About the Book
In 2002 Jim Sciutto began filing in-depth reports on the Middle East for ABC News. Now, after nearly 100 assignments in Muslim countries, Sciutto brings back this disturbing truth: the Al-Qaeda-inspired view of an evil America bent on destroying Islam has moved from the fringes to the mainstream. Today, a surprising number of America's enemies are not wild-eyed fanatics, but moderates--often middle-class and well educated, frequently young, many motivated by political convictions more than religious belief.
Sciutto profiles a cross-section of people in the Arab world, including a former Al-Qaeda jihadi turned electrician in Saudi Arabia, a Jordanian college student willing to risk his life by killing Americans in Baghdad, a Christian woman who supports Hezbollah in Lebanon, bitter pro-democracy advocates in Egypt who feel betrayed by the United States, and British-born Muslim terrorists living in London. The result is an alarming portrait of the depth and scope of anti-American sentiment.
Opposing America has become the unifying rallying cry for a rapidly growing pan-Arab nationalist movement. Conspiracy theories abound as Muslims begin to feel they are targeted by America, their political autonomy sabotaged. The Iraq war has become one of the most powerful recruiting tools for enemies of the United States.
Yet there is hope for America to turn the tide of hate. Sciutto talks with a young female student in Afghanistan who is cautiously optimistic that the United States will not fail her country in the rebuilding effort--and with a reformed jihadi in London who is finding ways to counsel young British Muslims away from their hatred of America. Democratic ideals are still held in high esteem, even as America's perceived actions against Muslims are not.
Against Us is an urgent wake-up call for all Americans--and in particular those charged with formulating U.S. foreign policy--to rebuild relations with the Arab world and restore confidence in American values. From the Hardcover edition.
Review :
"For far too long, U.S. policymakers have relied on a faulty, dangerous premise: We only have to convince the rest of the world of our righteousness to dispel the growing, anti-American tide that has swept across the Arab and Muslim worlds since 2001. In his insightful, captivating and informative book, Jim Sciutto, a veteran reporter in the Middle East, shows how misguided that notion is. To much of the rest of the world, particularly the Middle East, American foreign policy appears singularly imperial. In fact, in less than a decade, two distinct versions of reality have emerged -- one there, one here -- and in the way America is perceived, they rarely intersect. We can't wish away what has happened to our image. We have to understand the phenomenon. We have to recognize it. And Sciutto's book is essential reading in doing so."
--Anthony Shadid, Middle East correspondent, "Washington Post"
"Jim Sciutto begins "Against Us" with his discovery that some of those who hate America live literally down his street. He goes on to find similar sentiments in a discomforting-even frightening-number of places. "Against Us" is a solid job of reporting, a personal journey of discovery, and a wakeup call for all who read it."
--Charles Gibson, ABC News
"Although he paints a sobering picture, Sciutto offers hope for Americans seeking amicable relationships with Muslims .... Much-needed light on dark geopolitical realities."
--"Booklist"
"A foreign correspondent for ABC News, Sciutto examines and explains the increasingly negative attitudes toward the United States among citizens of Muslim and Arab countries in this deeply insightful book. Structured around interviews conductedin the Middle East and the U.K., the book offers ample anecdotal evidence to suggest that anti-American sentiment-once the province of fringe groups-has gone mainstream, becoming in effect, a form of Middle Eastern nationalism, uniting moderates and radicals, Muslims and Christians for whom "freedom implies the freedom from American interference." Sciutto weaves together interviews with historical background, poll data and personal experience in this consistently informative and captivating account. In the strongest interviews, including one with a young, reform-minded Iranian activist and another with an Iraqi doctor, the book sets intense, sometimes horrifying experiences against a complicated and changing political backdrop. The author makes a few amorphous foreign policy recommendations on the basis of his research, but the book is less interesting for what it reveals about American policy than for its empathetic and candid depiction of its subjects and their lives."
--"Publishers Weekly" "From the Hardcover edition."
"Jim Sciutto begins "Against Us" with his discovery that some of those who hate America live literally down his street. He goes on to find similar sentiments in a discomforting-even frightening-number of places. "Against Us" is a solid job of reporting, a personal journey of discovery, and a wakeup call for all who read it."
--Charles Gibson, ABC News
"A foreign correspondent for ABC News, Sciutto examines and explains the increasingly negative attitudes toward the United States among citizens of Muslim and Arab countries in this deeply insightful book. Structured around interviews conducted in the Middle East and the U.K., the book offers ample anecdotal evidence to suggest that anti-American sentiment-once the province of fringe groups-has gone mainstream, becoming in effect, a form of Middle Eastern nationalism, uniting moderates and radicals, Muslims and Christians for whom "freedom implies the freedom from American interference." Sciutto weaves together interviews with historical background, poll data and personal experience in this consistently informative and captivating account. In the strongest interviews, including one with a young, reform-minded Iranian activist and another with an Iraqi doctor, the book sets intense, sometimes horrifying experiences against a complicated and changing political backdrop. The author makes a few amorphous foreign policy recommendations on the basis of his research, but the book is less interesting for what it reveals about American policy than for its empathetic and candid depiction of its subjects and their lives."
--"Publishers Weekly" "From the Hardcover edition."
