Ali Eteraz

Ali Eteraz was born in Pakistan and has lived in the Middle East, the Caribbean and the United States. A graduate of Emory University and Temple Law School, he was selected for the Outstanding Scholar’s Program at the United States Department of Justice and later worked in corporate litigation in Manhattan. He is a regular contributor to True/Slant and has published articles about Islam and Pakistani politics in Dissent, Foreign Policy, Open Democracy, Alternet, altMuslim and writes frequently for the Guardian UK and Dawn, Pakistan’s oldest English language daily. His blog in the Islamosphere received nearly two million hits and was awarded various Brass Crescent prizes for excellence. Eteraz has spoken publicly about the situation inside Pakistan, Islamic reform and Muslim immigration. He currently splits his time between Princeton and the Middle East. He is working on a novel. Visit the author online at www.alieteraz.com.

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Biography/History

Islam/Middle East

Children of Dust

A Memoir of Pakistan

Talking Points

Ali Eteraz is a true expert in Islamic, Pakistani and Middle Eastern affairs—one who is not only knowledgeable, but one who has also lived in the particular regions. His first book, Children of Dust, is unique in that it is currently one of the only non-fiction accounts of growing up Muslim by a Pakistani man. His childhood experience at rural Pakistani madrassas, his conflicted experience as a Muslim activist in the U.S., and his engagement with the modern Middle East as an adult, makes him uniquely poised to speak about a range of topical issues. A lawyer, active blogger, columnist, and contributor to several websites, publications and international newspapers, Eteraz is committed to articulating a humane and compassionate vision to advance the cause of liberty in the U.S., Pakistan and among Muslims.

Description

Children of Dust provides an intimate and engaged look at the religion of Islam and the pain, pathos and love within its hidden niches. The book takes readers into the streets, neighborhoods, families, personal histories, failures, and escapes of a madrassa attending boy growing up in rural Pakistan; his arrival in the United States and subsequent life in the Bible Belt and Manhattan; his encounter with Talibanization in Pakistan in the late 90’s; and his eventual journey to the Middle East to discover his identity as a Muslim and a Pakistani male in a post 9/11 world. One of the underlying questions animating the book is how the author reconciled himself with the turmoil he experienced while growing up in various fundamentalist Muslim settings. Equal parts somber, comic and introspective, the character rich book is a probing and vital memoir about another world that has too long gone misunderstood.

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