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My Year Inside Radical Islam: A Memoir (Hardcover)

~ Daveed Gartenstein-Ross (Author) "Before I was an FBI informant, an apostate, and a blasphemer, I was a devout believer in radical Islam who worked for a Saudi-funded charity..." (more)
Key Phrases: loud dhikr, nikah ceremony, juma prayers, Wake Forest, Sheikh Hassan, Sheikh Adly (more...)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Born into a spiritually ambiguous family (his parents are nonpracticing Jews who follow the "Infinite Way"), Gartenstein-Ross grew up in the 1980s, in Ashland, Ore., a bucolic, posthippie paradise with a live-and-let-live ethic. Spiritually adrift through his teens, he discovers Islam through a classmate at Wake Forest University. Gartenstein-Ross—young and searching, like so many Americans of his socioeconomic class—quickly falls under the spell of fiercely committed Muslims. He begins working for al Harman, a radical Islamic charity that would eventually be linked to al-Qaeda, and soon starts a simultaneous process of being drawn deeper into the world of radical Islam and being repulsed by its brutal realities. Gartenstein-Ross fights an inner battle between his idealism, shaped by his socially conscious if somewhat scattered liberal upbringing, and his sense of the growing gap between his personal notion of Islam and the mounting list of rules and limitations its practice entails. This would seem compelling stuff, but throughout the story seems blunted. Even the chapters near the end that deal with Gartenstein-Ross's role as an informer for the FBI after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, lack tension and real insight into the dilemma faced by so many cut adrift in Western secular culture. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gartenstein-Ross reveals how widening doctrinal tensions are dividing twenty-first-century expressions of Islam in this memoir of his journey into and out of the faith. Raised by freethinking Jewish parents in a world of former hippies, Gartenstein-Ross finds himself pondering ultimate questions after two brushes with death. Friendship with a progressive Shiite Muslim offers answers. Gartenstein-Ross therefore converts. But both he and his Shiite friend subsequently encounter--and then cross over--the chasm separating moderates from radical orthodoxy. Gartenstein-Ross even works for a Muslim charity diverting funds to terrorists. After eventually turning away from the group hatreds and anti-intellectualism of radical Islam, Gartenstein-Ross embraces Christianity--and becomes an FBI informant. To his great joy, he subsequently discovers that his Shiite friend has likewise turned away from radicalism and has returned to moderate Islam. For readers trying to understand Muslims on both sides of the radical-moderate divide, Gartenstein-Ross' story will be an eye-opener. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Tarcher (February 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1585425516
ISBN-13: 978-1585425518
Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #486,351 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category: (What's this?)
#59 in Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Political Science > Systems Of Government > Islamic Government

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First Sentence:
Before I was an FBI informant, an apostate, and a blasphemer, I was a devout believer in radical Islam who worked for a Saudi-funded charity that sent money to al-Qaeda. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
loud dhikr, nikah ceremony, juma prayers, campus activist

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Wake Forest, Sheikh Hassan, Sheikh Adly, Nation of Islam, United States, Dennis Geren, Saudi Arabia, New York, Idris Palmer, Pete Seda, Prophet Muhammad, North Carolina, Charlie Jones, Boies Schiller, Middle East, Mike Hollister, Brother Taha, Chief Justice, Bilal Philips, Washington Field Office, Lithia Park, Ahmed Ezzat, Casa Artom, Sunni Islam, Harvard Islamic Society

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Customer Reviews

34 Reviews

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
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48 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real Insight, Entertaining Memoir, February 1, 2007

By	Expectant (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews

Of all the books about Islam that I've read to try to understand it, none other has given me such an enjoyably intimate portrait of the way that the religion actually works on people. Gartenstein-Ross's experiences are so revealing because as you read you can imagine how you might have been led to the same radical politics that he was. He shows you how it happeneed gradually and how it all seemed pretty logical at the time (this was all before 9-11). It's also very well written. He's very mart and it makes you wonder if someone with so much intelligence could take such dangerous positions, what chance do the great masses of unschooled followers have against the persuasions of their faith. I'm glad he's back to tell his story!

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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars al-hamdu li-allah, February 14, 2007

By	John Smith (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This book was indeed very difficult to put down; I read it in about 3 days. I am not sure if it is Daveed's inviting writing style or the fact that he and I share much in common, but the book seems to really draw you in. I happen to work in the counter-terrorism field myself, and I have yet to read a book that truly spells out how one could descend into radical Islam, or radically into any religion for that matter. By the end of the book, the reader will most likely feel that he or she knows Daveed personally; this is not always easy to accomplish, even in memoirs. I am, however, surprised to see only two other reviews of this book at this time. I truly hope more people read it. There is no reason this shouldn't rank high on the NYT best-seller list.

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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not So Much Inside as On the Fringes, May 2, 2007

By	Daniel H. Bigelow (Cathlamet, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is more accurate to characterize this as a memoir of the author's flirtation with radical Islam: a flirtation that burgeoned over the course of a year or so but really blossomed only for the three months he worked for an Ashland foundation dedicated to the spread of Wahhabism. The book starts with the author recounting a New Age spiritual upbringing dedicated more to seeking spiritual fulfillment than to living with answers once they're found. When he drifts into Islam, he finds himself drawn to the idea of an end to the quest for answers: the more fundamentalists he hangs out with, the more decisions he finds God has already made for him. But as he competes with his co-religionists for the honor of being considered the most orthodox, he finds his increasingly rigid life and attitudes at odds with his freewheeling and liberal upbringing. He begins drifting away from the fundamentalist life as soon as he leaves employment at the foundation. Eventually he converts to Christianity.

This book is most useful as a candid autobiography of one man's spiritual quest and the dead end it nearly reached in fundamentalism. The author describes the increasing conservatism of his mindset during his weeks at the foundation with objectivity and plausibility. As the author remarks, this mindset is important to understand, because it contradicts both liberal and conservative dogma about what motivates America's Islamist enemies.

But those who hope for a real look "inside radical Islam" will be disappointed, as this is much more a personal account than a journalistic one. For the real "inside" of radical Islam, we would have to look substantially farther east than the liberal enclave of Ashland, Oregon. The title oversells the book, but it is a quick read and besides its value as the account of one callow youth's spiritual journey, it will be useful to any reader with traditional assumptions about why the Islamists fight.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars a spooky cult environment
Daveed's conversion to Islam and slow radicalization is a classic scenario of cult absorption. He's attracted to Islam by a Left wing friend at Wake Forest, and paradoxically his... Read more

Published 8 days ago by J. Dooley

5.0 out of 5 stars "Guide us to the Straight Path"
The author was brought up in the hippie enclave of Ashland, Oregon, by liberal Jewish parents who followed the New Age philosophy of Joel Goldsmith. Read more

Published 8 months ago by Midasin

5.0 out of 5 stars My Year Inside Radical Islam
The author, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, mentioned in "My Year Inside
Radical Islam" that, at one point, he was mildly embarrassed when
he had to explain his religious... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Kelly Yip

2.0 out of 5 stars A Disservice
After having painfully made my way through this book, I'd like to share a few thoughts on it. First of all, I don't understand at all the other reviews here that claim this is a... Read more

Published 17 months ago by MikeG

4.0 out of 5 stars a must read if you want to know what's really going on
Not that this book (or any other single book, for that matter) will give you the whole picture of what radical Islam is about. Read more

Published 17 months ago by Veronika C

3.0 out of 5 stars Radical Islam
The book is not difficult to read but does not flow very smoothly. It does not have a significant relation to today's headlines, but rather centers on the Muslim's individual... Read more

Published 18 months ago by P. N. Anderson

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read...
Judging by the title, you know what you're in for with "My Year Inside Radical Islam." This is a so-called insider's story, about a seeker seduced by a faith only to have grave... Read more

Published 20 months ago by M. Nichols

3.0 out of 5 stars Review
A very interesting and readable acount of a young Jew being gradually sucked in deeper and deeper into radical Islamic groups. Read more

Published 21 months ago by Oliver J. J. Broderick

1.0 out of 5 stars Liked Islam, then found Jesus
I thought this book was going to be great, because the first page was so interesting; but, with the exception of one or two compelling details about Islam, it was all downhill... Read more

Published on October 9, 2007 by iconoclast535

5.0 out of 5 stars My Year Inside Radical Islam
"My Year Inside Radical Islam" is an autobiography of the author's spiritual journey from his upbringing in a liberal Jewish-hippy family, to his conversion to moderate Islam and... Read more

Published on October 1, 2007 by D. Ingolfsland

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