My Year Inside Radical Islam A Memoir

by Gartenstein-Ross, Daveed

• ISBN13: 9781585425518
• ISBN10: 1585425516
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-02-01
• Publisher: Tarcher

Summary

My Year Inside Radical Islamis a memoir of first a spiritual and then a political seduction. Raised in liberal Ashland, Oregon, by parents who were Jewish by birth but dismissive of strict dogma, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross yearned for a religion that would suit all his ideals. At college in the late nineties he met a charismatic Muslim student who grounded his political activism with thoughtful religious conviction. Gartenstein-Ross reflects on his experience of converting to Islam-a process that began with a desire to connect with both a religious community and a spiritual practice, and eventually led him to sympathize with the most extreme interpretations of the faith, with the most radical political implications. In the year following graduation, Gartenstein-Ross went to work for the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, a charity dedicated to fostering Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia's austere form of Islam-a theological inspiration for many terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda. Shortly after he left al-Haramain-when his own fan-aticism had waned-the foundation was charged by the U.S. government as being a source of funds for terrorist organizations. Gartenstein-Ross, by this time a lawyer at a prominent firm, volunteered to be questioned by the FBI. They already knew who he was. The story of how a good faith can be distorted and a decent soul can be seduced away from its principles, My Year Inside Radical Islamprovides a rare glimpse into the personal interface between religion and politics.

Author Biography

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, who has worked as a clerk on the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals and as a litigator at a major New York law firm, is now a full-time counterterrorism consultant. Currently involved in several terrorist investigations, Gartenstein-Ross is frequently asked to give recommendations to law enforcement and senior federal officials. He often writes about terrorism, religious extremism, and the law. His articles have appeared in a wide range of publications, including The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Weekly Standard, The Dallas Morning News, Commentary, The New York Sun, and The Washington Times.