It was a busy and fun Arab American Heritage Month for me. I tweeted @EdwardECurtisIV every day of the month about Arab Americans in Indianapolis and other parts of the state. Among the highlights were two original maps charting the growth of Syrian-owned grocery stores from 1915 to 1940 designed by Jeffrey Wilson, professor of geography and Associate Dean for Research at the IU School … Continue reading Arab American Heritage Month 2021
After a decade of work to create a viable journal devoted to the study of religion in Africa and the African diaspora, I told my board last week that I was ready to step down. It is a good time for me to do so since the journal is in an incredibly strong position. In addition to co-founder Sylvester Johnson, its editorial team now includes … Continue reading Concluding My Service to the Journal of Africana Religions
It was so much fun to work with Vinnie Manganello, chromapros.com, on the trailer for ArabIndianapolis.Com, my community history project on the contributions of Arab Americans to Greater Indianapolis. IUPUI Honors student Mickey Yoder and Prof. Paul Mullins provided invaluable assistance on the historical content for the piece. We shot the stand-ups on a Sunday morning and then finished the voice-overs later. I found the … Continue reading First Mini-Documentary for Arab Indianapolis is Released
Joy supreme has reigned in the Syrian colony on Willard Street since 3 o’clock on Wednesday morning when David Freije hugged to his breast for the first time in eight years his wife Martha and their seven year old daughter Salomey, whom he had never seen before. Indianapolis Morning Star (1905) It took all of grocer David Freije’s hard-earned $400 in savings, the equivalent of … Continue reading Indianapolis’ Syrian Colony, Buried under Lucas Oil Stadium
Originally published in Mondoweiss, January 14, 2020: The “usual suspects” are already being rounded up. U.S. citizens with Iranian names and backgrounds are being selected for special screening at the border. City police departments in New York and Los Angeles have vowed to be on alert for Iranian terrorists. It’s been the same story for decades. Nearly anytime the United States has a military conflict … Continue reading How Anti-Muslim War Makes U.S. Democracy Impossible
Today I received my very first copy of Muslim American Politics and the Future of US Democracy. It is always a thrill to receive the actual book. This book is the culmination of my thinking since 9/11 about the central importance of Muslim Americans to the political future of the United States. I admit that the book is a jeremiad, a lament about the country’s … Continue reading “Muslim American Politics” Is Published!
Indianapolis, IN — Three-dimensional images of a Fruit of Islam uniform and Muslim Girls Training headwear from the 1970s are just a few of the 1,344 unique items in the Indianapolis Imam Warith Deen Muhammad Community digital archive now available to anyone with an internet connection. Fruit of Islam Jacket by IUPUI Center for Digital Scholarship on Sketchfab Curated by the IUPUI Center for Digital … Continue reading Indianapolis Imam Warith Deen Muhammad Community Digital Archive Is Published
In this article, published in the June 2019 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Sylvester Johnson and I call forth a vision for the future study of African American religions in the United States by examining how transnational contact and diasporic consciousness have affected the past practice and are likely to affect the future practice of Christianity, Islam, and African-derived, Orisha-based … Continue reading The Transnational and Diasporic Future of African American Religions in the United States
Originally published in ReWire/Religion Dispatches, March 20, 2019: In addition to anti-Black racism and anti-Semitism, one of the pillars of the contemporary global white terrorism movement is anti-Muslim hatred. That hatred is founded on a kind of forgetting, an historical erasure. This forgetting can be seen in the ideologies of Anders Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist who murdered 77 people in 2011, and Brent Tarrant, the … Continue reading The Forgotten History Behind Anti-Muslim Terrorism
The IUPUI Religious Studies Department hosted the culminating event of the Community Competition to Prevent Islamophobia today. The presentations are summarized in this PowerPoint. Participants included Amy Guess and Kate Grabowski of Candles Holocaust Museum, Sajjad Jawad of Catholic Charities, Amina Dalal of the Islamic Society of North America’s youth community, Umaymah Mohammad and Ahmed Abbas of the Muslim Youth Collective, and Kristopher Steege and … Continue reading Community Celebrates Efforts to End Anti-Muslim Discrimination
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