Icon of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam
Author: David G Dalin
The definitive account of the little-known 1920s Palestinian leader who allied himself with Hitler and forms the hidden link between the fascism of the twentieth century and the new fascism of the twenty-first.
Book about: Complete Candida Yeast Guidebook or The Whartons Stretch Book
A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery
Author: E Benjamin Skinner
To be a moral witness is perhaps the highest calling of journalism, and in this unforgettable, highly readable account of contemporary slavery, author Benjamin Skinner travels around the globe to personally tell stories that need to be told -- and heard.
As Samantha Power and Philip Gourevitch did for genocide, Skinner has now done for modern-day slavery. With years of reporting in such places as Haiti, Sudan, India, Eastern Europe, The Netherlands, and, yes, even suburban America, he has produced a vivid testament and moving reportage on one of the great evils of our time.
There are more slaves in the world today than at any time in history. After spending four years visiting a dozen countries where slavery flourishes, Skinner tells the story, in gripping narrative style, of individuals who live in slavery, those who have escaped from bondage, those who own or traffic in slaves, and the mixed political motives of those who seek to combat the crime.
Skinner infiltrates trafficking networks and slave sales on five continents, exposing a modern flesh trade never before portrayed in such proximity. From mega-harems in Dubai to illicit brothels in Bucharest, from slave quarries in India to child markets in Haiti, he explores the underside of a world we scarcely recognize as our own and lays bare a parallel universe where human beings are bought, sold, used, and discarded. He travels from the White House to war zones and immerses us in the political and flesh-and-blood battles on the front lines of the unheralded new abolitionist movement.
At the heart of the story are the slaves themselves. Their stories are heartbreaking but, in the midst of tragedy, readers discover a quietdignity that leads some slaves to resist and aspire to freedom. Despite being abandoned by the international community, despite suffering a crime so monstrous as to strip their awareness of their own humanity, somehow, some enslaved men regain their dignity, some enslaved women learn to trust men, and some enslaved children manage to be kids. Skinner bears witness for them, and for the millions who are held in the shadows.
In so doing, he has written one of the most morally courageous books of our time, one that will long linger in the conscience of all who encounter it, and one that -- just perhaps -- may move the world to constructive action.
The Washington Post - Denise Brennan
In A Crime So Monstrous Skinner reports from some of the key departure, transit and destination points in the modern slave trade, including Haiti, Sudan, Romania, Moldova, Turkey, India, the Netherlands and Miami. Much like 19th-century abolitionist accounts of slavery in the United States, his book is meant both to inform and to enrage—and it succeeds on both counts.
Publishers Weekly
Today there are "more slaves than at any time in history," according to journalist Skinner's report on current and former slaves and slave dealers. Skinner's travelogue-cum-indictment focuses most sharply on Haiti, Sudan, Romania and India, and is interspersed with a detailed account of the work of John Miller, director of the State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, or "America's antislavery czar." Skinner reiterates that sexual trafficking is only one component of slavery, but devotes the bulk of this book (when it is not following Miller's State Department career) to this issue. The text teeters toward the travelogue, taking the reader to "Dubai's most notorious brothel" and Skinner's adventures in "pos[ing] as a client to talk to women... [or] as an arms dealer to talk to traffickers." Nevertheless, Skinner's story merits reading, and not just because the cause is noble and the detail often fascinating, such as the moral complications of Christian Solidarity International's "redemption" or purchase of 85,000 slaves' freedom. Skinner's account of the internal workings of the State Department and the deep links to faith-based antislavery groups and their special interests is seriously newsworthy and, at times, moving. (Mar.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationKirkus Reviews
An impassioned expose of a thriving slave economy in the world's poorest regions. With the appearance of Kevin Bales's shocking book Disposable People (1999), in which the author claimed there were 27 million slaves in the world-defined as "human beings forced to work, under threat of violence, for no pay"-Bill Clinton became the first U.S. leader to make modern-day slavery a national issue by signing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Subsequently, President Bush, at the behest of his Evangelical supporters, has spoken out vociferously against it, empowering a former congressman from Seattle, John Miller, to hunt down slavery rings across the globe and rescue victims, especially women and children. Journalist Skinner went underground to investigate pockets of this slave economy and the plight of its victims. In Haiti, he negotiated with a courtier (a broker) to buy a restavek (a "stay-with") for $50, a child taken from a family in the country on the promise of being educated and typically treated as chattel and concubine with impunity. In civil-war-torn Sudan, the author explored the history of Arab raids on southern Dinka villages to seize slaves, a practice sanctioned by the northern (Arab) government as a weapon of war. In Bucharest, he infiltrated a Romani slave market and discovered Moldovan villages drained of women by slave traders. In northern India, he was "overwhelmed" by the scale of bondage. Skinner tracks the crusading efforts of Miller and other faith-based abolitionists and the government's wrangling over the definition of slavery as a form of genocide (a crime against humanity) versus the euphemistic word "trafficking" (not a crime). The individual slave stories areso numerous and ghastly that readers may feel bludgeoned by the horror. An important, consciousness-raising book. Agent: Geri Thoma/Elaine Markson Agency
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