Here's a memoir that reads like a mystery. Not a page-turning whodunit, but a fuzzy-on-key-details mystery.
April 9, 2007 (Press Release) --
You'll wonder about the author's credibility. Who is this guy?
You'll sense an unstated agenda. Is this conservative Christian propaganda?
You'll even question the words "radical Islam" in book's title, not because of political correctness, but out of desire for fairness and accuracy.
My Year Inside Radical Islam is an alarmist book that adds fuel to the post-9/11 backlash against American Muslims.
The author is a self-described Jew-turned-Muslim-turned-Christian and "counterterrorism consultant" based in Washington, D.C. He's also a witness in the U.S. government's "war on terrorism."
The memoir is a tedious exercise in discerning facts from faith and ideology. The author, a lawyer, switches allegiances so frequently that he comes across as erratic and unreliable.
This memoir reflects what he believes today, but who knows about tomorrow? Buddhism? Hinduism?
After 9/11, the Bush administration accused some Islamic charities of funding terrorists overseas. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is a former employee of one of them, the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation of Ashland, Ore.
He testified to a Senate panel in September that the Saudi-linked Al-Haramain cultivated militant religious extremism in U.S. prisons. Earlier this year, Al-Haramain sued the government, putting a spotlight on a secret phone surveillance program.
The author writes that Al-Haramain's leaders were so skilled at convincing the public that Islam is a peaceful religion that they fooled an Ashland rabbi into speaking out on their behalf. He names names.
The book is at heart a spiritual narrative. The author writes about growing up a secular Jew in Ashland, where his parents were eclectic spiritual seekers who meditated and revered Moses, Jesus, Buddha and others. Gartenstein-Ross calls them "Jewnitarians."
In 1997, while a student at Wake Forest University, the author converted -- Muslims call it "reverting" -- to the progressive branch of Islam. After college, he returned to Ashland and spent nine months working for Al-Haramain.
Almost overnight, he changed from being a social activist advocating for women's rights to a strict Muslim who refused to shake women's hands. Instead of a spiritual moderate battling racism, he's suddenly working with people fueling hate. The transformation is abrupt, severe and seemingly without question. Spiritual makeovers of this kind aren't without precedent, but reader skepticism is understandable.
The author left Al-Haramain in 1999 for law school in New York and says that he became a Christian just before 9/11. He wasn't baptized until the summer of 2003, a few months after FBI agents first questioned him about Al-Haramain.
Who could blame readers for wondering if he became a Christian out of sincerity, convenience or a desire to distance himself from an Islamic organization accused by the government of sponsoring terrorism?
Gartenstein-Ross doesn't provide details about his Christian faith other than the primacy of a "personal relationship" with Jesus. Yet, he paints a detailed negative view of Islam.
He plays into some Americans' worst fears that Muslims living in the United States are secretly plotting the country's demise or building an Islamic nation. The book is winning accolades in conservative political circles.
All of the world's major faiths are infected with extremists who commit violence in the name of religion. After 9/11, American Muslims worked to educate the public that Islam is peaceful at heart. For the past two years, they've enacted campaigns against terrorism done in the name of Islam.
Gartenstein-Ross insists that violence and extremism are integral to Islam in a way that they aren't to Christianity and Judaism. Sadly, many Americans aren't sophisticated enough in their knowledge of Islam to realize he isn't being fair.
Source: http://www.msn.com
Posted by Susan Hogan
You'll sense an unstated agenda. Is this conservative Christian propaganda?
You'll even question the words "radical Islam" in book's title, not because of political correctness, but out of desire for fairness and accuracy.
My Year Inside Radical Islam is an alarmist book that adds fuel to the post-9/11 backlash against American Muslims.
The author is a self-described Jew-turned-Muslim-turned-Christian and "counterterrorism consultant" based in Washington, D.C. He's also a witness in the U.S. government's "war on terrorism."
The memoir is a tedious exercise in discerning facts from faith and ideology. The author, a lawyer, switches allegiances so frequently that he comes across as erratic and unreliable.
This memoir reflects what he believes today, but who knows about tomorrow? Buddhism? Hinduism?
After 9/11, the Bush administration accused some Islamic charities of funding terrorists overseas. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is a former employee of one of them, the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation of Ashland, Ore.
He testified to a Senate panel in September that the Saudi-linked Al-Haramain cultivated militant religious extremism in U.S. prisons. Earlier this year, Al-Haramain sued the government, putting a spotlight on a secret phone surveillance program.
The author writes that Al-Haramain's leaders were so skilled at convincing the public that Islam is a peaceful religion that they fooled an Ashland rabbi into speaking out on their behalf. He names names.
The book is at heart a spiritual narrative. The author writes about growing up a secular Jew in Ashland, where his parents were eclectic spiritual seekers who meditated and revered Moses, Jesus, Buddha and others. Gartenstein-Ross calls them "Jewnitarians."
In 1997, while a student at Wake Forest University, the author converted -- Muslims call it "reverting" -- to the progressive branch of Islam. After college, he returned to Ashland and spent nine months working for Al-Haramain.
Almost overnight, he changed from being a social activist advocating for women's rights to a strict Muslim who refused to shake women's hands. Instead of a spiritual moderate battling racism, he's suddenly working with people fueling hate. The transformation is abrupt, severe and seemingly without question. Spiritual makeovers of this kind aren't without precedent, but reader skepticism is understandable.
The author left Al-Haramain in 1999 for law school in New York and says that he became a Christian just before 9/11. He wasn't baptized until the summer of 2003, a few months after FBI agents first questioned him about Al-Haramain.
Who could blame readers for wondering if he became a Christian out of sincerity, convenience or a desire to distance himself from an Islamic organization accused by the government of sponsoring terrorism?
Gartenstein-Ross doesn't provide details about his Christian faith other than the primacy of a "personal relationship" with Jesus. Yet, he paints a detailed negative view of Islam.
He plays into some Americans' worst fears that Muslims living in the United States are secretly plotting the country's demise or building an Islamic nation. The book is winning accolades in conservative political circles.
All of the world's major faiths are infected with extremists who commit violence in the name of religion. After 9/11, American Muslims worked to educate the public that Islam is peaceful at heart. For the past two years, they've enacted campaigns against terrorism done in the name of Islam.
Gartenstein-Ross insists that violence and extremism are integral to Islam in a way that they aren't to Christianity and Judaism. Sadly, many Americans aren't sophisticated enough in their knowledge of Islam to realize he isn't being fair.
Source: http://www.msn.com
Posted by Susan Hogan
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