The Abu Dhabi Bar Mitzvah: Fear and Love in the Modern Middle East Audiobook (Free)

Armed only with college Arabic and restless curiosity, Adam Valen Levinson set out to ‘learn about the world 9/11 made us dread.’ From basics in globalized and sterilized Abu Dhabi, he units out to lunchtime in Taliban place in Afghanistan, travels beneath the watchful attention of Aleppo’s key police, dangers shipwreck en route to Somalia, investigates Yazidi beliefs in a sacred cave, cliff-dives in Oman, celebrates New Year’s Eve in Tahrir Square, and, at every convert, discovers a location that matches never with its reputation.

While politicians and media eagerly stoke the flames of Islamophobia, Valen Levinson crosses edges with abundant humor and humanity. Looking for common ground just about everywhere, he finds that people who pray in different ways often laugh the same. So that as a young man club mitzvahed at twenty-one (instead of the usual thirteen), he slowly learns how childish it really is to live by decisions and distinctions created of fear.