Mohammed Al Samawi

I borrowed this book from a member of my synagogue's book club last spring and finally started reading it last week. I literally could not put the book down! The book is an autobiography that reads like an action adventure novel.

Its author, Mohammed Al Samawi is the son of two Yemeni doctors. He grew up with a disability in desperately poor Yemen. About tho only thing well-funded in Yemen is its ongoing civil war between the Shi'ite Houthi tribes, funded liberally by Iran and Al Quaeda of the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), funded by Saudi Arabia. Raised among the ongoing madness as a pious Muslim, the author decides to learn about the other great monotheistic religions, Christianity and Judaism. Through chance online encounters on Facebook and other media the author explores his interest in ecumenical healing.

This activity places him and his family in great danger; on the receiving end of credible death threats. The author flees, and through a network of people who barely knew him but believed in his story is exfiltrated by way of Aden and Djibouti to the U.S. Spoiler alert; I will tell no more of the details. The book is quite an inspiring and ultimately heart-warming story.

I have read other comments and agree that he received some help in writing the book and placing it in idiomatic English. But in his defense, don't almost all autobiographies involve heavy "ghost-writing"? This book is clearly the author's unique product and can only hope for more.

The same people who would like Ayaan Hirsi Ali's books, of which I have read Infidel and Nomad, would love The Fox Hunt!

… (meer)

The author grew up in a strictly Islamic society in Yemen, which taught a hatred of Jews and Christians. Slowly he became aware that those religions had some similarities with his own, and then that people of those religion were... just people. He rather fell into international peace work, keeping it secret from his family. Then the Yemeni Civil War came, and he ended up hiding out in an apartment, fearing for his life from the Sunnis who would see he was from the North with lighter skin, and from nearly anyone in his country who would think he was a traitor for communicating with Jews. But his international friends, some of them American Jews, worked tirelessly to contact governments and ask for Mohammed to be evacuated. It worked, finally, in an exciting sequence of events.

This book feels like a thriller, with the weight of real life.… (meer)