LETTERS TO A YOUNG MUSLIM: BOOK REVIEW

As we all know that it is an age of islamophobia. Even we the pure and by birth Muslims sometimes fear from religious extremism or it will be better to use the exact terminology which is Islamic extremism or fundamentalism. So imagine what will be the condition of Islam in the west if it is the condition of it in an Islamic country.

In this book “Letters to a Young Muslim “Omer Saif Ghobash who is an ambassador of UAE to Russia, has tried to spread the light on true face of Islam. To tell the world especially the west that Islam does not has to do anything with fundamentalism or extremism. Islam is a religion of peace. Who talks on human rights, and spreads love. The extremism is act of some fundamentalists who knows nothing about Islam. All they do is to use Islam to achieve their political goals.

Not only that but he has also spread light on Salafism or you can say Wahhabism. That how abdul wahab boosted the spread of extremism by the name of pure and original form of Islam. He further elaborated the American invasions of that particular areas from which we can witness the terrorism. It seems like he wanted to say that the terrorism is merely a reaction of American aggression. This ideology and some other factors which we will discuss further in this review led Mr Omer Saif Ghobash to write down these letters to his son Saif.

This book is based on twenty seven letters. Which are written by Mr Ghobash to his elder son Saif.To highlight the reason of these letters there are two incidents in this book which are very important to quote. Without which I cannot tell the reason of these letters. Because these are not ordinary letters. The author said that these letters are not only for my son Saif but for all the young Muslims around the entire world.

The first incident which became an important reason for these letters or this book is that the protagonist was just a little child when his father got executed because of extremism when he was merely just at school along with his other siblings. He couldn’t forgot this incident till date. He says that his father had no time for him as of dying so early. We will further discuss this incident but first let us come towards the second and the incident of equal importance for these letters.

Mr Ghobash realized that it is not only them (the parents) who are generating the mind of his elder son Saif but the environment and especially his teachers at school are also playing far more important role in this regard. He realized that the teachers are impacting him more than the parents. His son was coming up with different behavior, based on the ideology of Salafism. His son would come up with more aggressive behavior each day.

Aforementioned are the two main and highlighted reasons because of which the author has to write this book. As he mentioned in this book that who knows that he may also die like his father leaving his son deprived of his experiences. As I have mentioned that he was an ambassador so he was already living far away from his family in Russia. He decided to write these letters to his elder son in order to make him grow in a wise and pure way.

The Middle East has always been of great importance because of a lot of reasons. It has been a nexus and a playground for great powers till today. America has invaded different countries of this region many times. Not only that but this region also has great and rich history which also has great impacts on the entire globe. Mr Ghobash was born in this very region to a Russian mother and an Arab father in United Arab Emirates.

The reason of mentioning all this is that these letters are very important for us to know some history, reality and important facts as well. As Mr Ghobash is an ambassador and is born in June 1971. This era carries significance. In these articles he discussed about Saddam Hussain, Iraq-Iran war, Kuwait issues and a lot more.

 As I have already mentioned in above paragraph that the protagonist has done a good work by portraying the message that Islam is a peaceful religion. Islam doesn’t teaches fundamentalism. But this is exactly where I would say that why we have to prove that we are peaceful? When America invaded all those countries which are not hidden by the world, did she proved any peace in it? No she didn’t. Because it’s only the weak who has to tell the strong that we are peaceful. Strong doesn’t care for others. They always do whatever they want. Just because we the Muslims are week that’s why we have to tell everyone that we are peaceful.

Peace is an illusion, created by the powerful to manipulate the week and morons. Imagine if a lion apply the theory of peace on himself, would he become peaceful? No, he will become dead! It is the need for a lion to attack and eat what he want and can. There are no moral or legal obligations on him.

The same case can be applied on an ideology. It is a need for an ideology to dominate others outside its territory. Whether if it’s Religion, Culture or if its ideologies like Capitalism or Communism. If it became peaceful, it will vanish.

So instead of criticizing those who are promoting their ideology, Mr.Omer has to write a speedy way to spread the ideology of Islam. Just like American ideology is doing. And that is the only specific way to survive in this world. Especially for an ideology. This is exactly where the author has tried to spread American ideology of peace in the name of Islam. Because. Islam is not a religion of peace. Islam is a religion of courage, religion of bravery, religion of God. A religion which has no frontiers. It has to be prevail on the entire globe. Be it may in the American way (aggressively) or in the Chinese way (peacefully). It is what it is. Instead of being shameful we should all be prideful together and support those who are spreading our ideology across the globe.