num_pages: 288
description: Defying foreign government orders and interviewing terrorists face to face a young American tours hostile lands to learn about Middle Eastern youthand uncovers a subculture that defies every stereotype. Classrooms were never sufficient for Jared Cohen; he wanted to learn about global affairs by witnessing them firsthand. During his undergraduate years Cohen travelled extensively to Africaoften to wartorn 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 Cohens account begins in Lebanon where he interviews Hezbollah members at of all places a McDonalds. 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 a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon borderlands in Syria the 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.
language: English
title: Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East
publisher: Gotham