Now
They Call Me Infidel
Why
I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror
Nonie Darwish
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Sentinel HC (November 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595230319
• ISBN-13: 978-1595230317
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,353
Review
on 22 March 2007 by Donald N. Anderson (a version of this review is on
Amazon.com under the title “A very perceptive contrast of Arab and American
cultures. A must read!”):
Nonie Darwish has written a very important book that
chronicles her experiences growing up as a perceptive upper class Egyptian
woman in the post WWII world. This period has seen the revival of Islamic
fundamentalism throughout the Muslim world. She vividly describes the gradual
descent of Egyptian culture as oil money gave voice to the most primitive
political-religious elements within the Middle East.
Ms. Darwish writes very well and one can easily see the
charms of the Middle Eastern world as well as the terrible costs to the whole
world of this renewed appeal to a dysfunctional 7th century belief
system. The heavily filtered information flows and constant drumfire of hate
propaganda against Israel and the United States has corrupted even the best
educated in Egyptian society so that on her last visit to her family in 2001
she encountered ignorant statements that a generation earlier would have been
considered boorish.
Her chapter on the vicious consequences of polygamy on wives
especially, but ultimately on the men, the family, and the whole society is
described with careful analysis. The horrible results certainly argue against
any tinkering with our traditional one man – one woman families. The easy
availability of second wives poisons the family structure and prevents
friendships among adult women.
Nonie Darwish’s open enquiring nature found a natural home
in the United States and she can be counted as one of our citizens who
understands fully why America is such a wonderful place to live. Since she grew
up in Egypt and spent her first 3 decades as a careful observer and participant
in that culture she has important information for immigrants to the United
States from any of the Arab cultures. The chapter “A New Beginning in America”
should be read by every immigrant or visitor from an Arab culture. It will
allay unnecessary worries, and if acted on, will give the immigrant or visitor
opportunities for a life that was never possible in their home culture.
Throughout her book she makes comparisons of the cultures and expresses
surprise at the low value often expressed, particularly on college campuses,
about the value of a Western culture.
She explains that most mosques in the U.S. are under the
control of radical imams imported from and paid by Saudi Arabia and have become
places in which few self-respecting American Muslims would set foot. She
recommends that American Muslims hire their own imams, take back or build their
own mosques, and send the terrorist recruiters packing.
She has been shocked by the degree of radicalism she
encountered on American college campuses. Until she felt compelled to start
lecturing after 9/11, she had not encountered the Middle Eastern
anti-intellectualism and hate propaganda in America. She now knows it is
infecting the country she loves and needs to be exposed for its fraud it is.
This is a truly wonderful book and should be read by every
literate American. It can also be of tremendous value to any immigrant from an
Arab culture.