Additional information
by Mehnaz M. Afridi (Author)
In Shoah through Muslim Eyes, the author discusses her journey with Judaism as a Muslim.
Her book is based on the struggle of anti-Semitism within Muslim communities and her interviews with survivors. Rejecting polemical myths about the Holocaust and Jews, Afridi offers a new way of creating understanding of two communities through the acceptance and enormity of the Shoah. Her journey is both personal and academic in which the reader can find nuances of her belief in Islam, principles of justice, and the loneliness of such a journey. The chapters discuss the Holocaust and how it is unprecedented, interviews with survivors, antisemitism and Islamophobia, and Islam and memory. Afridi includes Muslim-Arab narratives that enhance the reach of the Holocaust into Muslim lands under the Vichy and Nazi government.
Author Biography
Mehnaz M. Afridi earned her PhD in Religious Studies from the University of South Africa. She currently serves as Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College (Riverdale, NY). Her research interests include the Holocaust; interreligious identity; post-genocide identity; Diaspora and Transnational Studies; and feminist post-colonial theory. Her publications and presentations have focused on the Qur'an and human rights, Islamic Literature and Culture; Judaism & Islam, Holocaust and antisemitism, including her co-edited book, Global Perspectives on Orhan Pamuk: Existentialism and Politics (Palgrave MacMillan, 2012). She received a National Endowment for Humanities Institute Grant in 2006 to study "Venice, the Jews, and Italian Culture: Historical Eras and Cultural Representations"; a Coolidge Fellow Grant from Union Theological School in 2003; and attended the Hess Seminar on "Teaching Testimony and Holocaust" at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2011. She has been a Board Member of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Ethics since 2004.
