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The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew-- Three Women Search for Understanding |  | Authors: Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, Priscilla Warner
Publisher: Free Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
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Rating:  91 reviews
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Media: Paperback
Pages: 416
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 1615547428
Dewey Decimal Number: 201.5
EAN: 9781615547425
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Product Description
A groundbreaking book about Americans searching for faith and mutual respect, The Faith Club weaves the story of three women, their three religions, and their urgent quest to understand one another. After September 11, Ranya Idliby, an American Muslim of Palestinian descent, faced constant questions about Islam, God, and death from her children, the only Muslims in their classrooms. Inspired by a story about Muhammad, Ranya reached out to two other mothers to write an interfaith children's book that would highlight the connections between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. After just a few meetings, however, the women realized that they themselves needed an honest and open environment where they could admit -- and discuss -- their concerns, stereotypes, and misunderstandings. After hours of soul-searching about the issues that divided them, Ranya, Suzanne, and Priscilla grew close enough to discover and explore what united them. A memoir of spiritual reflections in three voices, The Faith Club has spawned interfaith discussion groups in churches, temples, mosques, and other community settings. It will make you feel as if you are eavesdropping on the authors' private thoughts, provocative discussions, and often-controversial opinions and conclusions. As the authors reveal their deepest beliefs, you watch the blossoming of a profound interfaith friendship and the birth of a new way of relating to others. And this new edition provides all the materials you need for forming your own Faith Club, including sections in Hebrew and Arabic. Pioneering, timely, deeply thoughtful, and full of hope, The Faith Club's caring message will resonate with people of all faiths.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 91
 Wonderful wonderful! November 7, 2006
Mary Reinert (Nevada, MO)
70 out of 74 found this review helpful
As a wonderful pastor once said from the pulpit, you can't deal with a forty year old's problems with a belief system that you learned when you were twelve. This book is a definite help in growing that faith; but growth is sometimes painful and what you started with may not be what you wind up with.
A first I was a bit skeptical; the book appeared to be a group of wealthy highly educated ivy league women sitting around the table discussing religion, but did I underestimate! This book is truly a profound exposure of the beliefs, prejudices, hopes, fears, and foundations of three major religions without the theologians. These women may live in expensive houses, but faith, lack of faith, or misunderstanding of faith is universal. They say the things that many of us think but are either embarrassed or too confused to express, and they say them to the very people that share a similar confusion but from a different perspective. Through that often painful exposure comes understanding, or the acceptance that some things cannot be understood. Someone in the book makes the statement that the opposite of faith isn't doubt, it is certainty. That makes a ton on sense.
It would be wonderful to follow up the reading of this book with discussions in such a faith club as the book suggests; however, I would warn that such open discussions probably cannot happen randomly or quickly. These three women spent more than a year coming to the stage that they could openly take their ideas outside of their group even to their own families and friends. Understanding your own faith much less someone else's, isn't quick; I greatly admire the perservance it took these women to "walk the walk" and then to have the courage to share it with the world. This book has provided me with enough food for thought to last a long time, not just in regard to my own Christian beliefs, but also in regard to my role as a citizen and how I would hope our nation deals with the rest of the world and with other issues what are affected by religious beliefs. Highly recommended
Thought Provoking Tour de Force October 31, 2006
C. Gombar (Saunderstown, RI)
42 out of 43 found this review helpful
This book does more than put a band-aid on the uneasy co-existence of the three Abrahamic faiths in America and over the world. The authors here confront stereotypes about their own and each others' faiths, and they don't pull any punches. The Jewish woman, Priscilla, confronts Christian Suzanne, challenging her claim that she'd never heard Jews being blamed for Christ's death. But that's nothing compared to the discussion that emerges when the Israel-Palestine situation comes up.
I strongly recommend this book for Americans who simplistically wonder "Why don't the Arabs just take care of the Palestinian problem?" The Muslim, Ranya, whose parents lost their ancestral home when Israel came into being, offers the little-heard (in this country) story of
Palestinian dispossession. She is quite clear in her condemnation of Muslim extremists, and it is wonderful to read how she has become an important figure in uniting the American Muslim community, which is overwhelmingly moderate, and represents a sort of diaspora from around the world. I learned that most Muslims in the world aren't even Arabs, many do not wear head dress, and that the faith itself is much closer to my personal beliefs (raised Catholic, married to a Jew) than I would have guessed. Ich bin ein Muslim -- who knew?
While, unlike Suzanne, I had a thorough education in the horror Christians have inflicted on Jews, I was taught next to nothing about Muslims -- just the oft-repeated story about the thousand virgins who are the reward for those who self-annhiliate in the name of Allah. Americans need to have this, and the many other negative stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims, corrected.
The authors encourage readers to begin their own faith clubs -- I'd like to see the discussions expanded to include Mormons, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. America ought to be a leader in easing the tensions between the various faiths, as we often have. In Northern Ireland the Catholics and Protestants are still fighting -- that argument and those prejudices sunk here long ago. We need to follow our own example today.
An important and moving book November 20, 2006
Ruth Rimm (Bronx, NY)
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
Socrates, who famously said, "Know thyself!" would have been humbled by the depth, passion, and penetrating insights of the spiritual journey of these three remarkable women. They emerge as passionate and deeply committed to the role of religion in public and private life - an irony some critics seem unable to appreciate. In stark contrast to the cold, atheistic world of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett, these women understand that religion is not going to disappear any time soon, and that if enough moderate voices would join together (in faith clubs and other activities) the world would be a much better place.
As Jonathan Sacks, a leading Rabbi in England, writes, "The greatest single antidote to violence is conversation, speaking our fears, listening to the fears of others, and in that sharing of vulnerabilities sharing a genesis of hope." In the Faith Club, we see such a conversation, and the genesis of hope.
Ruth Rimm, Creator, Lost Spiritual World series
I am recommending this to everyone I know. June 26, 2007
K. B. Brown (Sierra Madre, CA United States)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
As an "apikorsim" (secular) Jew who is spiritual but not religious, I was at first afraid to read this book. I am very glad I did. It addressed my conflicts on the questions of Israel and Zionism (and assured me that the conflicts are very real and understandable), showed me a form of Christianity that I worried was no longer en vogue, and re-affirmed my faith that Islam is, in fact, a religion of peace. In a world where extremists and evangelists rule the media, it is refreshing to hear honest dialouge and a willingness to bridge the chasms of misunderstanding. As to the question of whether or not these women are of "strong" faith: they have exposed their souls to the reading world in a way that few of us would dare to do. In my opinion, strength is not ritual, nor is it blind affirmation; it is, rather, the ability to walk the difficult thin line hovering over doubt daily, the ability to say with humility, "I may not be able to explain everything, but I know that somewhere, there is an explanation." This speaks to me more deeply than the hubristic conviction that one religion knows it better than any other. I salute these women and this book, and I truly hope to be able to add such a gift of peace, goodwill, and faith to the world if I can. Thank you, ladies. May your road continue to inspire, and may I one day be able to give to you as you have given to me.
Effective, important, not scholarly or theological March 9, 2007
L. F Sherman (Wiscasset, ME United States)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
This is a book that should be read, whatever your religion or your politics, because it is engaging and effective as a place to start understanding others and evaluating ones own beliefs. A Christian, a Jew, and a Muslim each have views that get filled out and better understood over years of discourse. They are not necessarily theologically or politically correct but do represent something close to major streams of opinion in each faith while clarifying the sources and basis for differences.
It is not strictly a work about comparative religion analyzing, for example, Christian Grace and Redemption versus no original sin and works for Muslims. Nor is it a history showing the development - often misdirection - of each faith over time for many followers. It is highly personal, hence engaging.
There is more about Muslim and Jewish "Fundamentalism" than Christian (the origin of the word) because the Christian grew up as Catholic and later became Episcopalian. Politics has its place as the Palestine/Israeli question is addressed. Here too, many will not agree. Maybe THAT actually makes the book more valuable.
A quotation from the Jewish "Gates of Repentance" shows all faiths are far from living up to their own standards,
"When will redemption come?
When we master the violence that fills our world.
When we look upon others as we would have them look upon us.
When we grant to every person the rights we would claim for ourselves."
A recent BBC poll listing Israel, Iran, The USA, and North Korea as the most hated and feared countries is some measure of how each has failed badly -- and why this book is worth reading.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 91
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