Hi there, I'm Chloe Veltman. You're listening to Book of the Day.

Author Alia Bilal's volume of short stories, Temple Folk, explores the black Muslim experience,

specifically from the viewpoint of characters looking back at their time as members of the

nation of Islam. The author's debut collection also couches this complex set of experiences

within the larger framework of the spiritual practices of African Americans as a whole. In an

interview with NPR's Scott Detrow, Bilal talks about the fact that the few stories told about

black Muslims in this country tend to focus on men. Women characters flow through her collection.

Here's Scott Detrow.

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On our new show, Sources and Methods, NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

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In her debut short story collection, Alia Balal writes about one particular community in the U.S.

The community is a collection of African Americans who are once upon a time members of

the nation of Islam, though they have moved on to Sunni Orthodoxy, and the majority of the

stories depict these individuals reflecting back on their times in the nation of Islam from

the perch of, again, Sunni Orthodoxy. Temple folk tells the stories of dozens of black Muslims

over the course of several decades. It tackles issues like freedom, love, and family in a way that

Balal says cuts through the biases many people have about her community. Quite understandably, when you mention the nation of Islam, many people's first associations

are with hate. And it was important for me to understand that that was, and I suppose,

remains a facet of the nation of Islam and its ideology.

...