THE BROKEN SILENCE

by Mohammed Javed ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 30, 2019

A debut memoir and political treatise by an Indian-born, Muslim immigrant to Canada.

In a foreword, retired engineer Javed begins his book with a powerful denunciation of “genocidal” U.S.–led sanctions against Iraq and the Second Gulf War. These sanctions, and subsequent war and occupation, were “the real weapon of mass destruction,” the author says, which “deprived innocent children of their right to live, play, and love.” Much of the rest of the book centers on Javed’s human rights activism in Canada and the United States from the mid-1990s onward, particularly his work with the Nova Scotia Campaign to End Iraq Sanctions. This work brought him in close proximity to leading Canadian figures, including Jamal Badawi, a professor emeritus at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax; Canadian Parliament member Svend Robinson; and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Many chapters focus on human rights abuses in Iraq and Islamophobia in the West, but the author weaves together international and domestic political history with his own personal story. As such, Javed’s book doubles as a powerful memoir of a self-made immigrant. He tells of his upbringing in India and includes brutally honest accounts of being sexual abused by fellow students in his late teens. He also tells of his search for work in Saudi Arabia, Canada, and the United States. He eventually became a successful engineer who helped build the new San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, but Javed also effectively recounts the hardships of his initial, failed laundromat business and other entrepreneurial ventures as well as his victimization at the hands of con artists eager to prey upon vulnerable immigrants. Overall, Javed writes in clear, evocative prose throughout and shows himself to be unafraid to denounce the West while also praising the opportunities provided by Canada. This strong narrative, however, is often broken up by inserted photocopies of correspondence, letters to newspaper editors, and emails related to his political activism. Although these are valuable primary sources, the documents’ tedious nature interrupts an otherwise seamless narrative flow, and they would have been better placed in an appendix.

An often formidable read about an activist immigrant’s experience.

Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-5255-4207-7

Page Count: 162

Publisher: FriesenPress

Review Posted Online: May 27, 2020

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | SURVIVORS & ADVENTURERS