Reading challenge offers invite to learn about Muslim faith, culture

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This article was published 02/12/2021 (1760 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitobans seeking to learn more about Islam and their Muslim neighbours are invited to do so through the province’s first winter reading challenge.

The event, which launches Friday, is sponsored by the Manitoba Islamic Association. It is designed to help children, youth and adults learn more about the faith, culture and practices of Muslims in Manitoba.

“We want to invite people to learn more about Muslim traditions they may encounter but not understand,” said Tasneem Vali, first vice-chair of the MIA. “Books are a great way to introduce people the various aspects of Muslim faith and culture.”

The idea for the reading challenge emerged following a deadly attack on a Muslim family in London, Ont., in June.

That incident, in which a pickup truck struck five members of one family, killing four, “shook the community,” Vali said.

(Nathaniel Veltman, 20, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, and one count of attempted murder.)

A survey of local Muslims after the high-profile incident found many in Manitoba thought their non-Muslim neighbours were unfamiliar with their faith.

To help people learn more about the “wide spectrum” of Muslim practices and customs, community members suggested inviting Manitobans to read books about their faith.

“We wanted to select and recommend good books that showed Muslims from different walks of life,” said Vali, adding: “The internet is not always a good source of information about Islam.”

For children, one book on the list is Your Name is a Song, by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow. It’s about a Muslim girl who is frustrated when her teachers and classmates continually mispronounce her name.

In the book, the girl’s mother teaches her about the meaning and musicality of her name, which she then shares with the class.

Another book is The Proudest Blue: A Story of a Hijab and a Family by S.K. Ali, about a girl named Faizah who experiences hurt when classmates make fun of her head covering until she learns to be strong and proud of her heritage and religion.

For youth, there is Zara Hossain is Here by Sabina Khan, the story of a Muslim teen in the United States who experiences Islamophobia that threatens her family’s efforts to gain citizenship in that country. There is also Saints and Misfits, also by S.K. Ali, a novel that explores what happens when someone considered a “saint” in a Muslim community commits a sexual assault and the victim keeps quiet for fear of provoking Islamophobia.

For older readers there is The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future by Fawzia Koofi, the story of that country’s first female speaker of parliament, and the Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley, the story of the leader of the Black Muslim movement in the U.S.

After reading the books, people are invited to submit a drawing, summary or review to the MIA; submitters will be chosen at random to win a gift card to McNally Robinson Booksellers.

“Our kids are growing up in a multicultural society,” said Vali. “Books are a way to introduce them, and all of us, to different cultures and ideas. By learning more about each other, we can grow together.”

The winter reading challenge ends Jan. 31. For more information, visit http://wfp.to/1tU.

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