Sobre o Islã: A Afinidade entre Muçulmanos, Judeus e Cristãos e as Origens do Terrorismo

by Ali Kamel

Scholar's long-theme, Kamel is an interesting intersection of the teachings of the three main monotheistic religions of the world - Christianity, Judaism and Islam - to demonstrate that the general perception of the Muslim faith as a source of violence and terror is, to say the least, erroneous. Brazil, the son of a Syrian and a Muslim baiana Catholic (daughter, herself, a Muslim and a Catholic), and married to a Jew, he is unusually well situated to make an assessment without the prejudices and the passions which commonly turbid the view of many that focus on religious issues. 'This cultural melting pot I am fruit of which helped me to see where the religion is playing and where you deviate, "he says. Writing in order to arrest the attention, even the reader not particularly interested in political or religious topics, About Islam is a lesson in how to do a good analysis of a subject that occupies significant part of the news atual.E give the reader more sure that none of them is basic to the horror of terrorism. Kamel is a bestselling author. His first book, Não Somos Racistas (We're not Racist), about the differences between the United States and Brazil and the respective treatments for racial problems, was released in 2006 and is in its eighth printing. The news magazine Veja considered it one of the ten most important books of the year for a better understanding of Brazil and the world. His second, Sobre o Islã - A afinidade com cristãos e judeus e as origens do desvio terrorista (Islam - Its Kinship with Judaism and Christianity and the Origins of Its Terrorist Deviancy), was released in August 2007 and remained on the nationwide top ten list for ten weeks. His third book, Dicionário Lula (The Lula Dictionary), a scholarly work about Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil since January 2003, is of interest to sophisticated national and international readers of contemporary politics and history.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Ali Kamel nasceu no Rio de Janeiro em primeiro de janeiro de 1962. É diretor da CGJ, Central Globo de Jornalismo, da TV Globo. Desde o ano 2000, é casado com a jornalista Patricia Kogut, colunista do jornal O Globo desde 1995. Tem duas enteadas, Alice e Sofia. Seu pai, Ahmad, muçulmano, imigrante sírio, veio para o Brasil em 1950. Sua mãe, Zeny, é baiana e cristã, filha de Hamed, um também imigrante sírio, muçulmano, e Maria José, uma baiana, cristã, ambos já falecidos.

Formou-se, em 1983, em Ciências Sociais pelo Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Sociais da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro e, em 1984, em jornalismo pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro. Trabalhou na Rádio Jornal do Brasil, na revista Afinal, na revista Veja e no jornal O Globo, de onde saiu em 2001 como diretor-executivo de jornalismo. É no Globo que costuma publicar os seus artigos.

Gosta sempre de ressaltar que seu trabalho como autor de livros e artigos não se confunde com o que desempenha à frente dos veículos de imprensa em que trabalha ou que trabalhou.

Reviews

[Marcelo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ali Kamel wrote the right book for the right time. It was the height of Bush's war on terror, and the Western world had re-encounter the Arab world under the worst possible light. If you read it today, this book might seem a little too lenient with the anachronistic Islam culture and societies, but it was important at that time to have some kind of counterbalance.

The author focuses on the similarities rather than the differences that the Muslims have with the Israelites and the Christians. It has successfully tried to show that, apart from some small philosophical differences (and maybe the color of their skin) they are really very similar to us. They're human.

The last chapter is the one you could just as well rip off your copy of this book, because it deals with point politics which are now known not to be true or accurate, but the rest of the book is still a good first encounter with the Islam. It promises to dust off your prejudices using the best cleaner of all: information.

[Hugo Fusco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ainda lendo.

[Ricardo Viana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um livro muito interessante e que gostaria que muitos dos meus amigos lessem. O autor sustenta a tese de que as três grandes religiões monoteístas (Cristãos, Judeus e Muçulmanos) são muito mais próximas do que se imagina. Seria, em tese, um sopro de esperança de haja maior paz entre essas comunidades.

Discordo, contudo, da tese do autor sobre a motivação da invasão do Iraque pelos EUA.