Letters to a Young Muslim

November 14, 2016
This deeply personal book of letters written from Ghobash to his two sons reveals what it is like to be a Muslim parent amidst the increasing ideological polarization of the “global war on terror.” Speaking from his own history of pain, loss, and trepidation, Ghobash, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to Russia, attempts to guide his children through the philosophical currents, impassioned conversations, and global context of terror, neo-imperialism, and the crisis of authority in the Islamic world. He advises his sons (and, by extension, other Muslim youth) to make decisions on how to harmonize their lives as faithful, peaceful Muslims in a tech-rich, pluralistic, and thoroughly modern world. Ghobash offers his compassionate and cultivated advice on the basics of Islamic history, the sheer diversity of its practice, and what to do when one faces Islamophobia or encounters violent radicalism in fellow Muslims. Above all, he instructs his children to take responsibility as individual Muslims and not to follow others on a path toward dichotomous thinking and violent reactions. He urges them to pursue a middle path that is simultaneously true to Islam and yet effectively and energetically engaged in the modern world. This is a fantastic book for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Through a series of letters to his sons, Omar Saif Ghobash discusses the challenges of raising religiously minded children in a globalized environment filled with complexity. His narration adds to the weight of his words. His emotional investment in his message is reflected in his tone and emphasis while his accent and ability to comfortably switch to Arabic where relevant make him a strong narrator. He works at providing sound advice that invokes the tenets of Islam on how to be a good person in the world. The letters represent a vision of Islam that is modernized, engaged in the current problems of the world, and cognizant of the challenges Muslims face both within their religion and from others. L.E. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

July 1, 2017

Now older than his 43-year-old father was when he died in a 1977 terrorist attack, Ghobash writes his Letters to his two young sons as a matter of permanent record. As the United Arab Emirates' ambassador to Russia (Ghobash's father was Arab, his mother Russian), the pentalingual Ghobash records from a uniquely broad perspective about being Muslim in a post-9/11 world. He's his own ideal narrator, with traces of his Oxford-educated British accent lending further gravitas for American ears. His first chapter's opening endearments addressed to his sons, "Habeebie Saifie and Habeebie Abdullah," immediately, warmly underscore his family devotion. Ghobash directs the chapters that follow at the older, now teenage Saif, always prefacing his words with "Habeebie" and "My sweet." Although Ghobash names only his sons, he undoubtedly speaks to a larger audience: "I want my sons' generation of Muslims to realize that they have the right to think and decide what is right and what is wrong, what is Islamic and what is peripheral to their faith." VERDICT Libraries already stocked with Ta-Nahesi Coates's epistolary Between the World and Me--also read by its author and certain to draw parallels--should acquire Letters to provide alongside. ["A useful work for anyone who has an interest in Islam as well as college students writing on the religion in general or its social and political elements": LJ 11/15/16 review of the Picador hc.]--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

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