How to Be a Bad Muslim

And other essays

Funny, elegiac and chilling, these essays from award-winning New Zealand writer Mohamed Hassan blend storytelling, memoir and non-fiction to map the experience of being Muslim in the 21st century.

From Cairo to Takapuna, Athens to Istanbul, How To Be A Bad Muslim maps the personal and public experience of being Muslim through essays on identity, Islamophobia, surveillance, migration and language.

Traversing storytelling, memoir, journalism and humour, Hassan speaks authentically and piercingly on mental health, grief and loss, while weaving memories of an Egyptian immigrant fighting childhood bullies, listening to life-saving '90s grunge and auditioning for vaguely-ethnic roles in a certain pirate movie franchise.

At once funny and chilling, elegiac and eye-opening, this is a must-read book from a powerfully talented writer.

"The book is amazing. Mohamed Hassan is so talented. In How To Be A Bad Muslim, he pulls off that rare trick of taking a poet's grace and applying it to his essays, making them as beautiful to read as they are illuminating." — Dominic Hoey

ISBN: 9780143776215 | Published: 31 May 2022 | Trade paperback | 208 pages