Customer Reviews

How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America

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Moustafa Bayoumi's profile of seven Brooklyn-based Arab-Americans and their diverse experiences living in a post-9-11 America is not only interesting and insightful, but refreshing too. At a time when it seems like everyone but Arab-Americans is being given the opportunity to speak on behalf of the community, Bayoumi goes straight to the source and allows Arab-American youth to explain who they are and what they're experiencing for themselves.

The book's only shortcoming is that it doesn't fully represent the Arab-American community. Though the majority of Arab-Americans are Christian, Bayoumi only shares the story of one. In the preface of his book, Bayoumi states his reasoning: "...Arab-American Muslims are at the eye of today's storms. They are forced to reconcile particular American foreign policies that affect their countries of origin with the idea that their faith poses an existential threat to Western civilization."

Bayoumi's assertion may be correct, but doesn't adequately explain his decision to focus more on Arab-American Muslims than Arab-American Christians.

Arab-American Christians must also reconcile certain American policies (both foreign and domestic) with their love and dedication to both their ancestral homelands and new homeland. They also face the same social and political backlash associated with being an Arab or Muslim in a post-9-11 America.

Arab-American Christians find themselves in an even more precarious position in that they're often forced to serve as a bridge between their Arab-American Muslim brethren and non-Arab/Muslim Americans. In many cases, Arab-American Christians have even taken a leading role in educating non-Arab/Muslim Americans about Islam. While those that do may feel a sense of duty to serve as their brother's keeper, most also recognize that popular misconceptions about Muslims also affect them. After all, few - if any - Arab-American Christians haven't been touched by the racial profiling, discrimination and violence directed towards Muslim-looking people since 9-11. In this sense, Arab-American Christians are direct stakeholders in how non-Arab/Muslim Americans treat Muslims in America.

Bayoumi makes an attempt to address these issues in his story of Sami - an Arab-American Christian who "must navigate the minefield of associations the public has of Arabs as well as the expectations that Muslim Arab Americans have of him as an Arab-American soldier." Sadly, Sami's account is less relatable to Arab-American Christians as are the six other stories of Arab-American Muslims - as he doesn't even self-identify as being an Arab-American.

In Bayoumi's defense, he never asserts that the stories he shares in this book represent all, or even most, Arab-Americans. In fact, he states: "...I make no claims that these seven narratives touch on every detail of Arab-American life." However, his decision to present a more rounded picture of the post 9-11 experience of Arab-American Muslims over that of Arab-American Christians renders his book more useful to readers wanting to understand what it feels like to be young and an Arab-Muslim in America - not what it's like "Being Young and Arab in America."

By taking us inside the lives and minds of young Arab Americans living in Brooklyn, a microcosm of the diverse United States, Bayoumi helps us understand what it means to be young and arab in America today. The short stories covering seven different personalities make the narrative very accessible and the book an easy read. The characters themselves are extremely diverse affording the reader a good coverage of different strata of the Arab American society. From a religious young girl in veil fighting against discrimination, to a marine, a patriotic American fighting in Iraq torn between the Arab and American cultures, to a young grocery store worker inspired by the American dream... each story is unique and heart filled.

As someone who has worked almost 10 years with young Arab-Americans, I found this to be a very insightful glimpse into the lives of a little understood community. So many people talk about young Arab-Americans - a population often described as a "homegrown threat" or somehow radical - yet how often do we hear what they think, in their own words?

In this book, Bayoumi is granted unique access into the lives of these young people, allowing him to tell each story colorfully and to share their most innermost feelings. The internal conflicts they experience as Arabs and Americans are instructive, as they reflect the greatest political and cultural challenges facing our world today.

What Moustafa Bayoumi captures in his latest work is what many have been yearning for since 9/11 in the Arab American community: an encapsulation and presentation of the voice of the unheard. Too often, our history--even as it unfolds--is told by our neighbors, by our news stations, and by those who seek us harm for perceived personal or communal benefit.

I believe the concept of this book is as important as what fills its pages. Shedding light on the lives of the castigated, Bayoumi engages the outside world with human stories seen through a human lens. Bayoumi masterfully graces the page with a rich and unique style of description, making this read not only intense, but enjoyable.

I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking understanding into the mindset of many Arab Americans today.

The first thing any reasonable reader will have to note is that this book is extremely well written. That the author is a college professor is neither evident, nor what one might expect from his cadenced prose. His thesis, that young Arab Americans and Muslims face special discriminatory challenges, especially after 9-11, which are inflicted in sundry and subtle (and not so subtle) ways, is deftly made. The reader will effortlessly digests this thought-provoking message and glide through the descriptive similes and metaphors with pleasure. This treatise, in my opinion, runs the gamut of anthropology, sociology, psychology, and political science. As a result, the lessons are many but are presented in a way that can easily be digested and absorbed. Readers will undoubtedly walk away with a much better understanding of Islam and many of its adherents.

One thing this book is not is a "pity party" for the characters whose vignettes comprise the body of this work. They also agonize about just how much umbrage they should take at the treatment they get for being "different," and how much they should hide these differences to blend in. Unfortunately, the very audience that would get the most from this book are those who would never read it or even know of its existence. It would be great step forward if this work became required reading in those multi-cultural high schools where dealing with differences is a most pronounced problem.

This book is highly recommended for all audiences.

As Americans become more engrossed in our current political stresses, a book like this seems more timely everyday. And in our post-9/11 society, I think it is becoming so important to be aware of how Arab Americans are being used as scapegoats and discriminated against in a way that seems acceptable to many Americans.
I felt that Bayoumi did such a good job of connecting the modes of past prejudices to our contemporary situation, driving home the point that this country is far from over racism. The stories of the people whom the author follows are at points touching, and nothing makes a stronger example than the lives of actual people.

I've ridden the same bus for 6 months now and reading this book last night was the first time I've ever missed my stop. I didn't want this book to end, I didn't want to put it down, I didn't want to do anything else but read. Bayoumi's poetic language brought each story to life. This book will make you angry and optimistic in almost equal amounts. Hopefully this book will also make you think about how Muslims in this country have been treated since 9/11. I can't recommend it highly enough. Beautiful, thought-provoking and absolutely essential reading for the informed citizen.

This text was required reading for my SOC 323 class, on Racial and Minority Group Relations. As is typical of required reading, I wasn't particularly excited about reading this, and put it off until the night before I was to be tested on its content. When I finally started reading it, I was surprised by how poignant and illuminating this book was. It really made me question what America stands for in practice vs. in its professed ideals.

This book is important. Through the narratives, Baoumi presents several different young, Arab experiences that most Americans are not familiar with. The average American has not been in contact with a range of Arab-Americans this diverse. He presents a soldier, student, the religious, and the secular. From reading this book, it made it apparent just how different this group of people is. Now, that may seem obvious. Every ethnic group contains people who are different in views, appearance, political affiliation, etc. However, this is not how the Arab community is portrayed in the media. Even though I consider myself open minded and have a couple of close friends who are Arab-American, I still was never able to glimpse this full picture of their experience in this post 9/11 world. I don't think the average American knows how many Arab-Americans lost jobs, had family members falsely imprisoned, or just how much this group has contributed positively to our culture. I found the voices in this text to be modern, youthful, passionate, and educated. I felt motivated to share these stories over tea with any friend who would listen. That's when you know a book is not just "good", but important.

Ten years ago I sat in Moustafa Bayoumi's graduate class. He is a charismatic and inspiring teacher. When class was over,it was disappointing. I am so proud of Bayoumi's accomplishment with this book. He truly cares about drawing attention to all oppressed groups, not just Arab-Americans. If you knew him as a teacher, you would know this ia absolutely true. He is a nurturing, open minded person with a passion to let all voices be heard.

This is an incredibly important book and an easy read. Bayoumi identifies and articulates many of the complicated issues surrounding young Arab-American life post 9-11 - all through touching personal accounts. This book is a must-read for all Arab-Americans but its also important for all Americans to read because of what is says about the American dream.