This is the story of his journey to find himself and his place in his world. It is full of information about Middle Eastern culture and Islam. Although there were a few places where the language could have been cleaned up, overall the book was a great informative read and one of the best memoirs I've ever read. I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Ali Eteraz or is interested in the Middle East culture or Islam. ( )

Ali Eteraz has written this Memoir of Pakistan, with style and an amazing amount of detail. In his descriptions of his childhood, you can smell the smells and feel the dust under your feet.

From his education through his youth and adulthood, he is a constantly changing, chameleon, adjusting himself to be the best Islamic man he can be. He endures beatings, terror, humiliation, and ignorance, as he struggles to find his place, first in Pakistan, then to the US, Alabama, of all places, New York and back to Pakistan. He wants to be the best Muslim, the best son, the best American, and finds it much more difficult than he expected.

As someone who knows nothing about the Muslim faith, I found some of the words difficult, and a little confusing, but don't let that deter you. This is a very personal memoir, and I found myself rooting for his success. He went from an innocent boy to a reformed man, in the course of the story, he is a highly intelligent man, who learned both from his faith and his experiences.

I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in learning more about Islam and how it relates to todays world.

I received this book from Julie at FSB Associates for review. Thank you! ( )

Ali Eteraz’s coming of age memoir takes us from his upbringing under conservative Islam in Pakistan, to his education in philosophy and postmodernism in the West, to his epiphany about who he is when he is back in the Muslim world.

Eteraz has no qualms about showing us all his wavering, flaws and warts. It’s a big risk with a memoir, because readers might not like him enough to continue. But we get something valuable if we stay the course: Eteraz is without a doubt an interesting person, and moreover shares with us an inside look at a childhood overshadowed by Islamic teachings and religious madrassas (schools), and some plain language elucidation about the Quran and Islam.

I loved learning more about Islam. I had no idea, for example, that the Prophet Sulayman is none other than who we in the West call Solomon, son of King David (Daud), or that Isa, son of Maryam is the same as Jesus, son of Mary. I had thought that the Quran is considered holy in the same way the Bible is considered holy, but I learned differently. Eteraz explains:

"The Quran existed jointly with God. Timeless, immutable, perfect, the Quran was all Allah (though not all of Allah was the Quran). Allah had poured it through the mouth of Muhammad, and as it existed on paper now was how Allah intended for the Quran to look, taste, and sound. The Quran was the Islamic equivalent of Christ. The act of repeating the Arabic words, as they passed through the mouth and throat and echoed in the chest, was a form of transubstantiation: a way of making what was divine enter the human body.”

Well, you can certainly see why mistreatment of the Quran at Guatanamo by Western soldiers was such anathema to the prisoners there.

Eteraz’s memories about madrassas are pretty frightening. Young boys were physically abused – beaten, humiliated, harangued, even in one case raped. He doesn’t claim all madrassas are like this, but the ones in his experience certainly were. (The beatings were justified as helping to prepare the boys to serve Allah later in a greater capacity by being prepared for life’s pain.) No wonder this boy grew up to change his name to Ali Eteraz (“noble protest”) and to challenge the authority of ultraconservative Islam.

And yet, Eteraz has trouble escaping fundamentalist Islam’s noose. His friend Ziad observed:

"You have to ask yourself what you’re fighting for, Ali. Are you an enemy of Islamic fundamentalism simply because it pisses you off, or do you actually support liberty? If it’s the latter, why do you have to talk about Islam all day? If it’s the former, you have to ask yourself why you let your life be controlled by being pissed off. Or…maybe you’re just desperate to be relevant.”

Talks with Ziad, many as emotionally charged as this one, eventually lead Eteraz to understand what it is he believes.

Evaluation: The press release on this book characterizes it as “astonishingly honest” and “darkly comic.” I would agree with the former, but with the latter I would only accept the word “darkly.” I thought it was a sad book. I found many elements of what happened to Eteraz as horrific. Even his parents, who seemed very loving, instilled fears and expectations in him about religion that I thought tended toward the abusive. This book reminds me of Foreskin’s Lament by Shalom Auslander. Auslander also decries the deleterious and pervasive effects of an orthodox religious upbringing. No matter how he tries to reject it, it continues to inform his existence. I would say that Auslander’s book is more accurately described as “comic” however. But both of these books teach by example that bringing up children to fear God by issuing threats and inculcating stories of the harm their sins will bring upon the world is destructive to the human spirit. ( )

Before Ali Eteraz was born, his father promised Allah that if his child was a boy that child would “become a great leader and servant of Islam.” Eteraz’s parents named him Abir ul Islam which translates to “perfume of Islam.” As a child living in Pakistan, Eteraz didn’t have much desire to follow his parents’ plans; but later they move to America and things change for Eteraz. He wants to follow the religious teachings, but he’s also interested in girls and sexual contact is forbidden. The online world ends up providing an outlet. Eteraz has some great descriptions in this part of how he tried to hide from his parents the screeching sound of AOL starting.

A few years later, Eteraz goes to college. He moves from one religious extremity to another during his early adult life and undergoes a name change before emphasizing his birth name in order to convince others to follow his instructions. This period is then followed by the name he currently uses; he became Ali Eteraz when he became a reformist. Tragically, Eteraz lost his family and some friends when he became so passionate about reformation.

Children of Dust is really a remarkable story written so that even someone totally unfamiliar with Islamic teachings can understand. I was impressed with Eteraz’s writing; he described places I’ve never been vividly enough that I could picture them. ( )

I should have jet lag. I've traveled from Pakistan to different parts of America including Alabama and Las Vegas. "Children of Dust" is a memoir about a Pakistani Muslim, Ali Eteraz, his family and friends.

I liked this book because "Children of Dust" is a religious memoir. It's a young man's search for the purest and truest form of Islam. Throughout the entire book he is on the brink of changing from a caterpillar to a butterfly. His search, Ali's questions, make this book throb with life. Early in his life Ali looked at the lives of Muslim women. He also thought about the way Muslim men were taught to treat women.

This part of the book gave me a chuckle or two because Ali truly loved a beautiful girl. It is very hard for him to look down, look away, don't touch. Like all young guys, his testerone is very healthy.

Anyway, it's clear that Ali is a reformist. The spirit of reform led him to observe and not leap. He observed himself and other men. He studied the Qu'ran. Really, at one point, he became an intellectual scholar. In the end, he walked away from militant behavior while continuing to love Islam.

I really was impacted by his feelings during 9/11. I think it is at this point that I began to see Muslims as individuals. There are Muslims who would never kill Americans, who would never blow their bodies up in order to do Jihad and kill innocent people. There are Muslims, like Ali Eteraz, who cried for the losses of 9/11.

"Now, having seen their vision of justice....I felt only anger. What made their actions even more reprehensible was that they had carried out their murders in the name of Islam."

This book gently pounded in my head the fact that all Muslims are individuals. When I choose to look at one and think there goes another suicide bomber, another one who would call me, an American, a devil, then, I'm terribly wrong. I've become racial profiler and a stereotyper, a person who labels people and puts people in tight cubbyholes to fit what I believe or have heard from someone else.

It's true. There are Muslims who fight with other Americans because they believe in our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. The Fort Hood experience made many Muslims ashamed and heartbroken. I must remember to look at the one man lying in the Army hospital bed not at a nation of people.

Ali Eteraz is an example of a man who believes in a pure religion. Pure religion is one that won't do harm to a fellow human being. Because he chose to observe, think and study Ali Eteraz is still a Muslim. He is a Muslim with a heart.

"The feeling softened me somehow. It melted away my skin and sinew and made me a part of the men around me. These men who were raised from dust, lived in dust, and would eventually rest in dust."

Ali Eteraz is who he is a lover of Muhammed and the Qu'ran and his people and other people too. He deserves respect not misappropriated judgment. ( )