Stacey’s Comments (group member since Sep 06, 2011)

Stacey’s comments from the MHS AP Language group.

I also think that Ahmad is going to be a terrorist because of his responses towards the guidance counselor, Levy, that is only trying to help Ahmad have a future after high school. Mr. Levy tries to create a friendly bond with Ahmad and find out more about the student but Ahmad refrains from telling him any of his secrets regarding his decisions and about Shaikh Rashid, his teacher. I find it strange how he wants to take the career pathway of a truck driver. He also wanted to deal with hazardous materials until Levy told him he had to be twenty one years old in order to carry them. Instead of being college bound, he accepts this type of job because Rashid told him that “the college track exposed me [Ahmad] to corrupting influences - bad philosophy and bad literature (38).” Since Ahmad grew up without a father, I feel like he is easily influenced and he is having others make the decisions for him. It seems as though Rashid might be his terrorist connection because he told Levy that Rashid hates the American ways which convinced Ahmad that “the American way is the way of infidels” and that “it is headed for a terrible doom(39).” This foreshadows that something bad is going to happen and I believe that it has to do with a terrorist attack on America that involves Ahmad. Maybe he is going to have to decide who to listen to and choose whether or not to take part in an attack. Rashid is influencing Ahmad’s hatred towards America while Jack Levy is trying to teach him to accept people’s differences and to go to college. Based on the end of passage on page 43, Levy still wants to keep in touch with Ahmad because he cares about his plans in the future but doesn’t want him to go down the wrong path.
After reading this section of the novel that began slowly, it has me wondering about why Ahmad wants to be a truck driver and is he really going to turn into a terrorist because of his teacher Rashid? We’ll find out soon!

Just to comment on John Updike’s writing...I noticed he provides the reader with a lot of details about everything he mentions. He could be talking about the smallest thing like about the type of teachers in New Jersey or about the hallways at Ahmed’s high school and he’ll dedicate a page of description for each. That made it a bit confusing at times to follow along.

I also found it interesting how Ahmed was born to an Irish-American mother and to an Egyptian father and at the age of eleven he chose to practice the Islamic faith on his own. I think that is why he is so headstrong about his own religion and thinks that whatever everyone else practices is not right because they do not share the same views as him.

Responding to Beatriz’s comment, I think Ahmed was also being arrogant and rude towards other people who did not worship the same God. Since Ahmed is true to his faith, he thinks that no one else in New Jersey is because he describes Americans as people that do not have morals that “lack true faith.” It seems as if Updike is referring to the theme of judging a book by its cover because Ahmed didn’t want to associate with certain people in his school and disapproved of others based on their religion.

On page 10, Ahmed questions a girl at his school about her passion of singing in her church choir. In the beginning of the novel, we get a sense of his personality and character to be unaccepting and very judgemental. I did not expect him to tell Joryleen to not go to church anymore since she doesn’t take her religion seriously. The passage then ends with his words “the world is difficult because devils are busy in it, confusing things and making the straight crooked.” This shows Ahmed’s early start to thinking like a terrorist (as Beatriz mentioned) since he believes that they are all the devil. Going back to our bookclub theme: the mind of the terrorist, Updike explains their thought process and what leads to their immoral acts.

I do agree with everyone that one of Saleem’s claims is that we can not judge people based on their culture or religion. He also wants America to learn about terrorists and their patterns so that we can “be constantly on our guard at home and abroad” (308). Saleem wrote this book in order to teach us what he knows, as a first-hand account, of radical Islam. He wrote the memoir to reflect on his past mistakes but to also keep his country safe from harm.

Also, I think Cristina and Beatriz made a great point that profiling is common in the United States but I really think our government should refrain from doing that. At airports, people are pulled aside and put through extra security if they look like they are Muslim or are from the Middle East. It’s a shame because anyone can be a terrorist. America is no longer as accepting of cultures as it used to be. It continues to keep as many “aliens” or foreigners out of the country to protect itself but it is ruining the reputation that it built of welcoming diversity and immigrants that want freedom and rights.

As Jackie A. mentioned, this book has also given me more insight on terrorism and has changed my views about it. It’s a scary situation and I’m glad our country is doing its best to protect its citizens because I could not imagine walking every where carrying a gun if it was not safe to live in America. Terrorism isn’t any kind of joke and its real. Saleem wants America to open its eyes before more attacks cause greater destruction after the horrific 9/11 incident we all lived through.

During the last section of the book, we have seen Kamal become a terrorist and bomb America to what led to the change in his life to love America. When he moved to America to plan an attack on the country, he learned about the Christian faith because if he “was going to target America” he would have to “aim at her heart” (244). He learned about their God and worked in order to convert Americans into Muslims. At first, I thought it was nice of Saleem that he was going house to house in the neighborhood and giving groceries to the poor as acts of kindness. Although, Saleem was really only trying to influence them into believing that Allah cared for them and that positive changes would occur. He was lying to these families about their futures if they were to convert to Islam in order to serve Allah. I wouldn’t want to intervene with peoples’ beliefs. It’s just wrong.

After his tragic accident, Saleem’s life changed and he realized that being a terrorist was not for him. Throughout his lifetime he was living a lie that Americans were terrible and evil people. When he got into the accident, he met three American men that took care of him, gave him shelter, and influenced his thoughts about the country and its citizens. Now he preaches about this life change because he has revealed the truth and the three Ex-terrorists “love this country and live for her, standing and fighting for America as Americans” (276). Saleem realized how much time he devoted his life, killing for Allah because he believed in the teachings of Islam and after listening to the three Christian men he no longer wanted to be a part of radical Islam. I am so glad that Saleem went into this state of confusion and no longer wanted to be a terrorist. The miracle that he experienced when he spoke with the Christian God marked the point where he was never turning back.

Overall I enjoyed this book. It was nothing like I expected it to be. He wrote the book when he was about fifty years old and proclaims that he is not the same person because he has fallen in love with America and appreciates how America accepts every culture and faith. I like how he ended his memoir by stating that he prays “not to a god of war, but to a God of peace” (309) because he is now a Christian (answered our question from the beginning!) and his views have changed. Even though he hopes that we never meet a man like him, terrorism is still an issue that America struggles with today but is trying its best to keep terrorists outside of its borders.

To respond to Beatriz’s question, it would be really difficult to end terrorism or stop the spread of it. I think it’s very hard to detect and stop any violence before it causes too much harm. Although, I like how she brought up education. I think that is a great point in which Saleem did lack. In those countries, children were taken out of school to work but also to join camps as early as the age of seven; they were trained in obstacle courses and how to shoot guns. In order to stop the spread of terrorism, the atmosphere of these countries need to be changed. People raised in these environments grow with so much hatred and have too many influences that they barely decide for themselves. They conformed into these terrorist groups because so many factors led them to it.
In Saleem’s situation, he was laid a rifle in his arms and from there on he became a terrorist. The last passage on page 91 really stood out to me. Saleem makes comparisons to the roar of the weapon to “a healing drug to a patient who had not known he was dying” and at that point his “childhood slipped through [his] hands into the rifle’s hot steel. Everything [he] I knew had changed.” He lied to his mother about going to the mosque instead of the camp and hoped that as a part of the brotherhood, he would make a difference in the world. Saleem, at such a young age, already had the wrong mentality. No terrorist has an excuse for wanting to kill people but I believe that how they are raised, what they were told, what they were taught plays a major role in the person they turn into.
Now I just wonder what opened his eyes to the mistake that changed his lifestyle. This book makes me want to keep reading!

For our second session of reading, Kamal Saleem has focused on his early childhood up until the part of his life where he becomes a terrorist. It’s sad that his father forced him to drop out of school to support his large family when it was something Saleem loved to do and performed well in. Even though he took the job because he had no other choice, Saleem was mistreated by his father from the very beginning. I would have been heartbroken if my father told me “I am struck with you as a favor to your mother, and you are good for nothing!” (39) Saleem describes his experiences while walking miles and miles to work every day for his uncle’s business. Christian and Shia teenage boys beat him to the ground everyday and stole everything he owned. They took his lunch, stole his money, and left him on the streets suffering and bleeding. Saleem’s childhood was not very pleasant and he was helpless. He grew up in violence where people of different beliefs hated each other and didn’t respect one another.

Luckily, imams of the Muslim Brotherhood helped Saleem one day on his way to work. I think he was fortunate and grateful that these men were there during his desperate time of need. They gave him money, told the boys to stay away, and protected him from future fights. When he went to the mosque and was taught about Muslims, he felt that he had “become part of something important” and saw that “these men had vision, passion, power...they seemed to care about [him] me in a way that [his] my father did not.” (83) Saleem was neglected so much by his family that he even had thoughts of suicide because he felt like a burden to his family; however, with the Muslim Brotherhood, their protection and acceptance made him feel like he belonged to people that cared about him. Even though the Muslims eventually planned attacks on America that Saleem was a part of, Allah and this group were Saleem’s last hope. His father had turned his back on him and his mother used him as a source of income.

Shifting from his childhood in 1965 to 2007, I found it interesting how he dedicated a part of his memoir to his adulthood in Houston, Texas. He brought up how two people from the Muslim Brotherhood in America were arrested. He told us his story and how he became part of the group but now reflects on their actions that he no longer takes part in. He bullets different historical events from 2002 to 2007 that were acts of terrorism. When he mentions who was arrested and what group they belonged to, like al-Qaeda, he repeats the phrase “like I used to be” or “I know because I used to be one of them.” (73) While Saleem is at the Houston airport, he shows how he is no longer a part of the termites inside the wall but is standing on the walls trying to wake up America to terrorists.

At first I never thought a book about terrorism could be so good! Even though we haven’t found out too much from Saleem, I’m eager to find out why he stopped following his culture, moved to America, and is now an ex-terrorist. The fact that this is a first hand account from an ACTUAL terrorist makes the book even more interesting and shows that he wants the Americans to realize something we’ll later find out.
Jackie- I also can’t believe his mother was going to burn Saleem for using his left hand when he wasn’t supposed to. Even though it’s a part of their culture, it’s odd how the right hand is very important in Islam. They believe that “Muslims are the people of the Right” and that they “sit at Allah’s right hand, the side of goodness and righteousness.” (21) He said his mother loved him and that he was afraid of her. I think that’s wrong for any mother to do to their child. There are other ways to teach your child a lesson. That’s a bit extreme. I wouldn’t feel safe at home.
Changing topics--I didn’t think Muslims would let their children go to school with kids of other faiths. Eli is a Christian and they’re allowed to do things like “go on vacations and eat forbidden foods” (34). Since Saleem’s parents taught him to believe that they were bad people, why are they in school together where they can became friends and influence each other?

Why would ex-terrorists want to speak to those that they once tried to kill? Wouldn’t they be hated?

Kamal Saleem begins his memoir talking about his life in Chino, California in 2007. He talked about how he met with three thousand people to talk about how he was a former terrorist that became part of the Muslim Brotherhood at age 7 and at age 23 was on a mission to destroy America. Relating to what Beatriz said, I don’t know how the audience could give Ex-Terrorists an applause for wanting to destroy their nation. I understand how Saleem went through a personal change in his life and he adopted America as his home but that doesn’t change the fact that he helped plan 9/11 and was a part of the PLO that were “funded by Islamists...[and were] willing to die for this glorious invasion.” (4) What prompted him and the others to abandon the jihad? By dividing the novel by years, I think Saleem is going to describe his childhood to his adulthood and inform us of what events he experienced and what impacted his decision to leave the jihad.

In the beginning of the memoir, Saleem discusses his childhood in the 1960s growing up in an Islamic family. He describes how they dress, what they eat, and how they act. I like how he incorporates Islamic words such as “madrassa,” “jannah,” and “souk.” It provides us with more background information about the traditions, values, and beliefs of the Islamic culture. Every night at dinner Saleem’s mother would tell her children about war stories and how if they were to kill a “Jew, on the day of judgement [their] right hand will light up before the throne of Allah, and all his heavenly host will celebrate.” (21) These Islamic children were brought up to become terrorists in the future. Saleem described how his father constantly told him that the infidels were terrible people and how the Islamic people believe that killing them is a good deed. The Islams grow up to hate people and cause harm without any actual reason.

Also, its interesting how Saleem shifts from his past to his present life in America in 2007. He mentions other ex-terrorists that he has met and has connections with. Saleem says how they all challenged each other about their experiences in the jihad. When talking about Zak, he states how “like [himself], like all of [them], there were parts of [their lives] of which [they were] not proud of.” (51) They weren’t proud of killing people and it affected them mentally and that’s why they joined together and met on stage to talk to people about their wrong actions.

"What is the What" was an interesting novel. I enjoyed reading it even though the book was very large. I think Egger's purpose of the novel was to show that anyone is capable of anything they believe in. Valentino experienced many terrifying moments in his life from losing his entire family and the robbery at his home in Atlanta. Even though Valentino faced struggles in his life, he was still able to better himself. The novel reflected on his past during the civil war and showed his progression to his present life in the United States.