A colorful, fun-to-read introduction that explains the ways and whys of Muslim worship, faith, and religious life. What You Will See Inside a Mosque will: Satisfy kids’ curiosity about what goes on in mosques attended by their friends, broadening awareness of other faiths at an important age when opinions and prejudices can first form. Provide Muslim children with a deeper understanding of the practices of their own religious tradition. Give children the opportunity to ask questions, making them more active participants. Colorful full-page photographs set the scene for concise but informative descriptions of what is happening, the objects used, the clergy and laypeople who have specific roles, the spiritual intent of the believers, and more.

Don’t miss out on this beautiful celebration of Islam and mosques as spaces for spiritual gathering! Step in and discover all the rituals and wonder of the mosque in this lyrical debut picture book from M. O Yuksel, with gorgeous artwork from New York Times bestselling illustrator Hatem Aly. A great conversation starter in the home or classroom, this book is perfect for fans of All Are Welcome and The Proudest Blue. No matter who you are or where you’re from, everyone is welcome here. From grandmothers reading lines of the Qur’an and the imam telling stories of living as one, to meeting new friends and learning to help others, mosques are centers for friendship, community, and love. M. O. Yuksel’s beautiful text celebrates the joys and traditions found in every mosque around the world and is brought to life with stunning artwork by New York Times bestselling illustrator Hatem Aly (Yasmin series, The Proudest Blue, The Inquisitor’s Tale). The book also includes backmatter with an author’s note, a glossary, and more information about many historical and significant mosques around the world. "This personable, sensory love letter to a range of children’s mosque experiences will engage new learners and resonate with those already familiar." —Publishers Weekly (starred review) "This marvelous, welcoming book on mosques, Muslims, and Islam is a must, offering foundational knowledge on the world’s second largest religion." —School Library Journal (starred review) "Young readers are welcomed to a mosque brimming with faithful family, friends, and community. Both text and art convey some tenets of Islam and emphasize the mosque's role as a place for faith and celebration." —Horn Book "Joyful characters describe what happens in simple, poetic language. Both a celebration of and an introduction to the mosque." —Kirkus "Joyful celebration of mosques around the world. Themes of family and friendship prevail, along with references to spirituality." —Providence Journal A School Library Journal Best Book of 2021 · A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2021 · An ALA 2022 Notable Children’s Book · A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection · Society of Illustrators Original Art Show Selection · A New York Public Library 2021 Summer Recommendation Reading List Pick · A 2021 Nerdy Book Club Award Winner for Best Nonfiction Picture Book · A 2022 Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List title · An Ontario Library Association Best Bets Top Ten List · A Wisconsin State Reading Association 2022 Picture This Recommendation · A CCBC 2022 Best Choice of the Year · Winner of the 2021 Undies Award for Fanciest Case Cover · A 2022 Notable Book for a Global Society · Also Featured on: USA Today, PBS.org, Bookriot, Chicago Parents, The Horn Book!

In the wake of the news that the 9/11 hijackers had lived in Europe, journalist Ian Johnson wondered how such a radical group could sink roots into Western soil. Most accounts reached back twenty years, to U.S. support of Islamist fighters in Afghanistan. But Johnson dug deeper, to the start of the Cold War, uncovering the untold story of a group of ex-Soviet Muslims who had defected to Germany during World War II. There, they had been fashioned into a well-oiled anti-Soviet propaganda machine. As that war ended and the Cold War began, West German and U.S. intelligence agents vied for control of this influential group, and at the center of the covert tug of war was a quiet mosque in Munich—radical Islam’s first beachhead in the West. Culled from an array of sources, including newly declassified documents, A Mosque in Munich interweaves the stories of several key players: a Nazi scholar turned postwar spymaster; key Muslim leaders across the globe, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood; and naïve CIA men eager to fight communism with a new weapon, Islam. A rare ground-level look at Cold War spying and a revelatory account of the West’s first, disastrous encounter with radical Islam, A Mosque in Munich is as captivating as it is crucial to our understanding the mistakes we are still making in our relationship with Islamists today

While all mosques stem from a common tradition of reverence, differing sects, regions and practices have led to many innovations and novel architectural forms. Mosques is the latest addition to the “Ultimate collection,” and is a journey though centuries and continents that brings readers to the threshold of 100 of the world’s most historically significant buildings that are home to worshippers of the fastest growing, and second largest, religion in the world.

An intimate cross-country look at the new debate over religion in the public schools A suburban Boston school unwittingly started a firestorm of controversy over a sixth-grade field trip. The class was visiting a mosque to learn about world religions when a handful of boys, unnoticed by their teachers, joined the line of worshippers and acted out the motions of the Muslim call to prayer. A video of the prayer went viral with the title “Wellesley, Massachusetts Public School Students Learn to Pray to Allah.” Charges flew that the school exposed the children to Muslims who intended to convert American schoolchildren. Wellesley school officials defended the course, but also acknowledged the delicate dance teachers must perform when dealing with religion in the classroom. Courts long ago banned public school teachers from preaching of any kind. But the question remains: How much should schools teach about the world’s religions? Answering that question in recent decades has pitted schools against their communities. Veteran education journalist Linda K. Wertheimer spent months with that class, and traveled to other communities around the nation, listening to voices on all sides of the controversy, including those of clergy, teachers, children, and parents who are Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Sikh, or atheist. In Lumberton, Texas, nearly a hundred people filled a school-board meeting to protest a teacher’s dress-up exercise that allowed freshman girls to try on a burka as part of a lesson on Islam. In Wichita, Kansas, a Messianic Jewish family’s opposition to a bulletin-board display about Islam in an elementary school led to such upheaval that the school had to hire extra security. Across the country, parents have requested that their children be excused from lessons on Hinduism and Judaism out of fear they will shy away from their own faiths. But in Modesto, a city in the heart of California’s Bible Belt, teachers have avoided problems since 2000, when the school system began requiring all high school freshmen to take a world religions course. Students receive comprehensive lessons on the three major world religions, as well as on Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and often Shintoism, Taoism, and Confucianism. One Pentecostal Christian girl, terrified by “idols,” including a six-inch gold Buddha, learned to be comfortable with other students’ beliefs. Wertheimer’s fascinating investigation, which includes a return to her rural Ohio school, which once ran weekly Christian Bible classes, reveals a public education system struggling to find the right path forward and offers a promising roadmap for raising a new generation of religiously literate Americans.

In this detailed and well-documented look at a religion most are not that familiar with, the authors provide a challenging work for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. (Christian)

Juxtaposing Muslim scholars' debates over women's attendance in mosques with historical descriptions of women's activities within Middle Eastern and North African mosques, Marion Holmes Katz shows how over the centuries legal scholars' arguments have often reacted to rather than dictated Muslim women's behavior. Tracing Sunni legal positions on women in mosques from the second century of the Islamic calendar to the modern period, Katz connects shifts in scholarly terminology and argumentation to changing constructions of gender. Over time, assumptions about women's changing behavior through the lifecycle gave way to a global preoccupation with sexual temptation, which then became the central rationale for limits on women's mosque access. At the same time, travel narratives, biographical dictionaries, and religious polemics suggest that women's usage of mosque space often diverged in both timing and content from the ritual models constructed by scholars. Katz demonstrates both the concrete social and political implications of Islamic legal discourse and the autonomy of women's mosque-based activities. She also examines women's mosque access as a trope in Western travelers' narratives and the evolving significance of women's mosque attendance among different Islamic currents in the twentieth century.