I am happy to announce ten awards of $1,000 each to prevent Islamophobia, or anti-Muslim prejudice, discrimination, and violence, in Greater Indianapolis. Highly original projects are sought from local writers, community activists, artists, religious congregations, public school teachers, dancers, community volunteers, philosophers, amateur historians, linguists, musicians, healers, social workers, poets, non-profit groups, and others. Projects can include performance, social media, debate, dialogue, the production of … Continue reading Community Competition to Prevent Islamophobia

Originally posted on Invisible Indianapolis:
This is the second of two posts on 20th-century Muslim heritage in Indianapolis that come to us from Millennium Chair of the Liberal Arts and Professor of Religious Studies at the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, Edward E. Curtis IV. Click on Indianapolis’ Homegrown Islam: The Moorish Science Temple of America for the first post. Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad (1835-1908), the… Continue reading Indianapolis’ Ahmadi Muslims in the 1920s and 1930s

Michigan City, Indiana, was likely the site of Indiana’s first formal mosque. Muslim immigrants from the Ottoman Empire, especially from what today are the countries of Syria and Lebanon, immigrated to the state in the 1890s, if not before. But it was only in the twentieth century that Islam in Indiana began to develop as an institutionalized American religion that, like other American religions, created self-sustaining … Continue reading Indiana’s First Mosque? Syrian Shi’a Muslims in Michigan City

Originally posted on Invisible Indianapolis:
This week’s post comes to us from Millennium Chair of the Liberal Arts and Professor of Religious Studies at the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, Edward E. Curtis IV In May, 1939 the Moorish Science Temple advertised a Decoration Day (Memorial Day) dance in the Indianapolis Knights of Pythias Hall (click for an expanded view). In the 1930s… Continue reading Indianapolis’ Homegrown Islam: The Moorish Science Temple of America

Edward Curtis, author of Muslim Americans in the Military, talks Trump and Muhammad Ali . Continue reading My Interview with Dan Grossman in NUVO

WFYI’s Eric Weddle interviewed Regan Zwald and me about our kids’ D-rated public school. Listen to the interview or read a transcript here. Continue reading Regan Zwald and Edward Curtis interview on Indiana Public Radio

Originally published Dec. 18, 2016 in the Indianapolis Star: I am a college professor, so I take education very seriously. I also send my two school-aged children to a D-rated neighborhood school in Indianapolis. My school choice reflects our family’s deepest hopes for our own children and for all children. Am I doing my fourth-grader and my kindergartner a disservice? Am I just a simple-minded … Continue reading Why We Love our Kids’ D-Rated School

Continue reading Edward Curtis with Col. Nashid Salahuddin on the Dean Obeidallah Show