Another factor that motivated me to write The Victory Boys was my belief that there was a severe shortage of books for young Muslims of the kind that can bridge the two worlds in which many find themselves.
Clearly and by definition, knowledge of God is fundamental for the Muslim; yet in turning to literature for both knowledge and entertainment, he or she finds that the overwhelming majority of books available have little remembrance of God, and is presented thus with a broad dichotomy of two worlds: the spiritual (but disproportionately young-child-centred) book world of “A is for Allah”; and the ‘dunya’ tales that may – and often do – tick all the boxes of good story-telling, but generally relegate God to an irrelevance or an irrationality.
All of this said, I was surprised and delighted to discover lately that there is quite a bit more fiction available to the Muslim (pre-)teenager than I had known. A couple of sites that I stumbled across which are definitely worth a look are Ummah Reads and Muslim Teen Reads.
- Ummah Reads
- Muslim Teen Reads
And, since our young readers of today are most likely to be our writers of tomorrow, the Islamic Writers Alliance(who offer book grants to Muslim schools and stage regular writers competitions) are also deserving of support. (I should add that I am a member but that the IWA is a not-for-profit organisation, lest anyone suspect I have a vested interest in plugging them!)
- Be a Muslim Champion through the Islamic Writers Alliance
Jamal
Follow @imammunieb
The Victory Boys 