Muslims of the Heartland: How Syrian Immigrants Made a Home in the American Midwest.

10 Mar 2022

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Announced by the University of Pittsburgh

Speaker: Edwart E. Curtis IV, Gail M. Plater
Description: The American Midwest is often thought of as uniformly white, and shaped exclusively by Christian values. However, this view of the region as an unvarying landscape fails to consider a significant community at its very heart. Muslims of the Heartland uncovers the long history of Muslims in a part of the country where many readers would not expect to find them. Edward E. Curtis IV, a descendant of Syrian Midwesterners, vividly portrays the intrepid men and women who busted sod on the short-grass prairies of the Dakotas, peddled needles and lace on the streets of Cedar Rapids, and worked in the railroad car factories of Michigan City. Muslims of the Heartland recreates what the Syrian Muslim Midwest looked, sounded, felt, and smelled like—from the allspice-seasoned lamb and rice shared in mosque basements to the sound of the trains on the Rock Island Line rolling past the dry goods store. It recovers a multicultural history of the American Midwest that cannot be ignored

Register here: https://events.iu.edu/islamic/event/460769

Event Date: 
Thursday, March 10, 2022 - 2:00pm to 3:30pm
Institution(s): 
Sponsored By: 
Indiana University’s Islamic Studies Program
Location: 
online