MSI Press Blog

  One of the quiet truths of Christian Unity Week is that Christianity doesn’t stand alone. It’s part of a much older, wider family — the Abrahamic traditions — that includes Judaism and Islam. Three faiths, three histories, three ways of seeking God… and yet so much shared ground. We trace our spiritual ancestry to the same stories. We honor many of the same prophets. We wrestle with the same questions about justice, mercy, and what it means to live a life that reflects the Holy. And like any family, we’ve had our share of arguments. Sometimes the disagreements have been painful. Sometimes they’ve been about identity, power, or fear. But underneath all of that, there’s a deeper truth: we quarrel in part because we’re close. Because we recognize something of ourselves in one another. Because our stories overlap, our scriptures echo each other, and our visions of a just world often align more than we admit. Christian Unity Week invites us to remember that unity isn’t only an i...

  To honor the rare astronomical and spiritual alignment of Purim, Ramadan, and Lent coinciding today, we present our authors who have written books in each of these spiritual traditions. This remarkable convergence of sacred calendars happens only a few times per century, as each tradition follows different systems—the Jewish lunar calendar for Purim, the Islamic lunar calendar for Ramadan, and the Christian calendar (tied to the spring equinox) for Lent. When these observances overlap, they create a unique opportunity for interfaith dialogue and deeper understanding of how different faiths mark periods of reflection, sacrifice, and celebration. And then yesterday (the start of Puri) is also National Thai Elephant Day, a cultural holiday where Buddhist ceremonies are held to bless elephants and their owners. Our publishing house is proud to showcase writers who illuminate these rich traditions through their work. Steven Greenebaum writes about interfaith. Arthur Yavelberg and Am...

  Today's book back story is about The Rise and Fall of Muslim Civil Society  by Dr. Omar Imady. From the publisher: In 2005, MSI Press was a very young specialty press, established to publish materials for promoting higher levels of language learning, associated with the Coalition of Distinguished Language Center. Dr. Omar Imady, originally from Damascus, was a professor at the New York Institute of Technology in Amman, Jordan, where Dr. Betty Lou Leaver, co-founder of MSI Press LLC, was dean. He approached her with the suggestion of a modest expansion of publishing lines -- adding books on culture to those on language. The first two to be published was his book on metaphors of Islamic humanism and the book, The Rise and Fall of Muslim Civil Society.  The latter was based on his dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania and served an important, and broader, function: to shed light on the institutional roots of organizations that sanction the use of indiscriminate v...

  Excerpt from When You're Shoved from the Right Look to Your Left: Metaphors of Islamic Humanism (Omar Imady) FOR A FEW SILVER COINS Once a man heard about a place where people worshipped a tree. “These people are under a delusion. They have  replaced the glory of the transcendent God, the secret of all that is alive, with a mere tree? I must save them from this path. I must cut down this tree.” And so, the man climbed on his horse and headed toward the tree. When he got there, he picked up his ax and began to strike at it. People ran to him, yelling, “Stop! This is our most sacred tree.” But everyone who tried to push him away from the tree failed. He was simply too strong and too determined. When everyone was about to give up, an old man approached him and said, “Listen, my friend. The truth is that you have severely surprised these people. They are all very devoted to this tree, and they will be very hurt if they see it cut down today. However, if you were to wait just un...