Twenty-five-year-old Asma Hasan describes herself as a Muslim feminist cowgirl (she was raised in Puebo, Colorado). Convinced that Muslim Americans are the victims of mistaken identity Hasan breaks through the stereotypes and generalizations to talk about the religion and the believers she knows from the inside.While the book provides a lot of basic information about Islam in America, the major emphasis is on the sheer normalcy of American Muslims. Like other Americans, they are very keen on family values, religious freedom, and the opportunities the U. S. has always afforded new immigrants.Moreover, says Hasan, American Islam, as it grows and evolves, will offer a model to Islam in the rest of the world: a purer Islam, one more conscious of the difference between the essence of Islam and its accomodations to various cultures over time.
Asma Gull Hasan is the author of American Muslims: The New Generation. She calls herself a Muslim Feminist Cowgirl, a title that reflects her upbringing and, more specifically, her Colorado home. Born in Chicago, the daughter of Pakistani immigrants, she considers herself an all-American girl. Asma graduated from the preeminent Groton School magna cum laude in 1993 and then from Wellesley College, magna cum laude and a Durant Scholar, in 1997. Asma is a columnist for the US-based Pakistan Link newspaper and is a regular guest on the Fox News cable show "Hannity and Colmes" and the nationally syndicated talk radio show, "The Bev Smith Show." She has also been featured in the following media: CNN, "Politically Incorrect," The New York Times, "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" on National Public Radio, "Morning Edition" and "Weekend Edition" also on National Public Radio, KTLA, Ladies Home Journal, and the Voice of America radio network among many others. Her short stories have been featured in the youth literary magazine Merlyn's Pen and The Susquehanna Review, as well as in the book Taking Off: Coming of Age Stories. She has won several speaking awards and graduated from New York University School of Law in May 2001, where she was a staff editor on The Review of Law and Social Change. She has accepted an offer with the world's largest law firm, Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells to work in international corporate law beginning September 2002. Her language abilities include fluency in Spanish and Urdu. Her hobbies include collecting Ozma of OZ books and Barbie dolls and, until a recent knee injury, skiing and snowboarding. She currently resides in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and is working on her second book tentatively titled Paradise.
