Insightful | Against Us: The New Face of America's Enemies in the Muslim World

Inquisitive Minds | Against Us: The New Face of America's Enemies in the Muslim World | Jim Sciutto

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	• Against Us: The New Face of America's Enemies in the Muslim World Jim Sciutto Harmony, 2008 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 12 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

"Care to talk about America?"

"As an American, you deserve to die." says the failed suicide bomber Jim Sciutto had occasion to interview face-to-face for Against Us.

In Against Us, Jim Scuitto presents a collection of interviews with a wide range of characters from different countries in the Muslim world. The topic of discussion is The United States. There are pro-democracy activists, hard core Al-Qaeda, pro-Hezbollah Christians just to name a few. There are byzantine conspiracy theories on everything from CIA earthquake generating super-bombs to Japanese Kamikazee pilots.

Scuitto reports on the growing problem The United States and the West face in the coming years: many in the Muslim world feel that the damage done is too severe to ever be corrected. Western talk of democracy and human rights is just that...talk, hypocritical talk at that and no amount of rebuilding or democracy can compensate for the damge done. The price in Iraqi blood was too great. Afghanistan has been left in the stone age 7 years after the invasion with bumper opium harvests. Israel is an American agent of domination in the region.

It's not all bad news. There are positive stories and there is some optimism that relations with The United States and the West can one day be repaired. The author doesn't bombard the reader with his opinion and instead reports on the content of his interviews with the people he meets.

Good reading no matter what your politics. Good reporting from Jim Scuitto. You have to have guts to sit down with a suicide bomber face-to-face and ask "care to talk about America?"

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Insightful

Book is well written and insightful. It makes me look at things differently. It was individual chapters that made it easy to read. Good Book.

Inquisitive Minds

Jim Sciutto isn't one of those typical Network Television reporters who dashes around war zones pretending to get shot at constantly and know more than the rest of us.

He is a even-handed student of the Islamic world, attempting in his own humble way to understand the ire and distrust that exists therein. I expect the negative reviewers, of whom there are few here, have not spent time in "moderate" Islamic countries like Egypt or Jordan, where entire populations have turned against the Bush Admin's blundering attempts to impose American "interests" on the the utter chaos that grips that part of the world. The top highlight of this book is a chapter on an Iraqi doctor in Baghdad who was "all-hail-to-the-Bush-Admin" when the war started and now believes every Anti-American conspiracy theory that raises its ugly head. Note that he is a Shiite Doctor, not a Sunni. It is important to know the difference! He was a supporter of "our man in Baghdad," Ahmed Chalabi, and now -- after treating thousands upon thousands of bloody victims from a holy war that had never existed in his homeland before the arrival of US troops -- he is thoroughly disenchanted with the American approach. Don't take my word for this. Read the chapter and you decide. Also, as one who spent several years in Egypt, and who has many good friends in that troubled land, I want to thank Jim Sciutto for digging up and revealing one of the most obvious but under-reported stories in the Islamic world today: American allies who love to torture! Sciutto takes the time to find a blogger, Wael Abbass, who runs Misr Digital, a blog that documents government abuse. Prison guards (Sound Familiar!) who happily videotaped and photographed torture sessions with government enemies, have provided Wael with footage from inside Egyptian prisons. Did we think they were torturing would-be suicide bombers? No. Actually they torture the moderates who are fighting the authoritarian regime that Washington supports! As Jim writes, "One woman ... is hog-tied to a broomstick suspended between two chairs. Her arms and legs are swung over the top, the backs of her knees resting on the stick. leaving her body hanging like an animal in a barbecue pit....She is still wearing her jewelry. Tears stream down her face." Why do we hear so little of this reported in the main stream press??? And, yes, we still give Egypt 2 billion a year for its own "security."

Hmm. And our CIA Director told Charlie Rose that the US takes Egypt at its word when they say they don't torture. We work closely with Egypt whenever we want to "render" a "bad guy." Can anyone wonder why even the moderates now accuse us of double standards? (Or was that the SAME standard?)

The founders of our great nation spoke of inalienable rights. They were talking about the human condition and they had set out to defend you and me. (Human beings of all persuasions.) These values are universal and -- low and behold -- most in the Islamic world also hold them to be self evident. They also hold us accountable as we should our own leaders.

Jim's book is a welcome wake-up call for all those who stupidly believe McCain's line that we are "on the road to victory." Eloquent and thoughtful, "Against Us" will go a way towards helping us all understand what went wrong and how to "WIN" this thing in the end.

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A MUST READ

Sciutto's book is a must read for anyone interested in knowing what's really going on all around us. Concise, informative, thought provoking, and entertaining.

In 2002 Jim Sciutto began filing in-depth reports on the Middle East for ABC News. Now, after nearly 100 assignments in Muslim countries, Sciutto brings back this disturbing truth: the Al-Qaeda?inspired view of an evil America bent on destroying Islam has moved from the fringes to the mainstream. Today, a surprising number of America?s enemies are not wild-eyed fanatics, but moderates?often middle-class and well educated, frequently young, many motivated by political convictions more than religious belief.

Sciutto profiles a cross-section of people in the Arab world, including a former Al-Qaeda jihadi turned electrician in Saudi Arabia, a Jordanian college student willing to risk his life by killing Americans in Baghdad, a Christian woman who supports Hezbollah in Lebanon, bitter pro-democracy advocates in Egypt who feel betrayed by the United States, and British-born Muslim terrorists living in London. The result is an alarming portrait of the depth and scope of anti-American sentiment.

Opposing America has become the unifying rallying cry for a rapidly growing pan-Arab nationalist movement. Conspiracy theories abound as Muslims begin to feel they are targeted by America, their political autonomy sabotaged. The Iraq war has become one of the most powerful recruiting tools for enemies of the United States.

Yet there is hope for America to turn the tide of hate. Sciutto talks with a young female student in Afghanistan who is cautiously optimistic that the United States will not fail her country in the rebuilding effort?and with a reformed jihadi in London who is finding ways to counsel young British Muslims away from their hatred of America. Democratic ideals are still held in high esteem, even as America?s perceived actions against Muslims are not.

Against Us is an urgent wake-up call for all Americans?and in particular those charged with formulating U.S. foreign policy?to rebuild relations with the Arab world and restore confidence in American values.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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