Color-Illustrated Children's Book Offers a Tribute to Muslim Heritage and Culture

    MaiMai News - TEMPE, AZ, February 10, 2008 - "It's important that Muslim children learn about who they are by taking from Islamic sources, not from an entertainment industry that feeds on a climate of misunderstandings," says Corey Habbas, author and illustrator of a new children's book entitled The Runaway Scarf (2008, Muslim Writers Publishing).

In The Runaway Scarf, Ibsitu, a young slave from Habbasha who has built a friendship with her slave master's daughter, Noora, is accused of stealing one of her expensive, jewel-embroidered scarves. After being attacked and violently searched, Ibsitu embarks on a journey of freedom. The light of faith has been lit in Ibsitu's heart and she uses it as a guide along the path to Prophet Mohammed's (pbuh) town in Madinah.

Habbas, a revert to Islam since 2000, says that she was inspired to write the children's tale after watching the movie Hidalgo (2004), a film that has been widely criticized by Muslims as being grossly inaccurate and responsible for upholding derogatory stereotypes.

"This movie took advantage of people's general ignorance about Islam," stated Habbas, who, after seeing the film, researched the concepts of equality, freedom and human justice in Islam.

Habbas recalls having an abundance of material to choose from, including Qur'an verses and many accounts within the Hadiths, which are the narrations about the life of the Prophet (saas) and what he approved.

"When I found the hadith about the African slave who fled her captors to join the Prophet (pbuh) and his followers , I was immediately inspired to create a fictional story that leveraged the same messages conveyed by the hadith in order to bring Islamic concepts to children in a way that they could easily digest," says Habbas who worked a year to create the illustrations and story for the book.

The Runaway Scarf, is a timeless story about the Islamic values of human rights and equality.



Corey Habbas, a freelance writer, has had her writing published in various online and print journals, newspapers and magazines. Her short stories and articles for children have been featured in Learning Through History Magazine and Skipping Stones. Corey has won several awards for her poetry including prizes from the Islamic Writers Alliance and Qalaam. In 2006, her poetry won the Andalusia Prize for Literature. Corey grew up in California where she studied art and also earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems from the University of Redlands. She now lives in Minnesota with her family. She is a member of the Islamic Writers Alliance.


Availability and Ordering
�The Runaway Scarf is now available at Amazon.com and other fine bookstores. Copies may also be ordered from the publisher.
�Signed Author Copies-Send an email: iccana@yahoo.com
�Retailers: Discount is Available. Printing and Distribution in the USA and UK. Listed in the USA with Ingram, Books in Print, Baker & Taylor; in the UK with Bertram and Gardners.
�Author's Blog at: http://www.americanbloggess.blogspot.com
�Publisher Contact at: http://www.MuslimwritersPublishing.com and woodad@mindspring.com