Buy both
Rounded Up by Shamshad Ahmad, Ph.D. and
Son of Mountains by Yassin Aref and save 20%!
Rounded Up: Artificial Terrorists and Muslim Entrapment After 9/11
"I invite you to think: there are more than six million Muslims in this country, and almost eight years have gone by since 9/11, yet not a single Muslim terrorist has ever been found here. We are not terrorists. We are part of this society, we share its concerns, and we want to share in its success and prosperity."––Shamshad Ahmad
In 2004, the FBI raided the Masjid As-Salam, a working-class mosque in Albany, New York, and arrested two of its members on charges of supporting terrorism. The government's subsequent case against Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain garnered international publicity, shocked the city, and terrified the Capital District's Muslim community. Now, from his insider's perspective as president of the mosque, Shamshad Ahmad gives the only comprehensive account available of the fictional FBI "sting" that entrapped the two men, and offers some behind-the-scenes information, including transcriptions of the actual sting tapes, that has never been made public. Dr. Ahmad's careful examination of the evidence, and his unique observations as a Muslim, leave no doubt that the case was a frame-up designed to advance the post-9/11 "war on terror" and intimidate the Muslim community––and that community support and activism have made a difference throughout this tragic miscarriage of justice.
Son of Mountains: My Life as a Kurd and Terror Suspect
“One day I was talking with one of the peshmerga commanders…who…quoted Napoleon Bonaparte, saying that ‘I am not afraid of 100 men with guns, but I am afraid of one man armed with a pen.’ Since then, I have always looked at my pen as my weapon. I consider myself a peshmerga, but I fight my battles with a pen.”
—from Chapter 4, "A Student in the City"
Sometimes they put innocent men in prison. Yassin Aref is one of those men.
Son of Mountains tells a story in prose and poetry that is much more than just Yassin’s side of his arrest, conviction, and imprisonment. It’s the story of a UN refugee who sought peace and freedom for himself and his family in America and found just the opposite. It’s the story of a two-time immigrant who has struggled all his life just to survive. And it’s the autobiography of an Iraqi Kurd—a “son of mountains”—who grew up in poverty under the rule of Saddam Hussein, and who writes that “I have the whole of Kurdistan and all of my people with me in my tiny cell at the jail.”
All proceeds from the sale of this bundle will go to the Aref Education Fund, established by the author for Yassin Aref's four children.
