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Woke Army: The Red-Green Alliance That Is Destroying America's Freedom
Woke Army uncovers a secret disinformation and character assassination campaign against courageous Muslim reformers and America itself.
From California to the West Bank, former Wall Street Journal reporter Asra Q. Nomani spans the globe, investigating a hidden network of keyboard warriors who hide behind fake identities and pseudonymous Twitter and Facebook accounts. These digital trolls launch virulent attacks against Muslim reformers and others who challenge their divisive attempts to destroy American freedoms.
In Woke Army , the author moves from being hunted by this network to being the hunter. The book uncovers the real identities of the network’s members, chronicles their secret operations, and reveals their impact on American public debate, from policing to education in our K–12 schools.
In doing so, Nomani uncovers an unholy alliance between radical Muslims, who preach jihad against Western freedoms, and far left activists whose divisive ideology turns all of society’s issues into a race war. The shock troops of this dangerous “red-green alliance” work in tandem, using harassment, threats, and bullying to silence critics, and labeling those who speak out as “Islamophobic” or “racist.”
A must-read for anyone who fears for America’s freedoms, Woke Army reveals what can happen when activism, radicalism, and the dark web collide.
From California to the West Bank, former Wall Street Journal reporter Asra Q. Nomani spans the globe, investigating a hidden network of keyboard warriors who hide behind fake identities and pseudonymous Twitter and Facebook accounts. These digital trolls launch virulent attacks against Muslim reformers and others who challenge their divisive attempts to destroy American freedoms.
In Woke Army , the author moves from being hunted by this network to being the hunter. The book uncovers the real identities of the network’s members, chronicles their secret operations, and reveals their impact on American public debate, from policing to education in our K–12 schools.
In doing so, Nomani uncovers an unholy alliance between radical Muslims, who preach jihad against Western freedoms, and far left activists whose divisive ideology turns all of society’s issues into a race war. The shock troops of this dangerous “red-green alliance” work in tandem, using harassment, threats, and bullying to silence critics, and labeling those who speak out as “Islamophobic” or “racist.”
A must-read for anyone who fears for America’s freedoms, Woke Army reveals what can happen when activism, radicalism, and the dark web collide.
412 pages, Paperback
Published February 14, 2023
51 people are currently reading
237 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 30, 2023
Forecast
This book, written before 10/7, shows the alliance which had been invisible to many before now, of Antifa and the Antifa-adjacent with those Muslims who hate Israel, visible in protests marked by vandalism and by violence, not only in words but in actions. The author herself answered Susan Sarandon’s hate-filled proposition that Jewish women in the US are experiencing what Muslim women here experience, by telling of the freedom here that women are denied in some Muslim countries.
This book, written before 10/7, shows the alliance which had been invisible to many before now, of Antifa and the Antifa-adjacent with those Muslims who hate Israel, visible in protests marked by vandalism and by violence, not only in words but in actions. The author herself answered Susan Sarandon’s hate-filled proposition that Jewish women in the US are experiencing what Muslim women here experience, by telling of the freedom here that women are denied in some Muslim countries.
April 28, 2023
America is asleep to the threat of islamo-leftism, which the author shines a light on. Each side wants to use the other as a lever to acquire power, despite deep-seated contradictions with the other side. Each side is willing to discard the other once their goals are achieved, and ordinary citizens will be the biggest losers regardless of which side wins. Highly recommend to read this along with Thomas Quiggin's books about the same problem in Canada.
March 18, 2023
While I certainly didn't go into this book expecting to agree with Nomani on all topics, I didn't expect...whatever this was.
Things are not going well when the first paragraph has a typo, referring to a suspected murder committed by the morality "policy" instead of "police." Not a big deal, but a first paragraph typo is a huge red flag.
After this intro, she introduces the groups and people she doesn't like. It's bizarre and is mostly a list of Islamic people in politics. And also Antifa and SPLC?
The rest of the book is a rather disjointed attack on people Nomani doesn't like. She tries to tie them together by attaching them to George Soros among other things. The general idea is that liberals are basically controlled by radical Islam. Radical Islam appears to be loosely defined as "muslims that disagree with me." I'm not a big fan of Medhi Hasan, but he isn't exactly comparable to Bin Laden.
Sourcing is a mess as well, because there isn't any. For example, there is a quote early in the book with a woman's march organizer quoted as saying "we can't center Jewish voices too much." There is no foot or end note related to this statement. So I googled it to see where it came from. The only place it came up was...Nomani's substack talking about the book. Another quote about "racial blackmail" was attributed to a "former organizer" who was anonymous for "fear of reprisal."
It's disjointed and strange and the idea that radical Islam is miraculous centered in Herndon, Virginia, near Nomani's house, is almost too goofy to believe. Of course, the book isn't really here to provide information but merely to extract money from like minded people. But this is not a good book. The central argument is radical Islam and and the left are aligned and Muslims are pushing "wokeness" to fool leftists. But really it just reads as a group of people that Nomani has clashed with or doesn't like. A muslim school board member and a TV host in California? Sure, they are all in on it.
At least Alex Jones has the ability to be comical when the words coming out of his mouth make no sense. No such luck here.
Things are not going well when the first paragraph has a typo, referring to a suspected murder committed by the morality "policy" instead of "police." Not a big deal, but a first paragraph typo is a huge red flag.
After this intro, she introduces the groups and people she doesn't like. It's bizarre and is mostly a list of Islamic people in politics. And also Antifa and SPLC?
The rest of the book is a rather disjointed attack on people Nomani doesn't like. She tries to tie them together by attaching them to George Soros among other things. The general idea is that liberals are basically controlled by radical Islam. Radical Islam appears to be loosely defined as "muslims that disagree with me." I'm not a big fan of Medhi Hasan, but he isn't exactly comparable to Bin Laden.
Sourcing is a mess as well, because there isn't any. For example, there is a quote early in the book with a woman's march organizer quoted as saying "we can't center Jewish voices too much." There is no foot or end note related to this statement. So I googled it to see where it came from. The only place it came up was...Nomani's substack talking about the book. Another quote about "racial blackmail" was attributed to a "former organizer" who was anonymous for "fear of reprisal."
It's disjointed and strange and the idea that radical Islam is miraculous centered in Herndon, Virginia, near Nomani's house, is almost too goofy to believe. Of course, the book isn't really here to provide information but merely to extract money from like minded people. But this is not a good book. The central argument is radical Islam and and the left are aligned and Muslims are pushing "wokeness" to fool leftists. But really it just reads as a group of people that Nomani has clashed with or doesn't like. A muslim school board member and a TV host in California? Sure, they are all in on it.
At least Alex Jones has the ability to be comical when the words coming out of his mouth make no sense. No such luck here.
April 21, 2023
The treatment ex-muslims face from leftists when they criticize Islam is unconscionable. The same vitriol far left radical’s extend toward even lukewarm Christian is nowhere to be found against even the most radicalized sects of Islam.
April 28, 2023
Very important book. The author convincingly makes the case for why to be cautious against the unholy alliance between Islamists and neo-Marxists. Given that she has been in the line of fire against both forces over her career, her insights on the modus operandi of these groups and how to counter their destructive agenda are invaluable. After reading her books, do listen to her interviews with Gad Saad and Rajiv Malhothra.
December 30, 2023
I was finishing this book up the day the Biden administration had scrubbed its association with CAIR.
This book illuminates how shadow islamist extremists used the do gooding progressive groups of the west in a post 9/11 fight against “islamophobia” ( a new term at the time)…
Come to 10/7/2023 I was shocked to find zero intersectionality when it came to islamist extremism/ terrorism and justification of rape / killing babies as resistance or “propaganda”
This book illuminates how shadow islamist extremists used the do gooding progressive groups of the west in a post 9/11 fight against “islamophobia” ( a new term at the time)…
Come to 10/7/2023 I was shocked to find zero intersectionality when it came to islamist extremism/ terrorism and justification of rape / killing babies as resistance or “propaganda”
October 16, 2024
I'm all ears to hear what she had to say, given her career investigating the alliance between so-called progressives and Islamists, who in our topsy-turvy world somehow square the circle between their support of anti-woman, regressive, oppressive, and fanatical regimes who claim to advance the "religion of peace." Even as they gather, strengthen, and embed the online and real-world network of anti-Christian, anti-semitic, LGBT, feminist, CRT, DEI, and other configurations who eagerly seek grants from the Proteus and Open Society funds (weirdly, George Soros backs with billions the SPLC and their organizations bent on demonizing "Zionists" or even Muslims who want a secular, tolerant alternative. Nomani tries to trace the money, the sock puppets, the trolls, and the smears that she and her fellow desktop counter-activists have documented, here in extreme detail.
Now, nothing wrong with tallying the IPLs, URLs, timestamps, geo-tracking, handles, domains, and underground stratagems concealing deeds of nefarious men and women bent on silencing their critics who dare to unmask the truth of the proud Muslims who in the name of their creator seek to justify the brutality they eke out against both their co-religionists and, of course, their many foes.
But this could have been done online. As a web project. In book form, the middle especially sags as the weight of such minutiae slows the already pedestrian pace to a halt. For all her expertise as a WSJ reporter, and a "forensic" journalist vowed to figure out the identities behind which grammar-challenged hostile forces try to take her and her comrades down, such clunky constructions as "a conversation being a one-way street" a "Catholic archdiocese" without any article as referent, the "disgraced" Reza Aslan without explaining how he got that way (and I do thank her for showing how unprofessional he and, to my surprise, Glenn Greenwald have been in their pro-Islamism in public and in private), and how the Ottoman Empire dissolved in late October 1914 rather than the conventional date of 1922 exemplify how her own writing needed to be honed, edited, and polished.
However, the narrative, such as it is in brief vignettes, often clogged with where a person was born, what his parents die, where he or she went to high school and then higher education, complete with dates, places, and residences et alia, does get a bit snappier around the George Floyd aftermath in 2020. When the focus pivots to her own home turf of Northern Virginia (I hadn't much of an idea beforehand how much "South Asian" tech employment has jumpstarted this formerly rural region), and the Youngkin-McAuliffe election for governor where the attempts to radicalize the curricula for the Palestinian cause backfired, and "woke" unity found itself for once on the other end of blowback, the content sustains itself better. One in retrospect sees how the patterns over the past couple of decades reveal the sustained Muslim investment in cultivating relationships in the Bush Jr., as well as the expected Obama administration (the storyline ends a bit too early to cover Biden).
I'd advise this as a work to consult rather than read all the way through, as I just did. It has valuable content, but the author herself doesn't come alive in her encounters with the "Honor Brigade," the "Squad" on Capital Hill, CAIR, and all the other alphabetical monoliths arrayed in a wall against her. It'd have succeeded better as either a first-person centered or a more detached study of these social forces. As it is, the two directions get jumbled, and the momentum of the work keeps bogging down.
Now, nothing wrong with tallying the IPLs, URLs, timestamps, geo-tracking, handles, domains, and underground stratagems concealing deeds of nefarious men and women bent on silencing their critics who dare to unmask the truth of the proud Muslims who in the name of their creator seek to justify the brutality they eke out against both their co-religionists and, of course, their many foes.
But this could have been done online. As a web project. In book form, the middle especially sags as the weight of such minutiae slows the already pedestrian pace to a halt. For all her expertise as a WSJ reporter, and a "forensic" journalist vowed to figure out the identities behind which grammar-challenged hostile forces try to take her and her comrades down, such clunky constructions as "a conversation being a one-way street" a "Catholic archdiocese" without any article as referent, the "disgraced" Reza Aslan without explaining how he got that way (and I do thank her for showing how unprofessional he and, to my surprise, Glenn Greenwald have been in their pro-Islamism in public and in private), and how the Ottoman Empire dissolved in late October 1914 rather than the conventional date of 1922 exemplify how her own writing needed to be honed, edited, and polished.
However, the narrative, such as it is in brief vignettes, often clogged with where a person was born, what his parents die, where he or she went to high school and then higher education, complete with dates, places, and residences et alia, does get a bit snappier around the George Floyd aftermath in 2020. When the focus pivots to her own home turf of Northern Virginia (I hadn't much of an idea beforehand how much "South Asian" tech employment has jumpstarted this formerly rural region), and the Youngkin-McAuliffe election for governor where the attempts to radicalize the curricula for the Palestinian cause backfired, and "woke" unity found itself for once on the other end of blowback, the content sustains itself better. One in retrospect sees how the patterns over the past couple of decades reveal the sustained Muslim investment in cultivating relationships in the Bush Jr., as well as the expected Obama administration (the storyline ends a bit too early to cover Biden).
I'd advise this as a work to consult rather than read all the way through, as I just did. It has valuable content, but the author herself doesn't come alive in her encounters with the "Honor Brigade," the "Squad" on Capital Hill, CAIR, and all the other alphabetical monoliths arrayed in a wall against her. It'd have succeeded better as either a first-person centered or a more detached study of these social forces. As it is, the two directions get jumbled, and the momentum of the work keeps bogging down.
July 5, 2024
This is the worst book I’ve read in a long time. Nearly every page has a typo. A grammar teacher could not diagram Nomani’s sentences. On top of these problems, the book is incoherent, merely raging against people the author personally dislikes. There’s no storyline at all.
You might be wondering about the 5-star reviews here and on Amazon. Well, that’s the power of right-wing accounts to promote this book. I encourage you to get this from the library (so you don’t give the author your money) to see how poor it is. You’ll realize those 5-star reviews are from people who definitely did not slog through this morass of a book.
If you do engage with this book, take some time to look up the people and groups with which Asra aligns. For example, run some of your own searches on Richard Spencer, Jihad Watch, Pamela Geller, and The David Horowitz Freedom Center. Do you remember the man who committed the horrific 2011 attacks in Norway that left over 80 youth slaughtered? He was inspired by Jihad Watch. When Nomani spews word salad and nonsense like "Cultural Marxism" she sounds stupid, but this stuff is also dangerous.
Further reading:
1. Norway attack suspect had anti-Muslim, pro-Israel views.(https://www.jpost.com/International/N...)
2. Bill Maher's favorite Muslims: How Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Asra Nomani embraced the soft Islamophobia of Western expectations. (https://www.salon.com/2015/07/13/bill...)
3. Cultural Marxism: Catching on.(https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-ha...)
You might be wondering about the 5-star reviews here and on Amazon. Well, that’s the power of right-wing accounts to promote this book. I encourage you to get this from the library (so you don’t give the author your money) to see how poor it is. You’ll realize those 5-star reviews are from people who definitely did not slog through this morass of a book.
If you do engage with this book, take some time to look up the people and groups with which Asra aligns. For example, run some of your own searches on Richard Spencer, Jihad Watch, Pamela Geller, and The David Horowitz Freedom Center. Do you remember the man who committed the horrific 2011 attacks in Norway that left over 80 youth slaughtered? He was inspired by Jihad Watch. When Nomani spews word salad and nonsense like "Cultural Marxism" she sounds stupid, but this stuff is also dangerous.
Further reading:
1. Norway attack suspect had anti-Muslim, pro-Israel views.(https://www.jpost.com/International/N...)
2. Bill Maher's favorite Muslims: How Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Asra Nomani embraced the soft Islamophobia of Western expectations. (https://www.salon.com/2015/07/13/bill...)
3. Cultural Marxism: Catching on.(https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-ha...)
January 13, 2024
I found this to be an insincere book. It is mostly a summary of all the times the author has been in online fights with data points of who fought with her and when. It's like watching someone with an ax to grind validate that she's right and they're wrong. It's the kind of book where the author just declares that she won debates on TV for no other reason other than that she thinks she did. Lol.
She also makes huge leaps without explanation. For instance, she says that anyone who is Pro Palestinian is an antisemite but she doesn’t back that up.
It's a shame because I agree with her about a lot of things such as how critical race theory can hurt a population and how a sincere conversation about progressive Islam would have merit. I wish she had expanded on those points but she doesn't. I see she's got another book on progressi Islam but I don't think I'll settle in for another book with this author. I had to push myself to finish this one as it was.
She also makes huge leaps without explanation. For instance, she says that anyone who is Pro Palestinian is an antisemite but she doesn’t back that up.
It's a shame because I agree with her about a lot of things such as how critical race theory can hurt a population and how a sincere conversation about progressive Islam would have merit. I wish she had expanded on those points but she doesn't. I see she's got another book on progressi Islam but I don't think I'll settle in for another book with this author. I had to push myself to finish this one as it was.
April 28, 2023
Read along with Douglas Murray's book "The Strange Death of Europe" for full effect.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews