Occupation Writer Citizenship United States Role Writer | Ethnicity Greek Name Jamilah Kolocotronis Language English Notable works Echoes Books Islamic jihad | |
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Education Truman State University | ||
Linda "Jamilah" Kolocotronis was an American Muslim writer and former educator in American Islamic schools. Of Greek origin, she converted to Islam at the age of 23, and she has published several Islamic fiction novels as well as her doctoral dissertation. Kolocotronis changed her first name to Jamilah when she became Muslim in 1980 and took her husband’s last name, Jitmoud, when she married. Kolocotronis has six sons and three grandchildren.
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Biography
Linda Kay Kolocotronis was born in St. Louis, Missouri on August 2, 1956. She is the oldest of four sisters, and is of both Greek and German ancestry. Raised in the Lutheran church and attending a Lutheran elementary school, Kolocotronis decided to eventually enter the Lutheran ministry. She enrolled at Truman State University (then Northeast Missouri State University), graduating in May 1978 with a degree in Philosophy and Religion and immediately began studies the following fall at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.
Religious conversion
Deciding that the ministry was not for her, Kolocotronis returned to St. Louis and worked for several months before returning to Truman State to earn a master's degree in Philosophy and Religion. During the course of her master’s work, she studied many religions, including Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Baha'i and the Chinese religions. After reading the Quran "looking for mistakes and inconsistencies" she found none and converted to Islam in July 1980 (Ramadan 19, 1400), and changed her name to Jamilah. Over the next year she completed her master's degree and gained acceptance into a Ph.D. program for Social Science Education at Ball State University.
Books
Kolocotronis’ first book published in 1990, Islamic Jihad: An Historical Perspective is her only non-fiction title. She is also featured in the seminal book about female American converts to Islam, Daughters of Another Path. Kolocotronis' first Islamic fiction novel, Innocent People, was written after the September 11 attacks as a reaction to the proliferation of misinformation about Muslims in America. The themes of the book include anti-Muslim actions and sentiments targeted at the characters, as well as the emotional turmoil felt by individual Muslims who were being associated with the acts of the terrorist. Her subsequent novels explore other challenges routinely faced by Muslims in America, especially converts to Islam. Kolocotronis’ Echoes Series is the second series of Islamic fiction novels to be written in English.