Congratulations to Shura Council member Sumbul Ali-Karamali, whose book The Muslim Next Door: The Qu’ran, The Media, and That Veil Thing has been select for inclusion in Silicon Valley Reads 2012.  This year,  Silicon Valley Reads will focus on the timely and important theme “Muslim and American: Two Perspectives” and will host over one hundred events between January and April 2012.  Click here for a full list of Silicon Reads 2012 events and programs.

The Muslim Next Door offers easy-to-understand yet academically sound answers to questions about Islam and Muslims, while also dispelling commonly held misconceptions. Written from the point of view of an American Muslim, the book addresses what readers in the Western world are most curious about, beginning with the basics of Islam and how Muslims practice their religion before easing into more complicated issues like jihad, Islamic fundamentalism, and the status of women in Islam.  Read more about The Muslim Next Door here.

A recent article in the Washington Post highlighted the work of the Muslim Women’s Shura Council to aid Muslim orphans - and Muslim families wishing to adopt - by examining and reevaluating Islamic laws concerning adoption.

Read the full article here.

Read the Shura Council’s Adoption Digest here.

WISE Conference 2011 participant Shahnaz Taplin Chinoy recently shared her thoughts on the conference, calling the event “timely and stimulating.”  She says, “we immersed ourselves in understanding the state, status and potential of Muslim women as change agents in their local communities around the world.”  Read her full review of the WISE conference, here.

Salma Maoulidi offers a thoughtful discussion on the different issues effecting Muslim women undertaken at the 2011 WISE Conference.  Read the full article here.