Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East

An unusual look at life and young adults in the Middle East, written by a twenty-something year old american Jew. The auther shares his experiences travelling and meeting with students and young Muslim men and women from Lebanon, Iran, Syria, and Iraq in 2004. Your assumption might be that a young American, traveling alone in the post 9/11 middle east would have an extremely tough time finding ANYONE to talk to him, especially since he didn't hide his jewish heritage. No one would be surprising to hear about some animosity encountered. More surprising were stories about meeting people from the area who were able to separate Americans as people from American government policies which they strongly oppose. As the book jacket states, show more "Children of Jihad shows us the future through the eyes of those who are shaping it". show less

In his post 9/11 travels which takes him through various places in the middle east like Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan to meet and gauge the pulse of the under 30 population. You would think that they would be fundamentalist and rabidly anti american but surprise, surprise, exactly the opposite is true. Yes, a few of them do have a very high degree of animosity towards the governments of the USA and Israel, especially the Hezbollah youth. But to a large extent, these folks do share the same views, aspirations and desires of their peers elsewhere in the world.

They are extremely friendly towards the author, an American Jew to boot. This shows that there is a lot of hope and this generation can act as a bridge and if done show more properly can also bring lasting peace to this troubled region. show less

In his post 9/11 travels which takes him through various places in the middle east like Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan to meet and gauge the pulse of the under 30 population. You would think that they would be fundamentalist and rabidly anti american but surprise, surprise, exactly the opposite is true. Yes, a few of them do have a very high degree of animosity towards the governments of the USA and Israel, especially the Hezbollah youth. But to a large extent, these folks do share the same views, aspirations and desires of their peers elsewhere in the world.

They are extremely friendly towards the author, an American Jew to boot. This shows that there is a lot of hope and this generation can act as a bridge and if done show more properly can also bring lasting peace to this troubled region. show less