With all the stories on the Internet it can be difficult to always stay in the know. To help, we’ve searched the web for interesting pieces of news, videos and tips to help you start off your week on the right foot.
1. Jews, Muslims come together to brighten Detroit school
Jews and Muslims sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Michigan Muslim Community Council come together to brighten Nolan Elementary-Middle School in Detroit, Sunday, September 18, 2016.
Photo/Education Achievement Authority
Creating a colorful mural is just one of the latest in a series of events within the past seven years aimed at bringing Muslim and Jewish youth together with the help of community-based work. In Detroit both communities have been working side-by-side to break down stereotypes and barriers.
The creation of the mural was sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Michigan Muslim Community Council. it began as a follow-up to “Mitzvah Day” a day in which almost 1,000 volunteers from both Detroit’s Jewish and Muslim communities helped Detroit social service angelicas at 43 community sites on Christmas.
“We heard there was a school in need of brightening up,” Ellie Slovis, who is Jewish, told the Detroit Free Press. She said principal Ricky Fountain “got me very excited about being a part of it and making us feel that what we were doing was really important to the kids and their attitude coming to school, and to their self image of seeing bright walls and pretty pictures. We’re also using this as a way to bring the Jewish community and Muslim community together.”
According to the Detroit Free Press, more than 150 volunteers met for the interfaith Nolan Makeover Fix-Up Day effort. Volunteers painted murals throughout the hallways, prepared classrooms and transformed and reorganized the school’s library.
[tweetthis]Young Jews and Muslims come together to brighten a Detroit school.[/tweetthis]
2. Khalil — A Pakistani Superman
Photo/Islam And Science Fiction
Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad, editor for Islam and Science Fiction, writes about the world’s newest superman — Khalil. He writes that the comic’s creator and British Pakistani artist, Kumail Rizvi, has reimagined Superman as Pakistani. “Imagine if instead of landing in a farm in Kansas Superman’s pod had landed near Karachi in Pakistan,” he writes.
Ahmad goes on to explain that the comic, in addition to discussing the fight against society’s social ills, Khalil also saves innocent chilblains from being accidentally killed by American drones.
The comic is available online for readers here.
[tweetthis]British Pakistani artist Kumail Rizvi breathes new life into the story of Superman with his comic Khalil.[/tweetthis]
3. Meet The Muslim Blogger Who’s Proving Modesty Can Be Fashionable
Josh Ritchie/BuzzFeed News
YouTube Star Yasemin Kanar, known other fans as YazTheSpaz, starts almost every one of her videos the same way, “Salam Alaikum, everyone!” With 68,000 subscribers, Kanar’s tutorials are step-by-step guides to different ways of wrapping the hijab, planning, primping and everything else what comes with choosing the perfect outfit.
“I want to show young Muslim women in the US that it’s possible to be American and wear a hijab and to be stylish all at once,” Kanar said.
BuzzFeed News contributor Zaina Arafat, spent time visiting and talking with Kanar in her home in Jupiter, Flordia to better understand her outside of her YouTube personality.
4. Sandhills Community College classes on Islam spark wide interest
Sandy Perry/Sandhills Community College
During the summer in Pinehurst, N.C. a group of roughly 40, mostly retired, students took it upon themselves to learn more about something many Americans seem to be confused about — Islam.
Over the next few months at Sandhills Community College the group will learn about Islam as a faith, Islamic history, the Quran, Muslim culture and radical groups that connect themselves to Islam, such as ISIS and al-Qaida.
Jason Howk, a retired foreign area officer, is the groups teacher and he says the group is one of the most inquisitive he’s ever come across.
“They’re a hungry group,” he told the FayObserver. “They want to know what the heck is going on.”
5. People Are Obsessed With Islamic Art And The Patterns Are Flawless
Photo/BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed News reporter, Aisha Gani talks with Samira Mian the brains behind the Islamic design class in Ealing, west London.
“We don’t do many things with our hands any more – with accuracy and grafting – yet this is something really enjoyable and therapeutic,” Mian told BuzzFeed News. “I love it … Even when I was drawing this yesterday I was like, it matches up so beautifully, there’s so much beauty within it.”
Man, a former math teacher who taught for 12 years, fell in love with Islamic geometry during a year off to study Arabic in Morocco. Her class is filled with locals who are completely new to the art form saying, “Why not give it a go?”
[tweetthis]altM’s weekly roundup of news[/tweetthis]
This list was curated by Kaitlin Montgomery, altM News Editor
