10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Breath of Fresh Air, December 25, 2007
This review is from: War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims (Paperback)
I don't think I was able to breathe the whole time I read this book, which was okay, because I was able to read it all in almost just one sitting. The book was very involving and interesting, but I was nervous about reading another book claiming it was breaking stereotypes of American Muslims. Quite often, books of this sort only manage to hold onto the accepted "norm" of what both "typical" Muslims and non-Muslims think Islam should be and never begin to approach "outside of the box" writing. War on Error went inside, outside and around the proverbial box.
Melody Moezzi takes the reader on an unapologetic journey into an amalgamation of individual Muslims' spiritual and personal journeys and the author's experiences with those individuals. The result easily moves into the readers' conscious and drives one to consider how each story connects to one's own reality.
At the end, I kept having fantasies of War on Error as just Volume I of a series of profiles I could keep on reading for days. I expect this book to be just the beginning of a longer journey both for the author and the reader.
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8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not as good as previous reviews indicated, August 4, 2009
This review is from: War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims (Paperback)
When I decided to read this book there were 6 reviews, all of them 5 stars, so my expectations were high. I was very disappointed. I found it hard to make it to the end. I wondered why my opinion would be so different from the others, so I looked at other reviews from these 6 reviewers. I found that for most of them, this was the only book they had reviewed. This leads me to suspect that most of the 6, if not all, know the author personally and the reviews are not fair and unbiased. That irritates me. Maybe I'm wrong, but if you have a personal relationship with the author or an interest in the success of the book, that should be disclosed in your review.
I expected this book to give me more insight and understanding of what it means to be an American Muslim, but I don't feel I understand much more than I did before I read the book. The book consisted of 12 interviews of people the author knew, or knew someone who knew them - and most of them were academics, writers or well off - so I didn't get the impression they were representative of the general American Muslim population. I would have preferred more interviews with a larger cross section of people. The book would have been better if there was more detail about the life of the people being interviewed. Instead there was too much narrative about how great the author believes they are, how great they think the author is, or the author's opinion or thoughts on whatever seems to come to her mind. I found most of this very boring.
Several times the author stressed that the discrimination toward women is not based in Islam religion, but she never explains how this started. For example when and why did it start that women were not allowed to pray with men? And if this is true, then why do so many Muslim countries appear to treat women as unequal or worse? An explanation of this might have added alot to my understanding.
Another thing that bothered me: several times the author emphasized that her religion is a peaceful religion and has no place for violence, intolerance and terrorism. But every time she makes these statements, she also has to throw in the "but" which always involved a negative comment on American foreign policy. Sorry, to me (and many others) that is a separate issue. It does not excuse terrorism. I was looking for greater understanding and these statements gave me the impression that at some level the author excuses these actions. For me, this reinforced one of the negative impressions many people have about Muslims and did nothing to breaking down stereo types and promote understanding.
In summary, I read this eager for greater understanding of Muslims in America (and through out the world). I wish I would have chosen a different book that would have provided that insight.
Update: I just finished reading Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah. Although it seemed to be written more for a teenager, I think it provided a better perspective of the issues of growing up Muslim in a white Christian country. It was set in Australia, but the issues addressed were the same as you would find in the US.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A look at post-9/11 American Muslims, January 3, 2012
This review is from: War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims (Paperback)
The author, an attorney, was motivated by the events of 9/11 to write a book of interviews clarifying who American Muslims are, what they believe and why. For non-Muslims, there are insights into the Muslim faith and the conflicts between being an American and ethnic roots. Whether these twelve Muslims are a representative sample or not is perhaps debatable, but the message is a powerful statement of courage, faith and compassion in the post-9/11 world of suspicion and the Patriot Act.
This book was received in exchange for an honest review.
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