"Soul on Islam" is the first book written by Ahmad Maceo Eldridge Cleaver, the son of best selling author Eldridge Cleaver. This book is an informative memoir sketching his life with his parents, activists in America's civil rights movement, including details of their life in Algeria, where he was born, France and in America. Then the book continues to unfold and gives the reader a very moving and beautifully put description of how the author came to embrace Islam twelve years ago. He has spent nearly a decade living and traveling amongst the Muslims in countries in the Arabian Peninsula and in Africa and in the book he shares some of the stories and scenes that he has passed through while living in Sudan and in Qatar.
Here you will discover a portrait that appeals to many American readers of how a young, urban, African-American becomes drawn to Islam. And it comes to you in the form of a journey filled with innocence, humor and a dedication to truth.
Inside its pages the book presents to the Western world a straightforward narrative describing the tenets of Islam using quotes from the Quran. Cleaver describes the cultural and religious differences bringing about misunderstandings between East and West. His work is both a memoir and a testament to the beliefs of millions of Muslims throughout the world.
The work also gives the reader an alternative perspective of the contemporary political difficulties that face America in the war on terrorism. It will attract readers who remember his father's book "Soul on Ice" and its passionate expression of African-American resistance to injustice, as well as American readers who would like to understand more clearly why some Muslims are not in full agreement with all of US policy.
Most certainly this book will be read and
discussed on campuses throughout the nation and will
be popular among African-Americans as well as
readers of various ethnicities from all walks of
life. Here is a book that will indeed enlighten
readers curious about Islam and wanting to
understand one of the world's major religions
through this seminal work.
About the Author
His name is Ahmad Maceo Eldridge Cleaver and he is a
36 years old African-American. He was born in
Algeria while his father, who was a leader in the
Black Panther Party, was in exile from the turbulent
civil rights movement of the 1960's. Then the family
lived in France and he visited America on two
occasions before his family returned to the USA when
he was 6 years old.
In 1992 he graduated with a B.A. from the Africana Studies and Research Department at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
He was raised as a Christian and has for the last 12 years been a Muslim. He comes from a family of writers and social activists. His father, Eldridge Cleaver, has written four books the most popular of which was the best-seller "Soul on Ice." His mother, Kathleen Cleaver, has edited a book on the Black Panther Party and published many articles. She is a law professor at Emory and at Yale University.
Since embracing Islam he has been a dedicated student of Islamic studies and the Arabic language. He has studied the teachings of Islam in classes held in mosques under imams and teachers in America, Sudan, Kuwait and in Qatar. He is fluent in the Arabic language, have studied it formally as a Second Language in those same three different Arabic speaking nations mentioned above.
He has been living abroad for the past 6 years in Doha, the capitol of the small Arabian Gulf nation of Qatar that borders Saudi Arabia.
He works as a teacher of English as a Second Language for an oil company. His background has molded him to become a bridge of communication between the Muslim Arab world and Americans.
