Submission deadline fast approaching

Dear Readers and Writers:

The submission period for the Islam on My Side anthology is coming to a close on August 1st. I’ve heard from many of you who are planning to submit an essay, and I hope to hear from many more. Click here for submission guidelines. Please tune into this blog regularly for updates on the anthology development and for reflections on current and past events related to 9/11 affecting Muslims in the U.S.

In the meantime, if you would like to contribute any Fiction, Poetry or Nonfiction to this blog, send inquiries to submissions@islamonmyside.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Best,

Shawna

Digging into the past

It’s not an easy thing, what I’m asking people to write about. The events surrounding 9/11, and, more specifically, how they affected us personally, aren’t events we often like to dwell on , though our country’s current external and internal endeavors are founded on 9/11. We entered war in Iraq under the guise of battling al Qaeda, of defeating ties Saddam supposedly had with the al Qaeda network and saving humans around the world from oppression and cruelty executed in the name of Islam. If 9/11 hadn’t been a convenient reason for war in Iraq, I’m sure our policy-makers would have concocted another, but there it was, a terrifying event that struck fear into the patriotic hearts of Americans; a fear that could and has been easily exploited for the last several years. A fear whose name is Islamophobia.

While statements and overtures were made to separate the majority of Muslims from al Qaeda’s brand of Islam, more action was taken to show that Islam = bad while Christianity and America = good. Commercials, biased news coverage, arrests, etc. were made to illustrate these points. Non-Muslims died for looking like Muslims. Muslims died for looking like Muslims. Many of the rest of us have changed the way we live in both large and small ways. And our current presidential election is only serving to demonstrate how heavily administrators have come to depend on the fear of Islam. It’s being used now as an attempt to defeat Obama. But the U.S. is entering a new era, and these scare tactics aren’t working.

Since 9/11, Islam has become something the layman can educate himself on. While many sources of “Islamic knowledge” are bogus (some websites come to mind), there are Muslims living in the U.S. day to day. We are the neighbors of those who were eager to hate us until they realized we’d been their friends for years. We are the brothers and sisters of those who still hate us, or those who never did because they were able to recognize the difference between a terrorist and your average Joe. Many a Muslim is an average Joe. Some are not.

What I’m asking you is, who and what are you? Think about who you were before 9/11. Think of who you are now. And try to discover what brought you to this place you’re in.

My hope is this brief post will offer you some insights into yourselves as you struggle to get your stories down. As time passes, I will be posting some guest blogs (contact me if you have something to say submissions@islamonmyside.com) as well as snippets of 9/11 history, like this video, to help you locate your own story. Please feel free to use this blog as an open forum for discussion. Happy writing!

Submissions Expansion and Deadline

Two announcements:

Islam on My Side will be an anthology of post 9/11 experience for Muslims in America as opposed to Muslim Americans.

The submission deadline for Islam on My Side will be August 1, 2008.

Please click here for submission details, and please spread the word!