particular focus and his letters, treaties and covenants to and with Jews, Christians, Samaritans and Zoroastrians. Issues of faith, as well as morals, ethics and social justice, and how Muslims implemented them, are presented.

“A powerful contribution to our Islamic commitment to peace building,” said Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed (former national director, ISNA’s Office of Interfaith and Community Alliances; a former president, ISNA).

Muslims of the Heartland: How Syrian Immigrants Made a Home in the American Midwest

Edward E. Curtis IV 2022. Pp. 256. HB. $30.00. Kindle. $16.50 NYU Press, New York, N.Y.

Adescendant of Syrian Midwesterners, Curtis’ “Muslims of the Heartland” dispels the notion that the Midwest is uniformly white and shaped exclusively by Christian values.

The author portrays the intrepid Muslim sodbusters on the Dakotas’ short-grass prairies, peddlers of needles and lace on Cedar Rapids’ streets and workers in Michigan City’s railroad car factories. Learn how the first two generations of Midwestern Syrians created a life that was Arab, Muslim and American.

The Muslim Resolutions: Bosniak Responses to World War Two Atrocities in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Hikmet Karcic, Ferid Dautovic and Ermin Sinanovic (eds.) 2021. Pp. 228. PB. $20.00 Center for Islam in the Contemporary World at Shenandoah University, Sterling, Va.

NApril 6, 1941, the Axis powers attacked Yugoslavia. Within days, its army surrendered and the country was occupied. A German puppet ruled Serbia. The Ustashas’ The Independent State of Croatia introduced Nazi-style laws and atrocities against Serbs, Jews and Roma. Bosniaks (then referred to as Muslims), between a rock and a hard place and without proper political representation or institutions, were split: some joined the Croats, the Serb royalists (Chetniks) and Nazi Germany, hoping for greater autonomy. The Ustasha regime did not target Bosniaks en masse; however, many of their elites disagreed with the new regime’s policies.

Generally labeled “enemies” or “collaborators,” the Bosniak elites used their condemnation of the regime’s policies as a way to seek Bosnia’s autonomy, hoping thereby to improve the country’s position and their people’s security. This book recounts these efforts during and after WWII.

Hear Us Speak: Letters from Arab Women

Suzan Kanoo 2021. Pp. 144. HB. $21.99. Kindle. $8.99 ForbesBooks, Charleston, S.C.

Kanoo’s interviews with Arab women seek to lift the “veil of mystery” about their lives. A very successful Arab businesswoman and CEO, she has seen firsthand how Arab legislation and culture have not always kept pace with our evolving world. The letters reveal story after story of courageous, resilient Muslimas who emerge stronger after each setback.

The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom

Sahar F. Aziz 2021. Pp. 356. HB. $85.00 PB$29.95 Kindle $24.95 University of California Press

Aziz focusing on a religious minority, which has been treated as a racial minority, objectified as terrorist, denied the religious freedom that America claims as its pride, and instead subjected to the profiling, monitoring, and policing, which America has too often practiced. The book serves as useful tool for understanding how American law and culture have constructed an image of the Muslim that bears no resemblance to reality and betrays the country's failure to practice what its professes to preach; and how the laws are weaponized against Muslim Americans.

Aziz, explores the gap between America’s aspiration for and fulfillment of religious freedom, and provides the crucial historical and legal background of the links between white Protestant Christian supremacy in the U.S., which racialized not only the Indigenous People and African Americans as inferior but also American Catholics, Jews, and Mormons, not to mention East Asian immigrants, and the currently blazing racialization of Muslim immigrants and their American descendants.

Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity

Heather Ecker, Judith Henon-Reynaud, Evelyne Posseme, Sarah Schleuning (eds.) 2022. Pp. 320+500 illus. HB. $70.00 Thames & Hudson, New York, N.Y.

Louis Cartier, the founder’s grandson, a collector and patron of the arts, was entranced by Islamic arts, especially Persian book arts. Their geometric shapes, color combinations and motifs are apparent in Cartier jewelry to this day. His younger brother Jacques, an expert in precious stones, traveled to India and the Gulf (1911-12) to experience the region’s culture and bring home treasures: natural pearls. This pivotal moment, when the dialogue between these two worlds opened up, eventually blossomed into a beautiful relationship that has lasted for decades.

Published to accompany a major exhibition at Paris’ Musée des Arts Decoratifs and the Dallas Museum of Art (May-Sept. 2022), distinguished scholars of both Islam and the decorative arts delve into the Cartier archives. Photographs are accompanied by in-depth texts.

Metalwork from the Arab World and the Mediterranean

Doris Behrens-Abouseif 2021. Pp. 340+350 illus. HB. $85.00 Thames & Hudson, New York, N.Y.

The latest in the series on the treasures of “The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait,” assembled by Sheikh Nasser al-Sabah (d. 2020) as this volume was in preparation, offers a historical glimpse of Syrian, Egyptian, Iraqi and Yemeni metalwork: exquisite platters, serving vessels, candlesticks, pen boxes and beautifully decorated bronze bowls, lunch boxes, door knockers, buckets and lamps. Many important unpublished pieces are also featured.

God’s Guidance for Humans

Akhtar A. Alvi 2021. Pp. 570. HB. $42.12. PB. $33.10. Kindle. $3.99

Archway Publications, Bloomington, Ind. Alvi shares the Quran’s answers to whatever is going on in one’s life. The main topics are what people must do to earn eternal life in paradise, why they must work instead of beg, what it means to have full conviction in God, why Muslims must view themselves as part of a larger unity and the purpose of life. ih