Art After the Bomb

Book excerpt: This book is requisite reading material for any person claiming to be an educated and informed member of the global community. Our understanding in the West of the Eastern cultures, specially the different cultures involving the Muslims, is alarmingly low. The book strives to offer a view from the ground, a keyhole perspective that offers the readers a close and personal peek into some of the ethical underpinnings and the philosophical guiding parameters that inform the Muslim and the Eastern mind. There are over 1.3 billion Muslims in the world. It would be a serious intellectual fallacy to assume that they are all homogenous, or to be more preposterous, assume they are all terrorists. It is extremely tragic that it took the Iranian hostage crisis to teach us about Shia Islam and 9/11 to teach us about Wahabi Islam. Properly acquired knowledge, not just what we learn from the media, will allow us to be anticipatory and rational, rather than being reactive and emotional. For the Muslim reader, specially the children and the youth, the book strives to offer a deeper understanding of Islam, beyond the boundaries of ritual Islam into the wide open space of spiritual and intellectual Islam. To inspire them to appreciate and live up to the wonderful legacy of Islam and not to be mired down into some deviant interpretations of people, with questionable motives. The book is designed to encourage the process of tearing down walls and building bridges. We share common dreams, aspirations and challenges. We share a common globe and a common destiny. The author believes that there are no clashes of civilizations, just clashes of ignorance and misunderstanding.