{"id":289,"date":"2009-04-01T01:15:10","date_gmt":"2009-04-01T01:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/04\/wajahat-ali-the-domestic-crusa.html"},"modified":"2009-04-01T01:15:10","modified_gmt":"2009-04-01T01:15:10","slug":"wajahat-ali-the-domestic-crusa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/04\/wajahat-ali-the-domestic-crusa.html","title":{"rendered":"Wajahat Ali, the domestic crusader"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am extremely happy to announce that my friend Wajahat Ali<\/a> will be honored later this month as a rising muslim artist by the Muslim Public Affairs Council for his landmark play, The Domestic Crusaders<\/a>. Here’s the press release<\/a> by MPAC:<\/p>\n

\"Wajahat-Ali.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nMuslim Public Affairs Council announced today that it will recognize
\nplaywright Wajahat Ali as a rising American Muslim artist at the 18th
\nannual Media Awards Gala on Saturday, April 25 in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n

Wajahat Ali is a playwright, journalist, blogger, short story writer and Attorney at Law. His play, “The Domestic Crusaders,”
\nis the first major play about the American Muslim experience. It
\noriginally premiered at the Thrust Stage of the Tony award winning
\nBerkeley Repertory Theater to universal acclaim in 2005, and is slated
\nto make its New York premiere on the 8th anniversary of 9\/11.
<\/font><\/p>\n

“The
\nDomestic Crusaders” focuses on a day in the life of a modern Muslim
\nPakistani-American family of six eclectic, unique members, who convene
\nat the family house to celebrate the twenty-first birthday of the
\nyoungest child. With a background of 9\/11 and the scapegoating of
\nMuslim Americans, the tensions and sparks fly among the three
\ngenerations, culminating in an intense family battle as each “crusader”
\nstruggles to assert and impose their respective voices and opinions,
\nwhile still attempting to maintain and understand that unifying thread
\nthat makes them part of the same family.<\/font><\/p>\n

Among its rave reviews<\/a>,
\nAcademy Award winning actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson called
\nAli’s play “exactly the sort of theater we need today. The gulf that
\nseparates cultures must be bridged and Art is one of our best hopes.
\nI’ll be supporting this all the way.”<\/font><\/p>\n

Wajahat
\nAli was honored as an “Influential Muslim American Artist” by the State
\nDepartment. He was also recently honored as a “Muslim Leader of
\nTomorrow” for his journalism work and invited to participate in the
\n“Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow” conference in Doha, Qatar. Ali is also a
\nfrequent contributor to the Washington Post, The Guardian<\/em>, Huffington Post, Counterpunch and Chowk. <\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Wajahat is amazing – he’s incredibly prolific as a writer and journalist, and is also an energetic and tireless activist. It’s been a real pleasure to get to know him over the past year online and I look forward to meeting him in person. Follow him on twitter<\/a>, read his blog<\/a>, and above all go see his play<\/a> when it comes out in September!<\/p>\n

Incidentally, ladies, he’s still single. I’m just saying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am extremely happy to announce that my friend Wajahat Ali will be honored later this month as a rising muslim artist by the Muslim Public Affairs Council for his landmark play, The Domestic Crusaders. Here’s the press release by MPAC: The Muslim Public Affairs Council announced today that it will recognize playwright Wajahat Ali…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[155,28],"class_list":["post-289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expressions","category-islamerica","tag-entertainment","tag-muslims"],"yoast_head":"\nWajahat Ali, the domestic crusader - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wajahat Ali, the domestic crusader - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am extremely happy to announce that my friend Wajahat Ali will be honored later this month as a rising muslim artist by the Muslim Public Affairs Council for his landmark play, The Domestic Crusaders. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}