Excerpt from When You're Shoved from the Right, Look to Your Left: Metaphors of Islamic Humanism (Imady): From "Bashir Al-Bani, Orator of the Grand Mosque of Damascus"

 


Bashir Al-Bani, Orator of the Grand Mosque of Damascus

... Al-Bani’s delicate sensibility often surprised me. This quality could be seen not only in the way in which he seemed to be always worried about people who were suffering but also in his concern for animals, cats in particular. For over seven years, I worked as a Program Officer at the Syrian Office of the United Nations Development Program. In this capacity, I was responsible for a number of development projects supported by UNDP in Syria. 

One day I was asked by Al-Bani about the feasibility of initiating a domestic waste recycling program in Damascus. I said I would investigate it but that environment was not one of the areas that I supervised. Little did I know that Al-Bani’s request was destined to be repeated with ever increasing momentum until the question, “What have you done about recycling?” became one that was automatically asked upon my arrival at his home. 

 “Why?” I finally asked, “are you so concerned about recycling?” 

“The cats, of course.” 

 “The cats???” 

 Al-Bani proceeded to explain to me that he had seen cats eating from the large garbage containers (which are placed at every major street corner in Damascus), and it occurred to him that something must be done to protect them from the pieces of glass that are thrown within the same container. In short, all this was to ensure that cats had a glass-free lunch! 

Years later separate containers for plastic, glass, and paper were, indeed, placed at road corners in Damascus, but, sadly, it was not because of anything I had succeeded in achieving. ...

For more posts about Dr. Omar Imady and his books, click HERE.

If you want to help cats -- and can -- follow the Twitter account of Peter Askin. He posts about cats in need of help every day.


When You're Shoved from the Right, Look to Your Left: Metaphors of Islamic Humanism
recently won the 2020 Legacy Award for Religion
in the Kops-Fetherling International Books Award competition. 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Memoriam: Carl Don Leaver

Image
  1948-2021 It is with great sadness that MSI Press notes the death of Carl Leaver, CEO of the Press and typesetter and graphic designer par excellence . Many authors have expressed not only condolences but also a sense of legacy from covers he designed that they love.  Here is his obituary: On August 16, 2021, Carl Don Leaver of San Juan Bautista passed into eternal rest. A forester with the US Forest Service in Idaho and Montana, he turned to nature photography while working in the Bitterroot National Forest. His photographs graced national magazine covers and on a weekly basis the local paper of Hamilton, MT, the Ravalli Republican. He later worked on photography projects for the US Army (AFEES) and taught photography at the New York Institute of Technology in Amman, Jordan. His final career change led him to computer graphics and publishing as co-owner of MSI Press LLC; his many typeset books and book covers have helped MSI Press authors win a large number of awards over t...
Read more

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Book Marketing vs Book Promotion

Image
It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.  Today's post looks at the difference between book marketing and book promotion, two terms that are frequently confused. Leading to the confusion is that some of the same activities are needed for both. In fact, good marketing is dependent upon good promotion. Perhaps the essential difference is that marketing focuses on sales, and promotion focuses on awareness --  noting that without awareness, sales generally do not happen. Book Marketing Book marketing includes promotion, sales, and increasing awareness of the availability of the book. It generally starts with a marketing plan that identifies the target audiences and selects marketing ...
Read more