Customer Reviews

My First Police State

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The cover page of the book shows a young Muslim being reflected in a mirror while he takes a picture of a gargantuan Saudi Palace. In a way then, for a Muslim to apprehend the extravagant (wealth and corruption) of Saudi Arabia leads to his own face looking back at him. Saudi Arabia is not alien, even to Muslims. The author makes the point that Muslims, on the whole, have far too much of Saudi Arabia's evils in them. Denial won't take Muslims anywhere, only active engagement will. And the first step to that engagement is to tackle the poster child of Islamic Idiocy - Saudi Arabia.

In rendering the absurdity of Saudi Arabian Islam, culture and mores for the average Western readers, Moghul has done a valuable service. The book speaks of the sexual practices of Saudis, their characteristic arrogance, and the shameful culture of illiteracy that Saudi Arabia has been actively promoting. The voice is of a young high school student raised in the United States taking a trip to see his brother in Riyadh. The narrator is humurous, confused, and perceptive. It is when the narrator is throwing his observations left and right that he is most effective. I don't particularly like the fact that he keeps stating his own Islamic identity and how good a Muslim he wants to be. He should realize that criticizing Muslims doesn't mean that he has become less of a Muslim.

This book is a worthy read from cover to end. The author's "Appendices" at the end of the book are hilarious. I really enjoyed reading this book and look forward to more of his work.

It's pretty hard to describe what this book is: Travel journalism, satire, politics, philosophy and even comedy. It's so funny I burst out laughing reading it, people looking at me in the bus like I'm a weirdo. But it's also very serious. The author is a Muslim and he takes Islam very seriously. At the same time, he wants to change the Muslim world through descriptions and criticisms of Muslim practices.

The book takes place over a few weeks, set in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, before 9/11. It's the actual story of the author as he travels through two Muslim countries right as he graduates out of high school. This book is really, really worth reading if you don't know much about Islam and want to understand it from a serious but still amusing perspective, or if you're a Muslim who wants to know why the Islamic world is in such horrible straits these days.

Recommended.

This book is more appropriate material for an online diary or blog than for printed material. The author rambled about a three week trip he took when he was a teenager and now has roughly packaged his journal in the form of a book. I bought the book based on an interview I saw of the author on a local TV channel. He sounded mature and had some insights, however in the book the author sounds extremely immature and an incapable writer.
His critique of Saudi Society are very superficial as they are based on observance by an outsider who neither is familiar with the country's history, culture or language. The book is more of an account of a vacation gone sour. My advice to the author: become much more familar with your subject before trying to write and sell a book about it.