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A young Muslim leader's memoir of his struggles to forge an American Muslim identityHaroon Moghul was first thrust into the spotlight after 9/11, as an undergraduate leader at New York University's Islamic Center. Suddenly, he was making appearances everywhere: on TV, talking to interfaith audiences, combating Islamophobia in print. He was becoming a prominent voice for American Muslims. Privately, Moghul had a complicated relationship with Islam. In high school he was barely a believer and entirely convinced he was going to hell. He sometimes drank. He didn't pray regularly. All he wanted was a girlfriend.But as Haroon discovered, it wasn't so easy to leave religion behind. To be true to himself, he needed to forge a unique American Muslim identity that reflected his own beliefs and personality. How to Be a Muslim is the story of a young man coping with the crushing pressure of a world that shuns and fears Muslims, struggling with his faith and searching for intellectual forebears, and suffering the onset of bipolar disorder. This is the story of the second-generation immigrant, of what it's like to lose yourself between cultures, and how to pick up the pieces.



About the Author

Haroon Moghul

Haroon Moghul builds Muslim-Jewish engagement at the Shalom Hartman Institute. He's written for the Washington Post, the Guardian, Time, Foreign Policy, Haaretz, and CNN. A popular public speaker and frequent television commentator, Haroon has appeared on all major media networks. He works on diversity initiatives at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, is allergic to almost everything, and still doesn't know why he left Brooklyn.Author photo: Rick Bern



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