In this Lunchbox/Soapbox Hanifa Deen talks about how she's sick of writing about Muslims and now it's time to get someone else to do it. She looks for a PR firm for the Muslim makeover, wonders why Julia Gillard isn't hugging hijabs and tries to find that other m-word: multiculturalism.

B'H

Great Hanifa. If you can get JG to hug Hijabs well and good but I would be working on the extremists within your co-religionists' circle and asking them to tone down their hate speeches against the rest of us infidels.
The problem is not with Muslims like yourself so much as those who would deem it inappropriate for you to be speaking at all in a public place and displaying yourself like 'uncovered meat left out for the cats.'
Most of us have no argument with another religion so long as we are left to follow our own religious paths or not if that be the case.
Books that portray the true Muslim rather than caricatures. I found books like the Kite Runner far more inspiring than a text that presents the world as a clash between Islamic Purity and Purpose versus Western decadence. We have lost sight of the trees and finer details of living good lives despite circumstances that are less than ideal in our rush to view the broader landscape of it all. Life has never been so black and white or to burka or not burka and the debate continues .....................................................................................so?

Great point, Ilana. We're wondering what you might make of our video of Ayaan Hirsi Ali who has strong ideas on Muslims and feminism.