This will be the funniest book you will ever read on the humor of Islam. Actually, it's the only book ever written on the humor of Islam. It's hot. Buy the book!
A searing portrait of Muslim life in the West, this “profound and intimate” memoir captures one man’s struggle to forge an American Muslim identity (Washington Post) Haroon Moghul was thrust into the spotlight after 9/11, becoming an undergraduate leader at New York University’s Islamic Center forced into appearances everywhere: on TV, before interfaith audiences, in print. Moghul was becoming a prominent voice for American Muslims even as he struggled with his relationship to Islam. In high school he was barely a believer and entirely convinced he was going to hell. He sometimes drank. He didn’t pray regularly. All he wanted was a girlfriend. But as he discovered, it wasn’t so easy to leave religion behind. To be true to himself, he needed to forge a unique American Muslim identity that reflected his beliefs and personality. How to Be a Muslim reveals a young man coping with the crushing pressure of a world that fears Muslims, struggling with his faith and searching for intellectual forebears, and suffering the onset of bipolar disorder. This is the story of the second-generation immigrant, of what it’s like to lose yourself between cultures and how to pick up the pieces.
Laughing Shall I Die explores the Viking fascination with scenes of heroic death. The literature of the Vikings is dominated by famous last stands, famous last words, death songs, and defiant gestures, all presented with grim humor. Much of this mindset is markedly alien to modern sentiment, and academics have accordingly shunned it. And yet, it is this same worldview that has always powered the popular public image of the Vikings—with their berserkers, valkyries, and cults of Valhalla and Ragnarok—and has also been surprisingly corroborated by archaeological discoveries such as the Ridgeway massacre site in Dorset. Was it this mindset that powered the sudden eruption of the Vikings onto the European scene? Was it a belief in heroic death that made them so lastingly successful against so many bellicose opponents? Weighing the evidence of sagas and poems against the accounts of the Vikings’ victims, Tom Shippey considers these questions as he plumbs the complexities of Viking psychology. Along the way, he recounts many of the great bravura scenes of Old Norse literature, including the Fall of the House of the Skjoldungs, the clash between the two great longships Ironbeard and Long Serpent, and the death of Thormod the skald. One of the most exciting books on Vikings for a generation, Laughing Shall I Die presents Vikings for what they were: not peaceful explorers and traders, but warriors, marauders, and storytellers.
Three experts: a physician, a psychologist, and a spiritually oriented clinical counselor intertwine their experiences and knowledge to address the "whole you". They show that there is no gap between physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of health; all aspects are interrelated and it's powerfully helpful to see this way. Blending their approaches produces a result that is greater than the sum of the parts -- like a "human quilt" -- each contributes to a healthy, satisfying life. In this book, you'll learn how your body's health affects your mental and spiritual health and how to take better care of your body. You'll find how your mind affects your physical and spiritual health and how to take care of your mind. And you'll be shown what impact your beliefs about the meaning of life -- your spirituality -- have on body and mind and how to nurture your spirituality. Discover techniques to help you manage many challenging life issues including stress, depression, aggression, addiction, chronic illness, and aging. Learn to identify how you're functioning, what you can do to improve, and how to examine, plan, and track your progress.
In the West, Islam and Muslim life have been imagined as existing in an opposing state to popular culture--a frozen faith unable to engage with the dynamic way popular culture shifts over time, its followers reduced to tropes of terrorism and enemies of the state. Pop Islam: Seeing American Muslims in Popular Media traces narratives found in contemporary American comic books, scripted and reality television, fashion magazines, comedy routines, and movies to understand how they reveal nuanced Muslim identities to American audiences, even as their accessibility obscures their diversity. Rosemary Pennington argues that even as American Muslims have become more visible in popular media and created space for themselves in everything from magazines to prime-time television to social media, this move toward "being seen" can reinforce fixed ideas of what it means to be Muslim. Pennington reveals how portrayals of Muslims in American popular media fall into a "trap of visibility," where moving beyond negative tropes can cause creators and audiences to unintentionally amplify those same stereotypes. To truly understand where American narratives of who Muslims are come from, we must engage with popular media while also considering who is allowed to be seen there--and why.
Argues that President Barack Obama is a dangerous radical who wants not only big government, but the Europeanization of the United States, and explains how citizens can roll back the liberal establishment and return to fundamental American values.
“Go back to where you came from, you terrorist!” This is just one of the many warm, lovely, and helpful tips that Wajahat Ali and other children of immigrants receive on a daily basis. Go back where, exactly? Fremont, California, where he grew up, but is now an unaffordable place to live? Or Pakistan, the country his parents left behind a half-century ago? Growing up living the suburban American dream, young Wajahat devoured comic books (devoid of brown superheroes) and fielded well-intentioned advice from uncles and aunties. (“Become a doctor!”) He had turmeric stains under his fingernails, was accident-prone, suffered from OCD, and wore Husky pants, but he was as American as his neighbors, with roots all over the world. Then, while Ali was studying at University of California, Berkeley, 9/11 happened. Muslims replaced communists as America’s enemy #1, and he became an accidental spokesman and ambassador of all ordinary, unthreatening things Muslim-y. Now a middle-aged dad, Ali has become one of the foremost and funniest public intellectuals in America. In Go Back to Where You Came From, he tackles the dangers of Islamophobia, white supremacy, and chocolate hummus, peppering personal stories with astute insights into national security, immigration, and pop culture. In this refreshingly bold, hopeful, and uproarious memoir, Ali offers indispensable lessons for cultivating a more compassionate, inclusive, and delicious America.
The Humor of Christ inspires Christians to redraw their pictures of Christ and to add a persistent biblical detail, the note of humor. Throughout the Gospels, Christ employed humor for the sake of truth and many of his teachings, when seen in this light, become brilliantly clear for the first time. Irony, satire, paradox, even laughter itself help clarify Christ's famous parables, His brief sayings, and important events in His life.
A letter, from Pope Urban, is sent to Anne Mercer, Sicari Ductus of the Templar Nuns, prophesying the second coming, but before this great event, Armageddon must occur. Anne is also told that the Lord has unleashed his Mighty Hunter to cleanse the earth in preparation. The Hunter will be born as man and will precede Christ’s return. The task is placed upon her and her Templar Nuns to find and guide the Hunter before anyone else does. She sends out her assassins to search the world for signs. She finds him and names him Mark Baal. She and her order are forced to do unspeakable acts to protect him and the rest of humanity. Saint Michael, the archangel and the Lord’s commander, has also sent his messengers to find the Hunter, but his purposes clash with the Templars. He wishes to use the Hunter in the greater battle between heaven and hell regardless of the damage it does to humanity. Anne is forced into hiding with the child, but she knows it will only be a matter of time before they are found. Saint Michael finds them on Baal’s 30th birthday and the Archangel attempts to undo Anne’s training, searching for ways to release the Hunter’s burning fire from within and begin Apocalypse. Saint Michael and the Templars are each consumed by their own agendas and fail to realize that Baal has his own vision. The nuclear rapture signals the beginning of the Apocalypse, and few understand that this is all part of the Baal divine plan. Baal is forced into a deadly strategy as he attempts to outwit the Templars and Saint Michael in the war against Lucifer. None fully understand his abilities and they soon realize that he is beyond their control. The Templars have one last hope: Lucia, a nun chosen from birth to fall in love with Baal. Will her love be enough to stay his hand from destroying the world and to free humanity from the shadow of Lucifer?
Humor in Early Islam, first published in 1956, is a pioneering study by the versatile and prolific scholar Franz Rosenthal (1914–2003), who (having published an article on mediaeval Arabic blurbs), should have written this text himself. It contains an annotated translation of an Arabic text on a figure who became the subject of many jokes and anecdotes, the greedy and obtuse Ashʿab, a singer who lived in the eighth century but whose literary and fictional life long survived him. The translation is preceded by chapters on the textual sources and on the historical and legendary personalities of Ashʿab; the book ends with a short essay on laughter. Whether or not the jokes will make a modern reader laugh, the book is a valuable source for those seriously interested in a religion or a culture that all too often but unjustly is associated, by outsiders, with an aversion to laughter.