Who is the Jihadist? The author explores these questions in a sensitive portrait. Recounting the trials of a young man, disenfranchised and disconnected from his surroundings, the Jihadist in this story is not what he appears to be. Is he a Westerner enlisting in the Armed Forces? Or a Muslim extremist? The Author plays on the ambiguity to beg the question. Struggling to find his place in the world, he must confront his desire for reckless abandon—a surrender to chaotic forces which he sees as inherent to Nature and integral to Truth—and wrestle with violent fantasies of revenge, while he considers if vengeance might not be intrinsic to his idea of Justice. All this time, he seeks something “beyond and bigger than ourselves” to give his life its meaning and expatiate existential guilt. He seeks, only to be tempted by the glory promised through War that History offers him.
Cover Image: Jali Screen, 16th Century, Fatehpur Sikri, India
P R A I S E F O R " T H E J I H A D I S T"
"...has no apparent connection to Islam." "...one-dimensional." "...confusing..."
"Images like a baby holding a pistol to its face begin each chapter."
Simon Liem, The Link
Read the full article here - A Jihadist that goes nowhere, where he blasts the book.
Not half as good as Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" and fails to create (intentionally - Ed.) "a believable portrait of a man’s mental illness".
