Osama’s Jihad is an extraordinary novel that takes you from New York City to Cairo to Makkah and back again, as our protagonist, Osama, grows from childhood to manhood through a series of dizzying experiences.
It’s not what you think. It’s not what you’re expecting. It’s not a defense, a diatribe, or an endorsement. Osama’s Jihad, instead, is an extraordinary novel that takes you from New York City to Cairo to Makkah and back again, as our protagonist, Osama, grows from childhood to manhood through a series of dizzying experiences.
After the death of his beloved father, the adult Osama is adrift in guilt, recriminations, and self-doubt. Despite their strong and devoted relationship, an incident in the family years before had uprooted the adolescent Osama, his mother, and sister from New York to Cairo. He finds a passionate and all-encompassing love in neighbor Nora, but shocking revelations about her lead to anguish, scarring, and possibly permanent ruin.
He needs to acknowledge his past and accept his culpability as well as find a road to his future. We identify with him as his vulnerability and self-loathing threaten to overtake his desire to live and to see his son grow to manhood. Indeed, Osama is living his jihad, the spiritual struggle within that every human must confront and triumph.
it is a story with universal relevance.
What The Critics Say
This book is a winner for its content, and surrounding discussion
At it’s simplest, Hani Selim’s novel is a study on existence. Forced into action by a traumatic family event, Osama recounts his life story for Adam, so that his son might have the privilege of honesty. Selim accomplishes a degree of intrigue throughout the novel: just when the reader thinks they have come to understand Osama and his family, the author introduces yet another twist. In this way, he shows the reader how each seemingly disjointed topic is actually related to the others.
Winter Bloom
United States
Open Mind and Heart!
If you keep an open mind and an open heart while reading this book, everything you need to know about oneness, tolerance, acceptance and love will get “downloaded” directly into your soul !
Look Within!
It is much better than a lot of self-help books, much easier to understand than a lot of psychology books and it helps us fully understand very difficult philosophical and spiritual concepts in a very easy and accessible manner that philosophy and religion volumes can’t ever achieve.
The Needed Tools
I have read a lot of books that preach LGBTQ rights, tolerance, equality, love, etc. … Osama’s Jihad does not preach anything; it does not give us any quick fixes or ready-made solutions… Instead, it takes us on a very engaging emotional and spiritual journey that simply SHOWS us how true love, compassion and a truly spiritual mind-set are the needed tools to overcome almost anything in life.
Nobody is Perfect!
In one medium-sized book, Hani Selim has managed to create three-dimensional characters that have so much depth that we, the readers, emerge at the other end feeling like we really know each and every one of them on a very personal level. The most amazing achievement of this book, in my opinion, is how HUMAN every single character is. Nobody is perfect, nobody is a villain, no angels and no demons; just human beings with human emotions, human flaws and very real personalities.
An Entire Lifetime!!
I finished the book three weeks ago. It only took me a day and a half to finish it. I literally could not put it down. To this day, three weeks after having finished it, I still miss the characters of the book! In a day and a half, I lived an entire lifetime with these characters, built solid and enduring relationships with them, got to know them intimately and now… I really miss them!
An Emotional Rollercoaster
It is an emotional rollercoaster that creeps on your soul, fundamentally changing you from the inside-out and, before you know it, you catch yourself thinking and feeling things you never thought you’d think or feel.
An engaging emotional and spiritual journey
The self-hatred and self-doubt that a homosexual has to endure in order to survive in an Arab, Muslim country… The racism and suspicion that a Muslim/Arab faces when living abroad… The psychological toll of growing up torn between two fundamentally opposite cultures… Familial differences, parental love, sibling rivalry, coming-of-age romance and heartbreak… Osama’s Jihad has it all and a lot more!
Karim Strougo
Dig Deep & Pull on the Heart Strings
I am not an Arab, I am not a Muslim and I am not a Homosexual. I am a mother. As a mother, it pains me to think of all the hatred that some children have to face because of such classifications. I know that whoever reads this novel will walk away with an increased knowledge of what it feels like to be a person placed in such categories. They will be exposed to the struggles one must face in an effort to secure basic freedoms deserved by all human beings. This novel will pull at your heart strings and dig deep within your soul to distinguish a new sense of empathy. It really is a story that has ‘something for everyone’, but in the end it all comes down to love. I predict a definite “best-seller”.
New York, NY
Part fiction, part philosophy!
The author weaves a tale of one family and the decisions they each make which test what they have been taught to believe. If you are familiar with the Muslim culture, this book will challenge those beliefs. If you are not familiar, you will learn more than you expected to. This is a great read for everyone!
Tiffany Violette Caouette
Connecticut, USA
This novel will pull at your heart strings and dig deep within your soul
A page-turner from the very beginning, this story encompasses culture, religion, love, and a controversial spiritual journey that shakes your perspective and awakens compassion, one of humanity’s basic traits, that has been caged to the norms of society.
Adam Makkar
New York, NY
This book will change your perspective on life
The storyline made me tear up, question my beliefs and sometimes laugh; and most importantly it reminded me of how our generation has gone through a lot over the past couple of decades. We have witnessed discrimination, terrorism, wars and revolutions; and we have also turned into global and vocal citizens which opened our eyes to the world, and sometimes confused the hell out of us. Taking me as a reader through this journey was a refreshing wake up call. And I thank you for it.
P.A.
Brooklyn, NY
Save Trees. DOWNLOAD IT
It is an empowering novel; it is a conversation starter. It addresses both Homophobia and Islamophobia, it sheds light on both matters through the eyes of the main character, Osama, living in two different worlds. It is a story of unconditional love; it is about the ties that bind a family together.
The story offers an insight into the lives of average Muslim families, living in the West, with strong ties to the Middle East.
