book aukai collins is so brave to write his experience, I was expecting a boring religious book about a guy who becomes a terrorist but it was completely different.
When he found his faith, he decided to fight for freedom of Muslims in danger, eg, Chechnya, which was very noble in principle but also very naive, As you can expect, one man's battle didn't change the result of the war, However, he has interesting adventures and the book is quick to read, Later he decided to work with the US government to fight terrorism when he found that fanatic Muslims kill innocent people.
And he is surprised that they don't treat him seriously, don't want to give him important missions, Again, very naive to think otherwise, I agree the government could have made a better use of his skills, but knowing the redtape, it wasn't going to happen.
I found interesting his perceptions of working as a source with the government, An interesting perspective full of insight from a blueeyed American who became a Muslim and trained with radical Islamists.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, It's been a couple years since I read it, I actually sent Aukai or Aqil an email telling him how much I enjoyed his book, Not only did he write back, but we formed a friendship and have spoken for hours on end by phone on a variety of subjects.
He's a very interesting guy, and has atleast a couple more books in him based on his adventures, Very Well Done A different perspective, to say the least! sebenarnya kisah yang ditulis dibuku ini luar biasa, perjuangan dan petualangan yang dahsyat, baca terjemahan indonesia, dan menurutku terjemahannya tidak enak dibaca, jadi tidak bisa menikmati buku ini Freaking great book tells you what it's really like out there I'm not sure exactly what I think of this one.
It rings true mostly, but some of it sounds really cliche, It's the story of an American who signs up to become an American Mujaheddin, I'll give him that he doesn't really take action against America directly, Most of it is in Bosnia, Kashmir, and Chechnya,
It gives you some good insight into the mindset of people who do this, You can learn a lot from it, I wasn't thrilled with it, but it's worth a read if you want to learn more about jihad, Oh my, I get it that as I person who has never experienced war I can't judge, . .
But I'm totally judging,
One can get sick from the whole "I'm such a badass, everyone was incompetent but me, I had to tell everyone what to do, if only they listened to me everything would be better".
Who knows, maybe it was true It's possible the whole world would be a better place if CIA/FBI just listened to the author.
But hearing about it constantly, while he showed terrible naivety in other matters was annoying as hell.
The story was quite interesting here, but I started to doze off on all the technical details of the weapons used.
It
does provide a unique perspective on Islam, several wars, the role of USA and UN and so on.
I really wanted to give three starts, but the interview with the author at the end spoiled it for me.
His solution to PTSD is "be more" badass plus his approach to women is such that I am surprised that he was surprised that two of his wives left him.
My jihad is an enlightening book, Before reading this book I believed just what a typical America does: jihad is a wretched thing and mujahideen a word I didn't know before reading the book are all set out to destroy the good ol' USA.
But, this book gave a face to this large minority of people, who are fighting for their countries as much as we are fighting for ours.
I do realize that many mujahideen are horrid people but I found out that generalizing them all as "terrorists" is flat out wrong and ignorant.
Many of these mujahideen are people just like anyone in the US who just have been led down a different path in life, due to their living environment.
This book shows you that you cannot base all of your opinions off of what the mainstream media says.
My Jihad is a book about a man who finds his true calling in life, through his search for God and his fight for his people.
It's his story of his unique experience with the socalled "terrorists" and the governments of various countries, most of whom ARE trying to stop the actual terrorists but harm many other people in collateral.
It's really hard to review this book accurately, From my perspective, I see Collins conversion and then submersion into fundamentalist Islam as obvious: an abused child from a chaotic, broken home, no father, empty and lacking in a path or life goals a common story with an uncommon reaction from an Americanto turn to Islam, as opposed to Jesus, that is simultaneously entirely predictable.
In fundamentalist faith, you are given the ultimate father, strict rules, and big expectations, The suddenly aimless life is replaced by not only a big love, but a mission, and a duty to pick up arms.
While I find his sense of duty admirable, and his jihad service mostly noble Chechnya, etc, it saddens me that he is willing to subjugate women in the name of his faith, when he has been raised in a culture that has grown away from such abhorrent behavior.
Collins now has a daughter, and I hope as she grows he will learn to treat women appropriately,
I truly feel that this book taught me more about Islamic fundamentalism, mujaheddin, and jihad than I knew before.
It is definitely afrom the propaganda that we hear about in the papers, and from the experience of boots on the ground, an American Mujaheddin was not fighting to topple America, but training with Al Qeda to learn tactics for fighting real revolutionary struggles.
I will forever respect and appreciate this book for enlightening me to the depths of these issues that are portrayed so one dimensionally in our media.
In the end, the Islamic fighters are just as duped and misguided as our Rick Warren/James Dobson Christian soldiers.
Ironically this would make for good airport reading except for the cover and title,
Irish American kid who converted to Islam while in a San Jose prison as a teen and was radicalized soon after.
It's been years since I've read this, but as I recall he went to fight first in Chechnya and then the Balkans before becoming disillusioned that so much of what he was fighting for was protecting drug supply lines and smuggling routes, leading him to becoming an informant for the FBI.
I seem to recall interesting stuff about sneaking around Azerbaijan/Dagestan or something, and a standoff with his hosts when he decided to go back to America.
Supposedly volunteered or was asked to go undercover in an Afghanistan training camp pre/, but it didn't happen, and there was some/conspiracy stuff about how he knew one of the hijackers and either warned the FBI or claimed there was no way the guy would do it.
Hard to know how much is real versus selfpromotion, but an interesting story nonetheless,
Seem to recall that in his life after the book he spent time in a Mexican jail for playing bounty hunter south of the border.
I'm sure still have my paperback copy of this lying around somewhere, An eyeopening look into the mind and heart of an American Muslim and his dedication to jihad, I certainly learned a lot and it made me realize that more and more I agree with Ron Paul's foreign policy.
We don't truly understand the conflicts in other cultures, some of them have been going on for centuries and will continue to do so, and we have no business meddling in them.
VERY interesting firsthand account of an American convert that joins the jihad in Chechnya, then later grows disillusioned by those who kill innocents and starts helping U.
S. intelligence only to find them inept, Lost a foot/leg there, Still believes in jihad/Islam, Violent!
Menarik sih, . . cuma terjemahannya yang kurang sreg, Apa karena penerjemahnya sampai lima orang sekaligus My Jihad versi Indonesia yang saya baca, . . bisa jadi referensi untuk kita bagaimana sebenarnya gejolak jiwa orangorang yang selama ini dipandang sebagai teroris hanya lantaran membela saudara seimannya.
. . Aukai Collins cukup jujur menceritakan perang batin seorang muslim amerika yang harus juga melawan stigma mayoritas bangsa barat pada jalan yang diambilnya.
memang jalan Jihad tidak ada yang bisa dibilang mudah, .