The American Muslim Teenager’s Handbook
Everything you always wanted to know about Islam — but didn’t know to ask!
What does it mean to be Muslim in America? Ask ten different people and you’ll probably receive ten different answers. Islam is as dynamic as it is misunderstood, and has been in a state of constant change and development for almost fourteen hundred years. So how can you reconcile being a teenager in America with being a Muslim? It’s not as difficult as you might think!
Written by teens for teens, The American Muslim Teenager’s Handbook covers everything from basic Islamic history and reading the Quran to addressing the issues of drinking and dating, and also includes thoughts and opinions from Muslim teenagers across the country. Positive, informative, and honest, here is the indispensable primer — for Muslims and non-Muslims alike — for learning about and finding a place in Islamic American culture today.
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One of the great things about this book is that, although it targets the American Muslim teenage audience, it is enlightening and informative for anyone. As a teacher, mother and Episcopalian, I found this book informative on so many levels. It educated me on quite a few details of Islamic trditions and history that I’m embarrassed to admit I never understood. It also approaches conformity to the religion with an open, accepting and forgiving tone that is bound to appeal to any Muslim teenager trying to figure out how to harmonize his/her faith with the demands of American teenage culture. This open-eyed, practical and modern analysis is filled with realistic and funny wit, providing an easy way for anyone out there to understand moreabout a religion that, in this post 9/11 world, has been so stereopyped and feared. To borrow a descriptive used by the authors themselves, it is “deliciously different!”
Rating: 5 / 5
In my opinion this handbook is an even a more important read for the non-Muslim teenager as it will finally give some answers, guidance and clarity to the mysteries and misconceptions Christian and Jewish American teenagers often have about this religion. It is a book any teenager will reach for in the bookstore: because it has been written by teenagers, has an attractive paper back cover, carries clear concise and often witty language, with a colorful layout, fun pictures and quizzes, and it is not too long… something teenagers will appreciate in their often to-fit-it-all-in lives!! I hope this book will become available in every library and at every middle and high school in the USA. As a non American but living in USA, I also urge the writers to eventually edit this book in order to make it suitable for a world wide teenage audience… there will certainly be a need for it.
Rating: 4 / 5