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I have finished the book
now! I don’t think I would like to revise
my comment (#31) that I had made after
reading only 80 or so pages of the book.
In my opinion that comment is still valid.
In the first half of the book Tarek Fatah
takes the reader on a quick tour of the
House of Islam that was built with such
care by its founder, and furnished
elegantly. Tarek takes the reader to every
room in the house --- every nook and
cranny. He points out that the house has
not only fallen into disrepair but its
successive tenants have been painting the
house in loud and garish colors; there is
even graffiti on the walls; the carpets
have absorbed a lot of dust and also a lot
of muck has gathered under the carpets;
the windows have never been opened, the
carpets never aired, nor the muck
underneath cleaned. In fact, he says, the
successive tenants have changed the
original character of the house. He
implies, however, that after a wholesale
cleaning, fumigation, repairs, painting ,
and airing, the house can still become a
comfortable place to live.
The second part of the book came as a bit
of surprise to me as I have never been to
Canada and am not familiar with the Muslim
politics there. In this part the author
describes the conditions in Canada. Or,
rather the conditions the Muslim “brothers
and sisters” have created . Reading that
part of the book I felt as if I was
reading not about Canada but about the
NWFP when MMA was running its campaign
(can we use the word jihad for campaign?)
of “forbidding the evil and enforcing the
good”. I hope it is not true.
One may or may not agree with Tarek
Fatah's viewpoint, but I believe the book
needs to be read.
Aziz
Ahmad
New York
July 30,
2008
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