Your fatwa does not apply here - Karima Bennoune

Karima Bennoune interviewed journalists, doctors, musicians, museum curators, lawyers, street vendors and women's rights activists, among others, in her three-year investigation of opposition to the rising tide of Muslim fundamentalism from Lahore to Minneapolis. Her subjects' own religious views range from the wholly secular to the deeply devout, yet all bear painful witness to the brutal effects of fundamentalist violence and oppression. Defenders of freedom, they struggle to foster creativity, compassion, discussion and diversity even sometimes in the face of death threats (and more than threats) from armed religious militants. Yet, some of these vibrant, engaging and heroic people also suffer from the consequences of counterterrorism.

Karima Bennoune is a professor of international law at the University of California-Davis School of Law. She grew up in Algeria and the United States and now lives in northern California.

Her [Karima Bennoune's] reporting is diligent, passionate and convincing.

Bennoune offers a compelling, meticulously researched account...

Bennoune has written a very necessary book indeed, and it is to be hoped that it will find the widest audience possible.

Should be required reading.