Articles

• Heaven’s Gate: How Muslim Women Open or Close Doors for Their Sisters

  November 11, 2006

  For Portraits of Women in Islam: Comparative Perspectives and Challenges Conference at St. Xavier University, Chicago November 11 – 12, 2006 The issues I raise today might seem to some rather simple and obvious. I am not going to be … Continue reading →

• Discovering (not Uncovering) the Spirituality of Muslim Women

  June 28, 2005

  It was almost midnight when I parked my car in front of the low plain building. Clearly there were no meaningful zoning regulations in this neighborhood where an Islamic elementary school backed onto the yard of an auto body shop. … Continue reading →

• Can a Woman be an Imam? Debating Form and Function in Muslim Women’s Leadership

  June 20, 2005

  [This is an earlier version of an article to published in: Sisters: Women, Religion and Leadership in Christianity and Islam, ed. Scott Alexander (Sheed and Ward, forthcoming).] Ingrid Mattson One day We shall call all people according to their Imams. … Continue reading →

• The Axis of Good: Muslims Building Alliances with Other Communities of Faith

  March 1, 2005

  The St. Lawrence River is 1,900 miles long. Its wide mouth empties its flow into the Atlantic Ocean where buoyant whales and majestic icebergs drift throughout the summer months. The river begins more modestly where the northern and southern shores … Continue reading →

• Bismillah: Eating in the name of God

  September 10, 2004

  An article written for “O Taste and See: a Day of Intention on Food and Religious Values,” a conference held September 10, 2004 co-sponsored by Faith in Place and the Center for Justice Ministries and the Office of Biblical Studies … Continue reading →

• Finding the Prophet in his People

  December 18, 2002

  I spent a lot of time looking at art the year before I became a Muslim. Completing a degree in Philosophy and Fine Arts, I sat for hours in darkened classrooms where my professors projected pictures of great works of … Continue reading →

• Dignity and Patient Care: An Islamic Perspective

  July 17, 2002

  There is a great diversity of culture among the approximately 6 million Muslims who live in the United States.  The cultural traditions of African-Americans, South Asians, Arabs, Turks, Eastern Europeans and others might influence the way in which any particular … Continue reading →

• American Muslims Have a ‘Special Obligation’

  October 11, 2001

  The terrorist attack on Sept. 11th exacerbated a double-bind American Muslims have been feeling for some time. So often, it seems, we have to apologize for reprehensible actions committed by Muslims in the name of Islam. We tell other Americans, … Continue reading →