I chose to read the feature article “Tending to Muslim Hearts and Islam’s Future” by Andrea Elliot this week. This story was about Sheik Reda Shata, who is an Imam of a Bay Ridge mosque in Brooklyn. Shata is a world-renown Muslim matchmaker of the New York area. He sees himself as a substitute elder to young Muslims who no longer live under their parents’ guidance because generally it is the parents or family who set up Muslim marriages. Therefore, Shata acts in their place and is a chaperon during many young Muslim’s dates. This is because it is under Islamic law that a man and woman who are unmarried may not be alone in closed quarters. However, before he must chaperon, Shata searches through his “little black book” and selects the best candidate for a young Muslim man. The story goes on about Shata’s family and tells the reader that he instantly knew she was the one he was going to marry the moment he saw her. The story also describes one of the dates Shata set up and it failed but that did not matter to him very much. He said he knows that Muslim immigrants have become very picky about the choices the Imam makes for them.
I think the lead of this story purpose is “Setting the scene”. This is because in the first four paragraphs the writer paints a scene for the reader. It allows the reader to feel the atmosphere of what is occurring.
I think the nut graph of this story is the following:
“Christian singles have coffee hour. Young Jews have JDate. But many Muslims believe that it is forbidden for an unmarried man and woman to meet in private. In predominantly Muslim countries, the job of making introductions and even arranging marriages typically falls to a vast network of family and friends.
In Brooklyn, there is Mr. Shata.
Week after week, Muslims embark on dates with him in tow. Mr. Shata, the imam of a Bay Ridge mosque, juggles some 550 “marriage candidates…”
This is clearly the nut graph because it tells us who, what, where, and why of the story. Mr. Shata is the one who is bringing Muslims in the Brooklyn area together instead of family and friends who do that in Muslim countries.
The bigger issue behind this feature story focused on Mr. Shata is the Islamic law pertaining to unmarried Muslims. I believe this intrigues readers more so than the personal profile alone because readers may not know the background of the Islamic law so they continue to read to learn more.
I found examples of descriptive copy not only in the lead but also throughout the story.
“When he walks in the door, his face softens. Loud kisses are planted on tender cheeks. Mohammed squeals, the girls smile, sweet laughter echoes.”
The previous quote describes the scene of the moment Mr. Shata walks into his front door. The writer uses the emotion of tender love to connect with the readers. She sets a scene of Shata’s family greets him by embracing him in kisses and laughter. One sense the writer uses here is the touch of the kisses on Shata’s tender cheeks.
There are 7 sources quoted through this feature story.
The part I found Boring but important was the “Foreign and Familiar” section. In this section it explains how Shata’s background is from an Islamic country but how he sometimes challenges the views of foreign Imams. I feel like this is important because it displays to the reader the ways that Shata connects to Islamic women through his sermons sometimes. However, during this part I definitely lost interest in the story as the writer was going through different examples of how Shata connects to Isalmic woman through his challenges of the religion.
I really enjoyed the ending of this story and felt like it was written very well. It tied into the beginning by finishing the initial story of the Egyptian bachelor. My favorite part of the ending was when Shata speaks about how his initial impression of a sheik was the opposite of what it is actually like to be a sheik. He also said that it is important for sheiks to possess such qualities so that they can connect to people, like a brother.
This story was extremely knowledgeable to me about the Islamic religion and the process of finding a partner to marry. I am surprised I found this article entertaining because of what it is about but I think that is because of the way it was written.
I liked the descriptiveness of the story because it kept me connected to the story because I could relate to certain situation or things that were described.
I personally thought this article was too long. There were points in the story that I thought were repetitive and I think that could have been cut down to make the story a shorter read.
