Yesterday Silicon Valley Reads kicked off its 2012 season with an event in Campbell that featured the authors of the two books selected for this year, Sumbul Ali-Karamali, author of The Muslim Next Door and G. Willow Wilson, author of The Butterfly Mosque. Silicon Valley Reads is a joint program of local schools, libraries, and community organizations, which each year invites residents of Silicon Valley to read the same book at the same time and to talk about it.
The books selected this year both deal with aspects of Muslims living in America, and over 100 events have been scheduled over the next three months to offer people in the valley the chance to read, discuss, and learn about Islam and their Muslim neighbors. You can download a list of those events here.
In connection with the Silicon Valley Reads program, the Silicon Valley Interreligious Council (SiVIC) is inviting local religious communities and congregations to share photos of themselves to be compiled into a broad-based "snapshot" of religious life in the South Bay. Taking their cue from the title of Ali-Karamali's book, The Muslim Next Door, SiVIC has called their project "Our Religious Neighbor Next Door."
According to the SiVIC website, "Indigenous peoples, Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Christians, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Muslims, Buddhists, Pagans, Jains, Baha'i, Jews, Mormons, Sikhs, and many others have put down roots here, making our region a microcosm of the globe's diverse religious landscape."
Individuals are invited to submit pictures of their communities- the people, places, sacred ceremonies and objects- whatever best reflects the spirit and traditions of their congregation. SiVIC will collect these photographs during the Silicon Valley Reads program, and prepare them for display at SiVIC's annual meeting in Spring 2012 and thereafter as a traveling display that will be available for interfaith or community gatherings in our community, and eventually on SiVIC's website.
For full information about the project and how to participate, see the SiVIC website. Get out those cameras and let a picture be worth a thousand words!
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