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Children Of The Dust Analysis

Decent Essays

Children of the Dust by Ali Eteraz is a memoir of sorts of Eteraz’s life as he grew up between Pakistan and the USA, and the struggles that he experienced from both country’s while trying to serve Islam. During his personal journey, Eteraz encountered what he referred to as the “dust” which is Satan’s attempt of corrupting God’s creatures, temptations of the flesh which he explains in embarrassing detail and he feels that these desires go against Islam, and finally the hypocrisy that he experiences while trying to adhere to Islam. “Children of the Dust” is written in five books in which book one starts out in Pakistan with a good recollection of his life which is giving of by conversations with his mother where he learns that his father promised …show more content…

“If you look around the world, you will see that the Jews and Christians are glorious and powerful, while Muslims are persecuted and killed just for being Muslim” (Eteraz 39). He further explains that this statement is reality; “I had seen Full House and Sesame Street and Star Trek and Air Wolf and Knight Rider on TV. Everything about the world of those people—those Christians—smacked of luxury” (Eteraz 39). Eteraz seems to ignore the persecution that the Jews have been subjected to since the beginning of recorded time and also that these luxury’s that Americans have, could also be enjoyed by Muslims if so wanted. Eteraz’s perception is that segments of the U.S. population view Islam with content. This is because of the events of 911 which a few radicalistic can change the view of a whole race but this radicalism also made him question Islam. Eteraz’s experiences and views of women and the struggles he has with his sexuality and religious convictions are very interesting. Eteraz describes having his first sexual experience at the young age of seven years old when a Pakistani girl named Sina exposes herself to him. After being chastised by his mother for his sinful behavior, the experience of this sexual encounter will serve as a basis of how he will treat women merely as sexual objects, especially Muslim women. Eteraz will target Muslim women because he felt they were easy targets. “Muslim women were my immediate target, because there were certain in-built advantages I could exploit. First my aura as a “pious brother” was still intact. That reputation allowed me to…initiate conversations with girls without having them think I was hitting on them” (Eteraz 240). His exploitation of Muslim women give Eteraz an exaggerated confidence in himself but he later he realizes “Persuading girls to abandon the strictures of Islam…was not ultimately

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