From Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (Wisconsin)
Milwaukee Public Library, UW-Milwaukee plan events to improve understanding of Islam
So, here are a few things you might not know about Islam:
It has a long history in the Americas, arriving with slaves from West Africa as early as the 1600s. One of the bestselling poets in America over the last decadeis the 13th century Muslim mystic Jalaluddin Rumi.
And remember the blues? That quintessentially American musical art form? Some scholars believe it may have evolved in part from those West African Muslims’ religious practices.
Those are just some of the revelations to emerge from a collection of books and other materials now available at hundreds of libraries across the country, under a program financed by the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“The Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys” — a collection of 25 books and other materials — is in more than two dozen libraries across Wisconsin, including several in the Milwaukee area. But two local libraries, Milwaukee Public Library’s downtown branch and the Golda Meir Library at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, are taking readers further, with an exhibit and programs exploring Islam in the arts and the American Muslim experience.
“The purpose is to raise awareness of Islam in the United States and to dispel the myths that this is a foreign religion or a new phenomenon,” said Ahmed Kraima, multicultural librarian at UWM.
“People are surprised to learn that there were Muslims here in the 1950s and ’60s,” he said. “But Islam has been part of American life for more than 300 years.”
