5 comments about The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason.

1. This book is an excellent take on the absurdity of religion and its power to render a dull, mind-numbing, irrational, and uninspiring view of the universe. Even for an atheist and an aspiring physicist as me, the last chapter was truly interesting on the mystery of consciousness. The man is clear-thinking and smart as can be.



2. While I truly enjoyed The End of Faith, it pales in intellectual clarity compared to David Eller's Natural Atheism. While Mr. Eller's book isn't as easy to read, it is infinitely more relevant for our time. Read Natural Atheism and you won't need to spend (waste) any more time discussing childish religions such as Christianity and Islam.



3. I am a huge Sam Harris fan and I really hope everyone will give this book a chance, despite any personal thoughts you have on whether or not God is real. This book is a fascinating examination of why religion is so prevalent in our world and why it seems to be a growing force in modern day politics. Also, I found the most interesting aspect of the book is not it's concern with religious fundamentalists but rather, the high number or religious moderates that essentially allow fundamentalists to say and do whatever they want under the protection of their "faith". Sam Harris is a great writer and keeps the book moving and definitely will make you question what you think about religion and your own beliefs!



4. I've now read this book by Sam Harris and also The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins -- both excellent pieces of work. Both very eye-opening and enlightening. For those of us who are tired of living under the oppression of the evangelicals of every religion; both Muslim and Christian specifically, this is a a wake-up call about how society itself needs to change before essentially opposing forces draw us all into a war that will ensure mutual destruction. Please recommend this book to anyone who needs to wake up from their religious delusions.



5. Sam Harris has the enormous talent and knowledge to clearly write what atheists and agnostics think and feel. He makes a strong case as to the strong link among intolerance and religion, perhaps even pointing at a new way to understand history, and particularly war and murder. Another venue of his clear presentation is the lack of evidence of the existence of god, any god. Our societies have built enormours superstructures of thought based on no evidence whatsoever. The consecuences are dire, limiting our abilities to create better more equal societies, and certainly less intolerant to others beliefs. I think this book is a breakthough.

5 comments about The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Vintage).

1. I have read extensively about Islamic terrorism and Al Qaeda and The Looming Tower is by far the most compelling and comprehensive book on this subject. It clearly lays out the social, philosophical and theological progression and foundations that led to 9/11. Though you may not agree, by the end of the book you clearly understand the radical extemist's rationale and the historic time line of the people and events that led to 9/11. Though it provides history, The Looming Tower reads like a novel which I could not put down. It is the seminal book on this subject.



2. A must read for any informed U.S. citizen. We all need to recommend it to our legislators for their reading..



3. wright prepared an excellent book. it's written as engagingly as a novel, but it is choke full of detail which has been corroborated. this was a fantastic page-turner. it did not provide the kind of detail that i sought regarding the actual attacks of 9/11, how individuals were trained and supported, etc. - it provided a comprehensive background on what was going on and who was involved. looking at the pages of interviews, pages of references, i am convinced of the thoroughness of the author and i appreciate why this book was the winner of the pulitzer prize. outstanding work!!!



4. Looming Tower should be required reading for all Americans. It is by far the best book about Al Qaeda and its antecedents. While it is extremely comprehensive, it is never boring. I find it extraordinary how Wright was able to develop such a book so soon after 9/11. It reads more like a book written 20 years after the fact rather than just 5 years.
   
   Wright is particularly good at "developing the characters of his story." In this it reads more like a great novel, rather than a typical non-fiction book. Wright creates fascinating portraits of Sayyid Qtub (the intellectual founder of modern Jihadism), Abdullah Azzam (the cleric who gave a fatwa calling on all Muslims to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, Ayman Al Zawahiri (the intellectual and organizational founder of Al Qaeda) and finally Osama Bin Laden (the financier and symbolic leader of Jihad), Jamal Al-Fadl (the defector who first told the incredulous FBI of the existence of the Al Qaeda), Ali Mohammed (who infiltrated the US Special Forces, copied their manuals and started the How to wage jihad encyclopedia).
   
   Particularly interesting is how all of these radical leaders came from the upper-crust of Arab societies. One might expect that their anger and violent rhetoric came from very poor people, but that is not the case.
   
   Also interesting is how Al Qaeda's strategy and organization gradually evolved out of a serious of historical accidents - the visit of Qtub to the USA; the imprisonment of Zawahiri after Sadat's assassination; the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; Zawahiri's work in a Kuwaiti hospital with radical Jihadi doctors; the near destruction of infant Al Qaeda in one small skirmish with the Soviet army; squabbles within Al Qaeda after the Soviets withdrew resulting in the assassination of Assam; the inability of the Arabs to return to their country after the war due to government hostility against the very people they recruited; the coup in Sudan which gave Al Qaeada a base just when they were losing their old one in Afghanistan; the USA passing up Sudan's offer to extradite bin Laden due to lack of evidence to prosecute him.
   
   Wright also dismantles the myth that Al Qaeda brought down the Soviet Union by destroying their army in Afghanistan. This is a foundational myth for Al Qaeda and key to understand their seemingly irrational desire to attack the USA. Wright shows that only a few hundred Arab troops were actually in combat, and they did so mostly after the Soviets started withdrawing. Arab troops did not come in large numbers until after the Soviets completely withdrew, and they spent most of their time fighting against Afghan Muslims and each other. Even by the end of the war, the organization was just one of dozens of almost irrelevant radical organizations.
   
   Wright somehow manages to maintain an objective perspective despite the murderous rhetoric, thoughts and action of his subjects.



5. It's encouraging that this is the #1 book on the topic of 9/11 in Amazon. It deserves to be. Not content with depicting the terrible events of 9/11, Wright brilliantly and logically draws out the origins of the nihilist religious movement that formed the ideological motor of 9/11. The roots of 9/11 are twofold: in the writings of Egyptian expatriate Sayyid Qutb, who ironically wrote his most inflammatory works while an academic guest in Colorado (some of Qutb's works form the Mein Kampf of Islamic extremism); and the toxic Wahhabi Muslim sect in Saudi Arabia. When you finish the chapters on these topics, you will thoroughly understand the repellent underpinnings of Saudi-specific culture, which in fact have very little to do with the humane face of Islam.
   
   Obviously, the central figure in this book is Osama Bin Laden, and you will also find yourself knowing more than perhaps you really wanted to know about this unusually prolific mass-murderer. In Qutb's and Bin Laden's world, the deaths of innocent Muslims are of no more value than blowing your nose in a Kleenex.
   
   The ultimate issue exposed beyond debate in this book is the calamitous incompetence of the CIA, coupled with the hidebound bureaucratic stupidity pervading all levels of the FBI, with its institutional rigidity and lack of acceptance of technology. The lion's share of the blame for the failure of the United States to forestall the attacks really has to be laid at the doors of President Bill Clinton and his CIA directors, who were responsible for the policies disallowing the CIA from sharing any intelligence information whatever with law enforcement authorities inside the US. Secondary blame has to be laid at the door of the Bush Administration, who had ample warning of impending attacks and had absolutely no interest in proceeding even with the lamentably weak anti-terrorism policies of the Clinton administration.
   
   But, ultimately, as I've noted, the CIA is really to blame as an institution for allowing the 9/11 attacks to succeed. It leaves an indelible impression of decadence and decline in America, and that particular institution should be disbanded and those CIA functionaries who did not share vital information with the FBI really should be thrown in prison for the rest of their lives, starting with ex-Director Tenet. There is no excuse for such meretricious incompetence. Absolutely none. My fondest hope is that one or two of the people mentioned in the book as having committed these acts of arrogant stupidity will read these words or those of others on this page. These CIA people have as much blood on their hands as Bin Laden, as far as I'm concerned.
   
   Can you tell I'm really, really angry with these people? You will be too, by the time you finish reading this book. The final chapter, "The Big Wedding," painstakingly describes the attack on the USS Cole and its aftermath, and clearly draws a direct line between that attack and the one that single-handedly (and ironically) ensured George Bush a second term. The book climaxes with a strikingly brief but utterly visual and devastating real-time narrative of the attacks as the ex-FBI man John O'Neill (another central figure in the book, who reminds me strongly of Tony Soprano if Soprano was a big-time FBI man) experienced them. This book will be read and discussed a century and more from now. It is an essential work of our time.

5 comments about The God Delusion.

1. The God Delusion Provides sound reasoning for disbelieving religion, and at the same time provides a general overview of a world-view based on fact. I was very disappointed in Dawkins for not articulating his arguments as well as I thought possible, it wasn't so much the point by point smack down of Christian theism that I expected. This is partly due to Dawkins writing style, and maybe partly due to his upbringing as an atheist. Those of us who grew up in the church, by happen-chance of our upbringing, have a more intimate view, by our own previous beliefs, of the mind-set of believers. Still it is an mind-opening book which I hope will continue to excite thinking, and perhaps conversion to rationalism. That is the purpose of the book: To convert god-having spiritualist to god-less atheist.



2. I found this the most enjoyable of the "Torah of Atheism":
   The God Delusion
   God is Not Great
   The End of Faith
   The Atheist Bible &
   Letter to a Christian Nation.
   
   The best part about reading this book (and the others) is that you realize that thare are a great many that share your thought on topics that you never really discussed in public. These books help you understand that it is ok to reject the nonsense that was drilled into us as unsuspecting children. As you read these books and start discussing them with friends you'll find that most (not all) agree with what Dawkins and the others have to say, yet they still are reluctant to switch teams. Be sensitive, though, to your friends that are among the faithful, some may be offended if you suggest that their beliefs are built on myths and lies.
   
   As a gift idea, you may want to send some of your independent minded friends "The Atheists Bible" as a Christmas present.



3. Book Review
   
   The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
   
   Richard Dawkins is a learned and eloquent writer. He knows his subject area fairly well, but he is naive or lacks sophistication when it comes to religion or theology. Like a number of atheists who have preceded him, he makes several valid points about historical Christianity and other forms of religion. However, much of Dawkins' presentation in The God Delusion is unprofessional, dogmatic, logically fallacious and unscholarly. With the limited time that I have, I would like to discuss a few problem areas of his book.
   
   First, Dawkins hastily and uncritically asserts that the Gospel writer Luke errs when he writes that a census happened in the days of Governor Quirinius. While it admittedly is not that easy to unravel the historical difficulties that revolve around the account in Luke 2:1-3, a reasonable person would admit that we do not have enough information to make an educated decision regarding Luke's much debated speech act. As Daniel Wallace suggests, the account resists simplistic interpretive reductions. But one does not have to conclude that Luke made a historical mistake. Especially is this the case in view of the many other historical details that Luke reports accurately (Luke 3:1; Acts 11:27-30; 16:11-15; 17:6; 18:12-16; 28:7).
   
   Dawkins is also good at attacking straw men such as certain aspects of intelligent design theory. For instance, on page 132, he puts words into the mouth of an "imaginary" intelligent design theorist. Dawkins makes this "imaginary" intelligent design theorist say that serious inquiry regarding how nerve impulses work or how memories are made in the brain ought to be avoided. Rather, all such phenomena must simply be attributed to God. But is this the position of intelligent design theory? No it is not. This form of intelligent design theory only exists in the imagination of Dawkins. But this straw man argument illustrates the modus operandi of our author.
   
   To quote William Dembski:
   
   "For the scientific community intelligent design represents creationism's latest grasp at scientific legitimacy. Accordingly, intelligent design is viewed as yet another ill-conceived attempt by creationists to straightjacket [sic] science within a religious ideology. But in fact intelligent design can be formulated as a scientific theory having empirical consequences and devoid of religious commitments. Intelligent design can be unpacked as a theory of information. Within such a theory, information becomes a reliable indicator of design as well as a proper object for scientific investigation."
   
   On page 133 of his work, Dawkins quotes Judge Jones, who presents Behe in a negative light as does Eric Rothschild (chief counsel) who also uses arguments made of straw or caricatures to supposedly defeat "Professor Behe and the entire intelligent design movement" since they allegedly "are doing nothing" to advance scientific or medical knowledge. However, Behe has offered a response which one can find at the website Uncommon Descent. In part, Behe's response states:
   
   "The Court's reasoning in section E-4 is premised on: a cramped view of science; the conflation of intelligent design with creationism; the incapacity to distinguish the implications of a theory from the theory itself; a failure to differentiate evolution from Darwinism; and strawman arguments against ID. The Court has accepted the most tendentious and shopworn excuses for Darwinism with great charity and impatiently dismissed arguments for design.
   
   All of that is regrettable, but in the end does not impact the realities of biology, which are not amenable to adjudication. On December 21, 2005, as before, the cell is run by amazingly complex, functional machinery that in any other context would immediately be recognized as designed. On December 21, 2005, as before, there are no non-design explanations for the molecular machinery of life, only wishful speculations and Just-So stories."
   
   Many other examples could be given of the propaganda found in Dawkins' book. Those with open minds may be able to see who is deluding who.



4. I was stuck at the airport for five hours with nothing to do, so I bought this book. The main selling point for me was that Stephen Pinker, one of my favorite authors, endorsed it in comments on the inside cover. I was hoping it would help me understand or refute my beliefs--which is essentially that God doesn't intervene in the universe or reward or punish us with heaven or eternal damnation, and is therefore irrelevant--but unfortunately it didn't help. I figured he'd give me his best shot in Chapter 4--Why There Almost Certainly is No God, but it was not convincing so I stopped reading. Maybe I missed something, but it seems that his primary argument about the nonexistence of God is that if there was, who made God? A fair enough question, but an equally fair question is if there is no God, how is that there is a universe? I was hoping for a scientific discussion of how the universe could have been created without the interference of a god, but none was presented. That got me wondering why his views are so strong, to the point of zealous non-believer. Maybe he has some ax to grind. Overall, I was disappointed that the book did nothing to help me understand or better define my beliefs.



5. ... but unlikely to convince many theists because, frankly, what will? However, unlike Sam Harris
   The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
   or Christopher Hitchens
   God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
   Dawkins is at least respectful even if he strongly disagrees with theists. He does seem to be making a sincere effort addressed to them and not at them (as Harris and Hitchens seem to have done). I was surprised just how respectful Dawkins is, not of the religions but of the theists he addresses. And given his world-class understanding of evolutionary biology and clear presentation, those less die-hard in their theism or still hanging on to their religious upbringing may think twice after reading this book: in fact, as reading this and just recent Daniel Dennings'
   Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
   I registered as a Bright (as Dawkins and Dennings have done) online at the Brights Network. As a good scientist, Dawkins knows that any belief in the supernatural, not just in a supernatural God, is delusional. Many, including myself, have been slow to acknowledge that because many of us have been raised in supernaturally soaked environments: it can take a long time to wean ourselves from the comfort of not only a belief of some supernatural kind in God, of supernatural Buddha nature, of the soul and life after death as someone else would tell us it is.
   
   Dawkins is not without admiration for the canonical Jesus. But he includes some enlightening quotations from Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson: "Christianity is the most perverted system ever shone on man": I'd like to learn more of the context that elicited that remark) and from the treaty with Tripoli signed by John Adams in 1797 which should definitely make anyone claiming the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation wince. Dawkins does express great concern with the among of "religious fanaticism" to be found in the U.S. today. Dawkins alludes to Christopher Hitchins' biography
   Thomas Jefferson: Author of America (Eminent Lives): that a biologist of such renown as Dawkins knows so much more about our founding fathers than I do puts me to shame.
   This is a book well worth reading and re-reading. It may be the best non-fiction work I have read in the past year. Along with Dennett's "Breaking the Spell" and Carl Sagan's
   The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
   it has help, as it has me, to the power to let go of any hanging on any vestige from your childhood of "the God Delusion".

No comments about The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State (Council on Foreign Relations).

5 comments about A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.

1. A Long Way Gone is one of the few books I have read in one sitting. This memoir is a glimpse of what is happening under our noses in the world during the last decade. Too often isolated from unreported terrors and the horrors of civil war, Beah tells a frightful first hand account of a life filled with desparation brought on by the will to just survive. The book erases any illusions that children of war torn regions live with the security found in the west. While not explicitly stated, the book in the end is a reality check on one's worldview.



2. This book was an eye opening dipiction of the life of a child soldier in Sierra Leone. Beah's novel shows the journey that this young man took from being forced to fight in a war that robbed him of his innocence to his ultimate rehabilitation. It is a must read and should be required reading for high school students.



3. When reading this book, one must keep some distance between oneself and the narrative, to not be overwhelmed by the horrors that are described. Fortunately, the writing style helps the reader maintain this distance. Writing in a very matter of fact style, perhaps even too matter of factly, Beah describes his efforts to avoid getting pulled into the civil war in Sierra Leone and his actions when he is eventually "recruited" to join the army.
   
   The bulk of this book is quite bleak, by necessity. But Beah shows a talent for story-telling throughout, especially in the more hopeful sections of the book, when he describes his life before the civil war struck his village and after his "rehabilitation".



4. We are so sheltered in the US -- it's amazing what this young man had to endure and that he was able to rise above all the horrible things and really make something of his life.



5. This book tells a story that the world has not heard about the life of a child soldier. Some of it is shocking to say the least, but it needs to be read and understood. Get a box of tissues and settle in on a wet day.

5 comments about God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

1. Hitchens often strident writing style is no less aflame in his approach to religion (just note his subtitle), positioning himself as the "Huey Newton" to Dawkins' "Martin Luther King" -- if one were to draw parallels between the two civil rights movements (Civil rights?...for atheists? Just in case you are still wondering what's driving this "new" atheism). This book is classic Hitchens.
   
   Hitchens is, most certainly, tossing meat to the lions here, and in the hands of a lesser writer, this might likely relegate his polemic to obscurity. But, to the contrary, Hitchens' tireless battle toward bringing his reader closer to the truth with a litany of unique sources unlike what any other writer puts on the table, actually earns Hitchens his own facet on the gem of atheist intellectualism. His well-earned international respect as a correspondent, columnist, and political mind, has given him such access to so many special people and places, this book becomes far more than a literary perspective. It is a uniquely rational perspective of some of the most influential religious figures and ideas of our times.



2. While Hitchens' book is entertaining I recommend that anyone looking for a serious and intellectually solid discussion of atheism read David Eller's Natural Atheism and his follow-up book Atheism Advanced. Mr. Eller gets down to the real philosophical concepts behind religion and makes you proud to be a free-thinker instead of a moron. Pseudo-philosophy only goes so far in advancing understanding and while useful, is far from complete. If there's a better dissection of the morass called religion out there somewhere than Mr. Elder's books then please clue me in because I haven't seen it yet.



3. I save my highest shelf for only my most favorite, treasured books. Hitchens' latest, _God Is Not Great_, is certainly one of these. Not only are his well-argued views fascinating to read, they are also a *pleasure* to read due to his gifted, fluid, attention-holding writing style.
   
   My only criticism of the book would be that he does, occasionally, come off as arrogant and omniscient when it comes to speaking of those who are believers. Among my family and friends, I am virtually alone as a non-believer, and am sensitive to and respectful of their beliefs. I don't like to see those beliefs unnecessarily belittled, but perhaps I will change my mind as I age. All of that said, this one criticism isn't enough for me not to give his book five stars.
   
   It is unfortunate that more people on the other side of the religion debate aren't actually reading this. Like other reviewers who loved this book, I strongly suspect that many of the people who vitriolically trash it probably haven't even read it and are just displaying an emotional reaction. Personally, I believe this is just a microcosm of what we see in Western society today, and perhaps the world over: It seems like more and more people are less willing to read about or listen to viewpoints that oppose their own. We all have a tendency toward this, of course. It takes effort and intellectual fortitude to fight this tendency and expose oneself to thoughts that don't echo our own. I say that from personal experience.
   
   I hope Hitchens continues to write and expound upon all sorts of topics until he draws his last breath. What a beautiful mind.



4. I'm something of a Hitchens fan. I enjoy his books, as much for their unimpeachable grammar as for their arguments. The man has a solid intellect. But he seems to give little creedence to the way religion is actually lived by average people.
   
   On the one hand, I resent my Catholic upbringing. The classical notion of God as an anthropomorphic father figure arbitrating our conduct and dispensing rewards and punishment is a complete fallacy, surprise surprise. Yes there's dogma and superstition, who'd have guess?
   
   But then there's people like my mom, who attends mass every Sunday and is active in the church. She's not dogmatic. She doesn't proselytize. She definitely believes in heaven and hell and I don't, but her beliefs don't threaten me in any way. For her it's a community thing. A way to feel connected to her neighbors and bake cookies and listen to Father Jim tell bad jokes about the Chicago Bears. For her it's a crutch maybe, but we all prop ourselves up with illusions of one sort or another.
   
   Fundamentalism is dangerous, and no rational person needs a book to point that out. But how is middle-American, middle-minded, mainstream Christianity a pernicious social ill?
   
   One other point:
   A major theme in the atheist argument, (which I on the whole support) goes like this: Religion is responsible for some of the worst atrocities in history. These evils outweigh any good in a religious tradition.
   
   For me, the interesting question is not whether the evil outweighs the good, but whether said atrocities would have been committed anyway in the absence of religious motive. Both questions are hypothetical, granted, and useless for anything other than intellectual masturbation, but the same could be said for on-line book reviews.
   
   I personally feel that religion is used to justify and rationalize crimes, but that the main motive is usually wealth. The colonization of Africa and the New World was marketed as an attempt to save souls, but the main prize was land and natural resources. Perhaps religion made it palatable, but 'free trade' and 'global commerce' would have sufficed just as well.



5. A tour de force for the skeptical mind. His unrelenting style catches some off guard and offends many believers, but his conclusions are unassailable. If you have any interest in religion, God is Not Great has something for you. Though not for the faint of heart (Chapter 5 is titled "The Metaphysical Claims of Religion are False"), anyone with an open mind and an appreciation for great writing will have a hard time putting this one down. A thought provoking read for both believers and non-believers alike (though it's polemic style is unlikely to convert any.)

5 comments about America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It.

1. Steyn does his homework. If you like information on demographic trends, certain projects of what the future might be for Europe, Japan, and the U.S. then this is a great read.
   
   It is quite sobering and may even depress you a bit based on how Europe is changing with a massive influx of muslims coming in from Moracco the Middle East and Southeast Asia. There are a few points I would disagree with Steyn on Japan. I do believe the Japanese purposely want their population to go down slowly given the size and resources of their archipeligo nation, it isn't diminishing because of mass infusion of new workers from the Islamic world. For the Japanese, it's a shrewd move on their part.
   
   However, Europe is another issue. It's a mess. The caucasian races are not producing children and to keep their over-inflated social systems in place (something we may have contributed in the formation with the Marshall Plan)... they need new workers, blood, even if it comes from the places vastly different in values to their own. The French city riots that happened a few years ago had substantially large numbers of youth from muslim households. Certain laws in England have been changed to accommodate a more aggressive Islamic population living there. These are only a few of the changes being seen today.
   
   Steyn gives some provocative points and a decent level of raw and refined data to show this demographic shift. The long-term ramifications are what shaped the title of the book... "America Alone." That sense that we might be alone among the nations may happen sooner than we imagine. Although there are some who would say we always have been "alone," and that America has always marched to a different drummer than the Europeans.
   
   Overall, a good read, and definitely a source of discussion for many. I do recommend his work. Admittedly, it focuses on demographics, and I feel Steyn could have expanded this further.



2. For anyone concerned about the threat of radical Islam and had always planned to research more about it, Mark Steyn has done us a great service. He lays out clearly the depth and breadth of the threat, and it is sobering to behold. Insightful and well-written. In fact, it's so well-written it cost him a star - there are plenty of times he is so eager to show you what a gifted writer he is that he fails to communicate. Well worth your time, though.



3. Interesting and griping fact centered book. However, authors attempt at humor while writing of such a serious subject did not sit well with me. I am so afraid he is right, just not funny.



4. I read Mark Steyn's America Alone, when it came out last fall, I haven't had a good night's sleep since.
   
   The whole time I was reading this book, I kept hearing the Gwen Stefani cover of "It's the end of the world as we know it" (but I didn't feel fine) for all those who think America is not that great, try to imagine a world without the USA. The only country in history that had the power to subjegate the world, that didn't try. You can take all the conspiracy theories for what you think they are worth, but the demographic trends oulined here are truly frightening.



5. Heard great review on talk radio and had to read it myself. Great book. Perhaps too many attempts at humor, but still a great read.

5 comments about Infidel.

1. I found this book to be spell binding. It is the best explanation of Islam and it's role in society today that I've ever read. I think it should be required reading in high schools and universities all over American.



2. If you're interested in an inside look at the way Muslim women are viewed and treated, this is a book you need to read. Ayaan Ali's writing is engaging from the first sentence. Although many of her experiences were shocking and sad, she doesn't wallow in self pity. She's a woman to be admired for telling the truth about a controversial subject.



3. I found Infidel absolutely riveting! The early mapping of clans, and their names was somewhat difficult to follow, but necessary to the story line. This woman speaks the unspeakable which nearly cost her her life and still may. She makes us realize that just the ability to think and have opinions is not a right, it's a privlege we westerners take for granted. She is an inspiration in honesty and courage that sets the bar very high for the rest of us.



4. Ms. Hirsi Ali is an amazing woman and at the top of my list of heroes. She struggled against religious oppression and sexism by leaving her home, her family, her community, her country. Having developed an exemplary life and career in the Netherlands, She learned English, became a member of the Dutch parliament, yet she didn't sit back and enjoy her new life of freedom, which she had worked so hard and risked her life to attain. Instead, she became an articulate writer speaking out against Islam, making her a target for murder by radical Islamists and causing her to have to leave the Netherlands and live her life under armed guard. She did this in an attempt to educate others about the reality of Islam and to speak out on behalf of women, who are enslaved within Islamic countries because of religious beliefs. Ms. Hirsi Ali is a hero for sacrificing her own freedom in an effort to end the enslavement of others. The book is a real eye opener and a must read if one wishes insight into the Middle East.



5. A revealing and insightful book by a courageous woman. I wrote in my novel Standup Comedian: The Secret and Beyond "Believing God condones inhumanity is foolish. Believing God needs a man's help to run the world is vanity."
   
   Sadly, in the West such thinking still exists, but sadder still is how deeply such rot permeates thinking, or should I say, lack of thinking, in other areas. Show me a third world country and I will show you a country that doesn't educate their women. Half the mind power of such nations is wasted.
   
   Fortunately for mankind Ayaan Hirsi Ali escaped and is free to speak out against discrimination; sexual, religious, political,and racial. Everyone should read this book.
   
   Kenneth Ray Taylor author of Beyond the Shadow of Death: Book One of the Adam Eden Series

5 comments about American Heroes: In the Fight Against Radical Islam (War Stories).

1. If you want to know why we must fight and prevail in the war against Jihadist fascism, Oliver North provides us with a series of inspiring stories. This is a book for all Americans to read, and to remember. Bravo Zulus, Ollie, for once again giving us a ground-level sit-rep that we all must take to heart.
   John Weisman



2. This book is a great addition to the conversation about our troops overseas. Oliver North is such a class act and really understands the plight of the men and women serving our country. With the addition of Chuck Holton (a former Army Ranger), this book is a sure bet to giving a true depiction of our American Heroes.



3. With all the different opinions and false information shown in the media the war on terror has become something we are unsure and confused about. This book comes out and clears things up. A Must Read!



4. It has been a challenge to gather accurate, encouraging information and insight into this conflict due to the fact that it is an unpopular endeavor among leading media outlets. I know Chuck Holton personally and have been following his work with Oliver North so that I know how much time and effort has been invested in delivering this insightful book. It is very refreshing to get my hands on information written and compiled by men with integrity who are committed to truth.



5. This is a high quality book in the National Geographic style. Well illustrated with scenes of the young people that are doing the job and relevant articles about their heroics. Not all heroics is dodging bullets and bombs. Sometimes it's taking the time to comfort a child or give aid to a civilian. Even enemy combatants are cared for by the troopers after the shooting stops. I give this book my highest recommendation. This is money well spent.American Heroes: In the Fight Against Radical Islam (War Stories)

5 comments about Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time.

1. I have told everyone I know who reads a lot to buy this book. It is very good



2. Greg Mortenson lives a truly inspiring life. Three Cups of Tea is a well-written story that is filled with adventure, challenges, and proof that a dream and persistence can have far-reaching results. Friends and family have thanked me for guiding them to this wonderful book. Enjoy.



3. I was sold on what this book was going to be about. I mean who doesn't want to read about great things! But it's too bad that they couldn't get a better writer to tell a great story. What a SHAME!



4. A perfect read - I don't even know how to accurately describe it. The incredible impact one person can have on the world. I finished reading a few days ago and it has made me constantly think of my life and what I can do. The writing isn't perfect but it isn't bad and I think it gave the book a REAL quality. It didn't feel overly written and composed. Don't get so caught up in grammar and nit picky items that you aren't completely inspired. A brilliant story about an amazing individual selflessly improving the lives of others. I expect this book will be life changing .



5. The cover and title make it sound like a chick book. This is a book for everyone. There is high adventure throughout. The story is amazing and will touch your heart as well as your need for speed and your need to identify with various tough guy heroes. The tone stays mostly neutral on the pros and cons of the Islam/US strife, just sicking to telling the story. You will not want to put this book down.