Moslem Women by A.E. & S. M. Zwemer
I love a good book sale, especially Public Library sales. I have found some real treasures. Recently I was at one such sale and saw a book titled Moslem Women. I could see it was really old and scooped it up and put it in my bag. Eighteen months ago I started shepherding a Muslim refugee family, the family, including two women, have brought so much to my life. They have enriched it and taught me more than I could ever have imagined. They are such a blessing in my life. I help tutor their boys as well and they bring me so much joy. So I wanted to have this book to read and learn more about their history, but to also be able to have a book that will remember this time in my life. When I got home I noticed it had been written by Missionaries, copyright 1927. There are some just beautiful pictures in the book and an amazing history of Islam and women. A true treasure.
March 27 was declared the FIRST Muslim Women’s Day and I immediately remembered this book I had just purchased so I took a picture for my instagram. I then did some more research and found this information online about the author Samuel Marinus Zwemer:
One of the most celebrated Protestant missionaries of the twentieth century, Zwemer made his home in Arabia and Egypt for most of 38 years (1890-1929). Initially an evangelist, he became a writer, publisher, and peripatetic conference speaker who, as much as anyone, introduced twentieth-century Christians to Islam. The son of Dutch immigrant parents, he was born in Vriesland, Michigan, where his father was a Reformed pastor. He graduated from Hope Academy and College (B.A. 1887; M.A., 1890) and New Brunswick Seminary (B.D., 1890) and became an early recruit of the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM). In 1889, when Zwemer and his classmate James Cantine could find no agency to send them as missionaries to Muslims, they established the American Arabian Mission, which five years later the Reformed Church agreed to sponsor.
This town that he was born in is close to where I live, and the college is close as well. My community used to be mostly Dutch and there are churches on every corner that are Reformed. Zwemer nicknamed The Apostle to Islam, wrote many things including this book with his wife in 1926. An amazing find for me. Closer to home than I would have ever imagined. So extremely interesting.
The question most asked to me about being with my new found Muslim friends is am I actively trying to make them not Muslim. OFCOURSENOT. I have deep respect for my friends, as they do for me. In the current climate we most recently had a ‘Piece by Peace’ painting day with all women of all faiths and one thing we discussed was to them Islam is PEACE and to me Jesus is PEACE. We are of the SAME mind. PEACE.
I love the empowerment of having a Muslim Women’s Day. Like anything else I think they that these women are extremely misunderstood, and shedding light of them is the right thing. Let them speak for themselves.
Here’s a Huffington Post Article on the subject:
Why We Need A Muslim Women’s Day
Peace.
