American Jihad is the only popular bookavailable about the religious experience of Muslims,both black and white, in America. With over onebillion faithful worldwide, and over six rnillion inthe United States alone, Islam is the world'sfastest-growing religion. In fact, the population ofAmerican Muslims surpasses the membership of manymainline Protestant denominations. However, themedia's depiction of Muslims in America often stopsshort of any real examination and opts instead tocover only the sensational, puzzling charisma ofLouis Farrakhan, who leads the Nation of Islam, orthe violence of some of the more extremistMuslims. American Jihad dispels theseprominent but dangerously deceptive stereotypesand is the first book to take a serious andinclusive approach to exploring how the Muslim faith isembraced and practiced in America. Like manyAfrican-Americans of his generation, author StevenBarboza was affected profoundly by Malcolm X andconverted from Catholicism after reading theAutobiography. In American Jihad, hefeatures a myriad of faithful Muslims who come frommany different walks of life from a foreign policyadvisor of Richard M. Nixon's, to a blond Sufi, toan AIDS activist, and so on. InAmerican Jihad, you'll hear from some of themost famous American Muslims after Malcolm X,including Louis Farrakhan, Kareem Abdul Jabar, AttallahShabazz (Malcolm X's daughter), and the former H.Rap Brown. In American Jihad,Steven Barboza does for Islam what Studs Terkel hasrecently done for race relations.From the Trade Paperback edition.