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Border Crossings: My Journey as a Western Muslim
Whether negotiating the mind-games of the Israeli intelligence services or performing ablutions in a London bathroom, Mohammad Chowdhury’s life as a British Muslim travelling the world brings daily challenges. Border Crossings is the story of Chowdhury’s journey, gripping in some parts and shame-inducing in others, as he describes a lifelong struggle to reconcile the British, Asian and Muslim sides of his identity, constantly dealing with the mistrust of Westerners alongside the hypocrisies of his own community and their misunderstanding of Islam.
Chowdhury's story echoes the experience of thousands of Western Muslims who since 9/11 have been subjected to a constant barrage of questions that cast doubt over the very goodness of their faith. It is the story of a man who cries when England win the Ashes, yet still finds himself screaming in the face of racism and religious bigotry. This timely book powerfully rejects the poisonous narrative that Muslims can no longer be trusted as honest citizens of the West.
Chowdhury's story echoes the experience of thousands of Western Muslims who since 9/11 have been subjected to a constant barrage of questions that cast doubt over the very goodness of their faith. It is the story of a man who cries when England win the Ashes, yet still finds himself screaming in the face of racism and religious bigotry. This timely book powerfully rejects the poisonous narrative that Muslims can no longer be trusted as honest citizens of the West.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published June 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 12, 2021
What a journey!! Love it.
June 27, 2021
I really enjoyed, and learned from, this book in which Mohammad’s experiences provide many insights for our increasingly multi-cultural world. His focus on balancing being both Muslim and Western provides a rich narrative for much reflection.
July 26, 2021
Every bit an ultra successful professional -- Oxford-Cambridge-Harvard (yes, all three) education, work experiences across the world’s best consulting firms and telecom companies, consulting a plethora of governments including the ‘sthans’ after the disintegration of the U.S.S.R., middle east, south east -- Mohammad T. Chowdhury digs inwards to understand his origin, his religion, his language, his race, his countries of birth and residence, and draws up an account of his life so far. Border Crossings is this leading, sought-after emerging markets technology expert's journey, in his own words, “as a western Muslim”.
Of Bangladeshi origin, Mohammad starts off from the times his parents migrated from Bangladesh to London in the late 1950s and built their lives there. Growing up as a brown-skinned Muslim boy, Mohammad recounts, on one hand, the ethni-cultural differences they adjusted to, the racial bullying they endured; and his endeavours to understand his own religion, its practises and how they matched or differed with his education and overall beliefs. Thereafter, the book takes numerous tracks – in one track, Mohammad traces his religion, Islam, through the non-Islamic world’s curiosity in the pre-9/11 era, and their countless aspersions and accusations in the post-9/11 world; in another track, he meanders through an extremely detailed and honest peek into his own pursuit to understand his faith through its scriptures, practises and the Arabic language; in yet another track, Mohammad recounts his lifelong attempts to integrate with his Bangladeshi lineage and master his mother tongue, Bangla. Through all these run one line that is constant -- his innumerable travels and his innumerable border crossings, few of which stood out like movie plots!
A ~350-page book, I read Border Crossings slowly. For here is an intimate account by a man who chases his own queries and curiosities arising from his ethnicity, his faith, his liberal education and his cosmopolitan world; goes halway around the world to learn more and find answers; and comes out reconciled, gloriously, with his lineage, his faith, his liberal and secular beliefs and his plurality. His search across the many countries, communities and cultures he works and lives in, yields him a firm footing. He speaks about the good and the bad of his religion objectively, shows its universal appeal, points to its restrictive practices and lays down how it can resurrect itself to its former glory. His eventual triumph and closures are an education in itself...
Having lived as a Probashi Bangali in different parts of India and travelled across many countries, I identify with his need to keep safe his beliefs and cultural roots, while at the same time, assimilate those around him. The key, as he too points out, is to integrate with the right mix....
Strongly recommend Border Crossings to all who love deep, serious reads, and are willing to understand the world of a devout and liberal Muslim in these prejudiced times.
Of Bangladeshi origin, Mohammad starts off from the times his parents migrated from Bangladesh to London in the late 1950s and built their lives there. Growing up as a brown-skinned Muslim boy, Mohammad recounts, on one hand, the ethni-cultural differences they adjusted to, the racial bullying they endured; and his endeavours to understand his own religion, its practises and how they matched or differed with his education and overall beliefs. Thereafter, the book takes numerous tracks – in one track, Mohammad traces his religion, Islam, through the non-Islamic world’s curiosity in the pre-9/11 era, and their countless aspersions and accusations in the post-9/11 world; in another track, he meanders through an extremely detailed and honest peek into his own pursuit to understand his faith through its scriptures, practises and the Arabic language; in yet another track, Mohammad recounts his lifelong attempts to integrate with his Bangladeshi lineage and master his mother tongue, Bangla. Through all these run one line that is constant -- his innumerable travels and his innumerable border crossings, few of which stood out like movie plots!
A ~350-page book, I read Border Crossings slowly. For here is an intimate account by a man who chases his own queries and curiosities arising from his ethnicity, his faith, his liberal education and his cosmopolitan world; goes halway around the world to learn more and find answers; and comes out reconciled, gloriously, with his lineage, his faith, his liberal and secular beliefs and his plurality. His search across the many countries, communities and cultures he works and lives in, yields him a firm footing. He speaks about the good and the bad of his religion objectively, shows its universal appeal, points to its restrictive practices and lays down how it can resurrect itself to its former glory. His eventual triumph and closures are an education in itself...
Having lived as a Probashi Bangali in different parts of India and travelled across many countries, I identify with his need to keep safe his beliefs and cultural roots, while at the same time, assimilate those around him. The key, as he too points out, is to integrate with the right mix....
Strongly recommend Border Crossings to all who love deep, serious reads, and are willing to understand the world of a devout and liberal Muslim in these prejudiced times.
June 13, 2021
Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy. It bothered me that this memoir was not really written in chronological order, from what I could tell--there were many flashbacks embedded within stories. The author balances discussions of racism from all different cultures, picking the best from different cultures instead of picking one camp over the other, and sticking to faith rather than culture. Many times I was tempted to forgo finishing the book, but I am happy that I continued to the end. I found many gems of wisdom, while skipping the parts that were not interesting to me. I think a timeline and a map of all the places Chowdhury traveled to would have been a great addition. I did not believe some of the anecdotes in the story (it doesn't seem plausible to me that all of these things would happen). While written for an adult audience, this would even be a great book for any young adult immigrant or anyone being raised in a different culture than one's ethnic origins.
July 21, 2021
I found Border Crossings to be an important and timely book that provides useful perspectives not only for Muslims living in the West, but for anyone looking to deepen and expand their understanding of identity and their place in a globalised world. The author has courageously penned a deeply personal account of his life in this book, and the reader is therefore the beneficiary of his unique perspectives and original insights across a multitude of topics which are more relevant today than ever. These are interwoven with brilliant story telling of his adventures traversing exotic places, providing a kaleidoscopic view on life, identity and Islam in the modern world. Enlightening, moving, hilarious and above all else relatable - a captivating read which I benefited from and enjoy greatly!
November 16, 2021
This is a thoroughly enjoyable book where the author shares his personal journey through life, a life story that crisscrosses cultural and societal differences within countries as well as across national borders. A continuous quest to understand his religion better and how to practice it as the circumstances of life changes. Even if my journey is rather different, I found the reflections highly relevant for my thoughts around identity and living with/in different cultures. Highly recommended.
June 14, 2022
I discovered this book through “meeting” the author in the online Oxford Alumni Book Club. There were lots of aspects of this book that I found both fascinating and enlightening. As a white Christian British woman and a British-born Muslim of Bangladeshi heritage, we have many shared experiences (growing up in 1960’s / ‘70s, undergraduate study at Oxford University, a religious faith) and also many differences.
I was struck by many of his observations about Muslims who confuse cultural customs with religious duty, and Islamic fundamentalists whose hard-line attitudes are often assumed by non-Muslims to be central to what Islam is all about. I feel similar frustration with fundamentalist Christians, who lack sufficient scholarship to understand, for example, that the Bible and science are not in contradiction to one another, and with those who fail to realise that much of what has been peddled as Christian doctrine has been influenced by the society in which it was developed.
We are transported across the globe to many interesting places and told poignant personal stories of their inhabitants: Lebanon, with communities of Christians and Muslims apparently living totally separate lives; Damascus, an ancient city home to all the Abrahamic religions where a Christian tells the author “that they preferred to be ruled by an Arab of their kind rather than brutal Europeans who happened to share their faith but savaged their women and usurped their lands and artefacts”; Kazakhstan, where “ the local city mayor wept as I read to her in Arabic from a copy of the Quran she had kept hidden in her home for years, as it had been ruthlessly banned in Soviet times.”; and the Sylhet region of Bangladesh, which is home and yet not home, where family can be both inspiring and frustrating, where some customs are admirable and others demeaning.
This book is an eye-opener for white British people, whether they view Islam as a “foreign” religion or part of today’s British cultural landscape, with Muslims fully integrated into society. It also has things to day to Muslims about distinguishing between religious and cultural practices and the difference between going through religious motions and true submission to God – something that many Christians could do with considering too!
An enduring theme of the book is the difficulty that a Muslim born and growing up in the West has in being accepted - both by the citizens of his birth country and by those of the country from which his parents came. He is an outsider in both communities. I was pleased that, by the end of the book, he seems to have found a way of becoming accepted by both.
I was struck by many of his observations about Muslims who confuse cultural customs with religious duty, and Islamic fundamentalists whose hard-line attitudes are often assumed by non-Muslims to be central to what Islam is all about. I feel similar frustration with fundamentalist Christians, who lack sufficient scholarship to understand, for example, that the Bible and science are not in contradiction to one another, and with those who fail to realise that much of what has been peddled as Christian doctrine has been influenced by the society in which it was developed.
We are transported across the globe to many interesting places and told poignant personal stories of their inhabitants: Lebanon, with communities of Christians and Muslims apparently living totally separate lives; Damascus, an ancient city home to all the Abrahamic religions where a Christian tells the author “that they preferred to be ruled by an Arab of their kind rather than brutal Europeans who happened to share their faith but savaged their women and usurped their lands and artefacts”; Kazakhstan, where “ the local city mayor wept as I read to her in Arabic from a copy of the Quran she had kept hidden in her home for years, as it had been ruthlessly banned in Soviet times.”; and the Sylhet region of Bangladesh, which is home and yet not home, where family can be both inspiring and frustrating, where some customs are admirable and others demeaning.
This book is an eye-opener for white British people, whether they view Islam as a “foreign” religion or part of today’s British cultural landscape, with Muslims fully integrated into society. It also has things to day to Muslims about distinguishing between religious and cultural practices and the difference between going through religious motions and true submission to God – something that many Christians could do with considering too!
An enduring theme of the book is the difficulty that a Muslim born and growing up in the West has in being accepted - both by the citizens of his birth country and by those of the country from which his parents came. He is an outsider in both communities. I was pleased that, by the end of the book, he seems to have found a way of becoming accepted by both.
September 16, 2023
What's it like to live at the intersection of eastern and western culture? This beautiful book* by Mohammad Chowdhury captures profound insights into the migrant experience.
Mohammad struggled earlier in his life, finding he did not quite belong in either London, the place of his birth, or Bangladesh, the country of his parents. But he ultimately discovers that his ability to operate across cultures is actually a superpower, enabling him to make connections almost anywhere on the globe. This helped him build a rather impressive global career - advising governments and companies in 80+ countries.
I found his reflections on Islam particularly fascinating, including his strong view that Islam and Arabic should not be conflated.
But ultimately, this is a humble, gentle and moving book; the story of quite an impressive human navigating a complex existence. Recommended.
*Published in Australia by NewSouth with the title 'Border Crossings: My Journey as an Outsider'
Mohammad struggled earlier in his life, finding he did not quite belong in either London, the place of his birth, or Bangladesh, the country of his parents. But he ultimately discovers that his ability to operate across cultures is actually a superpower, enabling him to make connections almost anywhere on the globe. This helped him build a rather impressive global career - advising governments and companies in 80+ countries.
I found his reflections on Islam particularly fascinating, including his strong view that Islam and Arabic should not be conflated.
But ultimately, this is a humble, gentle and moving book; the story of quite an impressive human navigating a complex existence. Recommended.
*Published in Australia by NewSouth with the title 'Border Crossings: My Journey as an Outsider'
August 20, 2021
An entertaining, thought provoking and educational read. A fascinating insight into the author’s travels around the world and experiences as a Muslim. This is combined with stories of his childhood and family’s history which really resonated. Highly recommend.
August 5, 2022
A remarkable and eclectic Memoir
This is a superb memoir of a British Bangladeshi Western Muslim and his trips around the world. I enjoyed it as a British Bangladeshi Muslim myself.
This is a superb memoir of a British Bangladeshi Western Muslim and his trips around the world. I enjoyed it as a British Bangladeshi Muslim myself.
January 15, 2024
A fascinating read - a thought-provoking journey across continents and cultures. Mohammad, thank you for sharing your inspiring story.
June 14, 2021
This is my own book so a bit difficult to be unbiased!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews