My Friend the Fanatic: Travels with a Radical Islamist

Description

A reporter recounts his journey through Indonesia and "guides the reader deftly through the whirlpool" of fundamentalism and extremism (The Wall Street Journal). A journalist who has contributed to the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and other prominent publications, Sadanand Dhume sets out to explore the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, where in recent years radicalism has been on the rise. In a nation once synonymous with tolerance, the author, an Indian educated at Princeton, wants to understand the roots of this shift, and begins his memoir at the site of the notorious Bali bombing of 2002. His traveling companion is a young Islamist who hero-worships the late Osama bin Laden and sympathizes with the Taliban. Their travels span mosques and discotheques, prison cells and dormitories, sacred volcanoes and temple ruins. Over time, they forge an uneasy friendship that offers a firsthand look into the crucible of radical Islam's future. With a new preface by the author detailing what has happened in Indonesia since the book's initial publication, My Friend the Fanatic is the story of an alternately disturbing, amusing, and poignant journey that illuminates one of the most pressing issues of our time. "A vividly engaging portrait of the jarring contradictions at play as two diametrically opposed forces—globalisation and Islamisation—vie for Indonesia's soul . . . A striking social and political travelogue . . . A fine writer and lively storyteller with an eye for lurid detail." —The Australian