The crisis besetting America is not just an economic or political crisis; something deeper is wreaking havoc across the land, a mercenary and utilitarian attitude that demonstrates little empathy for people’s actual well-being, that dismisses imagination and thought, branding passion for knowledge as irrelevant.

It takes courage to die for a cause, but also to live for one.

When I walked down the streets, I asked myself, are these my people?, is this my hometown, am I who I am?

My passion has always been books and literature, and teaching.

I think Islam is in a sense, in crisis. It needs to question and re-question itself.

We do not read in order to turn great works of fiction into simplistic replicas of our own realities, we read for the pure, sensual, and unadulterated pleasure of reading. And if we do so, our reward is the discovery of the many hidden layers within these works that do not merely reflect reality but reveal a spectrum of truths, thus intrinsically going against the grain of totalitarian mindsets.

Once we know of atrocities we cannot remain silent, and knowledge inevitably leads to an urge to protect the innocent.