Day 325 – 52 Books in 52 Weeks

American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us by Steven Emerson is a scary book. Tracking movements of extremists living here in the U.S. from the 80s until just after 9/11, Emerson shows in quite a bit of detail, where these extremists are living, how they’re funding groups like al Qaeda and sending U.S. products (cell phones, computers, weapons) to terrorists abroad.

Emerson starts off by telling us how he became involved in hunting down this information and building his organization up to the point that at one point, the FBI was going to him to get intel. He talks about various terrorist leaders, where they operate – and more importantly, how they operate. From universities to private organizations, he shows how these people used our own Constitutional freedoms against us in order to get to where they needed to be to supply their cells (here and abroad) with the intention of destroying us.

From small towns in Ohio, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Florida to the big cities, there are more terrorist cells out there than I even want to think about. Though I’m sure many of these cells have been disbanded or are at least being followed closely by the FBI since the book was published in early 2002 – it was frightening to read the number of these groups out there and who may still be there.

Emerson also gives us profiles of various leaders, their modes of operation, and also shows us all of the different terrorist “organizations” out there and how they all grew into or affiliated with al Qaeda.

I’d like to find a follow-up book to see the status of these people and cells today. It is definitely an eye-opener.

From that book, I went on to Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand who was the founder of Voice of the Martyrs. Wurmbrand was captured by the Communists in WWII and spent 14 years in prison where he was tortured to the point of death, left to recover only to be tortured again.

The book shows you the atrocities committed by Communists against Christians, all from this man’s own story. He talks about how his wife was sent to a concentration camp and how his son was left to fend for himself, almost abandoning his own faith. For those who think Christianity is “just another religion” and their idea of a Christian is based on how mainstream media depicts Christians, this story will show you a true Christian. One who believes in the one true Savior to the point of risking being captured and tortured just to tell one person the Gospel.

The one problem I have with the book is that Wurmbrand takes the point of view that everyone should be a missionary – and that all Christians need to be giving money to missionaries/missionary organizations. I don’t believe every Christian is called to be a missionary. We’re called to spread the Gospel, yes, but that doesn’t mean that I personally need to drop everything and head off to a third world country to spread the Gospel. I also believe our missionaries need to be supported, but I prefer to do that through my home church, not through an organization.

In any case, if you’re interested in the real life of a passionate Christian, it’s a good book.

Finally, to wrap up the last of the six books that I’ve read since my last post, we come to Arthur, King by Dennis Lee Anderson. This was a fun book that merged my love of Arthurian lore with my more recent fascination with Hitler. Excalibur is stolen and Arthur ends up in 1940 England to find it. His illegitimate son, Mordred, of course, stole the sword and is working his way up the ranks in Hitler’s regime.

Sure, there are parts that are kind of campy, but Anderson does a pretty good job of walking that line between campy and absurd. You can also tell he’s into aviation as most of the book is very detailed about the planes of that era. But the characters are well drawn: Arthur is gallant and chivalrous, Mordred is eerily evil, the Nazi’s are depicted pretty close to accurately (we meet just a couple like Goering), and even Churchill shows up. It was a fun read, however silly the premise.