Blue-Eyed Devil: A Road Odyssey Through Islamic America

by Michael Muhammad Knight

Book Overview

Michael Muhammad Knight embarks on a quest for an indigenous American Islam in a series of interstate odysseys. Traveling 20,000 miles by Greyhound in sixty days, he squats in run-down mosques, pursues Muslim romance, is detained at the U.S.-Canadian border with a trunkload of Shia literature, crashes Islamic Society of North America conventions, stink-palms Cat Stevens, and limps across Chicago to find the grave of Noble Drew Ali, filling dozens...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1593762402
• ISBN13: 9781593762407
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Catapult
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Immensely better than Travels with Charlie

The general argumentation is purely existential based on gut conviction, often equality (marihuana or hashish) induced. Just that conviction that is coming from an inner quasi-hormonal build-up that cannot and does not imagine there could be another point of view. The author seems to be critical of this approach, but he is trying to explore it and explain how American Muslims can come to that mental stand which is the negation of any critical sense since there can only be one truth and it comes from that gut-conviction that the proper words are truth, and the proper words have to come from the Quran enriched with Sunni and Shia ritual beliefs and practices. Which by the way, sets the whole gut-conviction and Quran at a slant, at a tilt, menacing to kick over. And yet the author tries to go beyond by "building" (meaning in his street language talking, discussing and blabbering) with all trends and trying to find some historical dimension in Islam in America that is not post 9/11. He is confronted to two hostilities. That from the WASPs, which is essentially anti-Islam by religious and political principles, as the scapegoat that appointed himself in that role by attacking the WASPs on 9/11 to give them a justification to be anti-Islam, to treat Muslims as scapegoats and thus to justify Muslims in their closure to the world. The second trend of hostility comes from the fact he is a white convert, hence a blue-eyed devil. And that hostility comes from both Muslims who only see the Caucasian in him and from Christians who only see a traitor of his race in his religion. Then he envisages the problem of women who are both Muslims and feminists and who look for and find in the Quran what they need to be feminists as well as Muslims: how can the energy necessary to change traditions come from or be found in these traditions themselves? And that's where the book is most interesting since the author was not born in these traditions and he may or might have the tendency, like many converts to be more royal than the King himself, like the Big Mac they called Mac Royal in Paris. He is looking for traditions and seems to be hard set at finding them. In Pakistan he found quite non-converging views, some leading to the Talibans in Afghanistan or the Shias in Iran, whereas others tried to find a way from Pakistani Shia to Western modernism.. In the same way in the US he is divided when looking for the historical pioneers of Islam and finding out that some are plain mysteries and not from Islam originally but from Hindu India or from good old Greek Christianity, in other words first or second generation converts who are immigrants into Islam. Yet that presence of Islam in the USA goes back far behind the Nation of Islam and very probably into the 19th century or even farther. He tries to understand the dilemma of girls confronted to their desire to discover sex and yet to remain pure, or his desire to get sex and not soil the girls, their desire to marry out of lo

Something For The Seekers

Got this from the cut-out bin at my local big box, which is a damn shame. That being said, I'm glad it was there, because I loved this book. Knight doesn't run from the conflicts throughout the various strains of Islam in the U.S. Instead, he distills a unique and personal understanding, and invites us to share and take what we will. I found his journey profoundly moving, and one to which I could personally relate. As someone who's dug through his own share of mess on the Christian side of things, I'm quite thankful for Mr. Knight's courage and candor. It's a hell of a fun read, and spiritually engaging for those who read with open minds and hearts.

peace

I read this book during the first weekend I got it and it messed with my head in a big way. It's about American Islam but Knight and his own faith/lack of faith really make it work. Clear your schedule and prepare to question.

A unique journey

This road Odyssey through Islamic America is facinating, and will be enjoyed by those who are quite new to this matter as much as by those who are already familiar with the deep facts and legends regarding the presence of the Islamic faith in America. A talented author (sort of a story teller like Slick Rick or GhostFace), Knight is sharing his car and greyhound trips, his questioning and faith, his anger and love, his hopes and fears in full honesty... In all his trips and tribulations he ends up painting the face of nowadays muslim America... muslim punks, muslims for Bush, ego oriented progressives, five percenters, and simple sincere believers... Knight meets them all along his journey, in the streets, in masjids, in cemeteries. He make readers laugh and shock some others, unaware of the often provocative content of Knights writings. He writes about who he is, straight from the guts, his honesty is what matter ultimately since he's not asking anyone to think like and what he thinks. He met, in his very unique way, face to face with Islam in America, its present diversity and ancient history. His quest to uncover the mystery surrounding Master Fard's life(s) is one of the key component of the book and one of the key to understand the different faces of Islam in America today.