My fifth grade classmates and I at John Neumann Catholic Elementary School looked forward to the arrival of Father Joe every school morning. He didn’t realize that, from the playground and classroom windows, many of us were watching intently as he sped into a street parking spot in his fancy sports car just before the start of school. He would then emerge from the car wearing dark, Ray Ban Wayfarer sunglasses. Although none of my classmates and I ever spoke to him -I think he was a school administrator and not a teacher - we thought he was the coolest adult we knew, by far. In fact, one of my friends nicknamed him Father Joe Cool. In my mind, when I think of a priest, I remember Father Joe Cool. Sometimes I even wonder, if an Islamic country has a Mullah Joe Cool, who fascinates the young Muslims of his town.

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Hello Kitty and I are the same age, believe it or not. (We both came into the world in 1974. Her birthday is November 1. Mine is July 15.) In her 30 years, she has actually just seemed to stay in third grade, according to Sanrio, her maker. In that time, I have written two books, graduated from law school, and been admitted to two state bars. Kitty has built a multi-million dollar empire.

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I was debating with my extended family once during a family gathering over whether Muslim women and men should be allowed to pray in the same room. I reasoned that on Judgment Day, men and women stand equally before God with no gender preference. My grandfather piped in, “No, men are superior in Islam!” We were in my uncle’s normally quite noisy Suburban, which had now gone silent at my grandfather’s words.

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My sister likes to tell a story about a Columbia University Muslim student group iftaar (the meal to open the fast after a day of fasting during Ramadaan) she attended when she was a student at Barnard College. She had stunned the conservative, young Muslim crowd by breaking the norm of gender segregation and sitting at the same table as a Moroccan boy she knew. The rest of the group gaped at her as the two chatted. She says now that she wished she had been even bolder and placed her hand on his shoulder — what horror that would have caused!

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