BOOK DESCRIPTION
Defying foreign government orders and interviewing terrorists face to face, a young American tours hostile lands to learn about Middle Eastern youth—and uncovers a subculture that defies every stereotype. View Excerpt Classrooms were never sufficient for Jared Cohen; he wanted to learn about global affairs by witnessing them firsthand. During his undergraduate years Cohen traveled extensively to Africa—often to war-torn countries, putting himself at risk to see the world firsthand. While studying on a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford, he took a crash course in Arabic, read voraciously on the history and culture of the Middle East, and in 2004 he embarked on the first of a series of incredible journeys to the Middle East. In an effort to try to understand the spread of radical Islamist violence, he focused his research on Muslim youth. The result is Children of Jihad, a portrait of paradox that probes much deeper than any journalist or pundit ever could.

Written with candor and featuring dozens of eye-opening photographs, Cohen’s account begins in Lebanon, where he interviews Hezbollah members at, of all places, a McDonald’s. In Iran, he defies government threats and sneaks into underground parties, where bootleg liquor, Western music, and the Internet are all easy to access. His risky itinerary also takes him to Palestinian refugee camps in southern Lebanon, borderlands in Syria, the Iraqi insurgency hotbed of Mosul, and other frontline locales. At each turn, he observes a culture at an uncanny crossroads: Bedouin shepherds with satellite dishes to provide Western TV shows, young women wearing garish makeup despite religious mandates, teenagers sending secret text messages and arranging illicit trysts. Gripping and daring, Children of Jihad shows us the future through the eyes of those who are shaping it.

SHORT EXCERPT

It wasn’t the comfortingly bland Western décor or the universally recognizable taste of a Big Mac that drew me to one of Beirut’s most popular fast food restaurants. It wasn’t homesickness at all that brought me to McDonald’s; it was Hezbollah, one of the world’s most notorious terrorist organizations.

The members of Hezbollah who invited me to McDonald’s week after week did not fit the Western profile of Middle Eastern terrorists. Instead of tattered green military fatigues, they wore Armani jeans and Versace sweaters; their hair was not covered by checkered scarves or head wraps, but meticulously sculpted and styled; and rather than slinging Kalashnikov rifles over their shoulders, they lugged around bulky, heavy backpacks, more likely to be filled with books than bombs. When girls walked by, they didn’t avert their eyes in an act of chastity; they whistled and gave catcalls that would have been equally at home at an American mall. The few shy boys contented themselves with juvenile comments to the group. The girls, independent-minded and cosmopolitan, would shout back, flirtatiously condemning the boys for their churlish behavior.

They always paid for my lunch, and each week there were new dining companions; most were other members of Hezbollah, but all were supporters of the group. Their political views—when expressed—were ultra extremist and they unabashedly shared them with me. But more often than not, we talked girls or sports. When we didn’t discuss politics, it was easy to forget that these young men were considered by most of the western world to be terrorists.

AUDIO VERSION (NARRATED BY JASON COLLINS)

 PURCHASE HERE!