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I was raised in a Baptist household, went to a Catholic church, lived in a Jewish neighborhood, and had the biggest crush on the Muslim girls from one neighborhood over.

I grew up in a modern home, but my grandmother lived across the street in an old house that was built when churches were illegal in Mexico. She had a chapel in the home, right between the kitchen and dining room.

I remember when I was young, many cities in the Muslim world were cosmopolitan cities with a lot of culture.

My house was a guest house of many Jaina saints, Hindu monks, Sufi mystics, because my grandfather was interested in all of these people.

There are some mosques with facilities for women; it's usually a back room with a back-door entrance.

I was in prison with pretty much the who's who of the jihadist and Islamist scene of Egypt at the time, and Egypt was the cradle of Islamism for the world - it's where it began and where jihadism began as well.

'Butterfly Mosque' came out of the emails I wrote to family and friends back home after moving to Egypt.