A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim's Hajj of Defiance

A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim's Hajj of Defiance is the first book by Parvez Sharma, released on August 15, 2017, by publisher BenBella Books.[1] The book focuses on Wahhabism, Daesh, Saudi Arabia, and the position of Islam in the Indian sub-continent.[1] Sharma calls the book the final product of his "Islam Trilogy". The author recorded an audiobook version of this book for Tantor Media on December 14, 2017.[2][3] In 2018, Parvez Sharma's book, A Sinner In Mecca: A Gay Muslim's Hajj of Defiance was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in the category of Gay Memoir/Biography[4] and received Honorable Mention in the LGBT Nonfiction category for the 2017 Foreword INDIES.[5]

A Sinner in Mecca, A Gay Muslim's Hajj of Defiance
First edition
AuthorParvez Sharma
LanguageEnglish
GenreMemoir, Islam, Daesh, Politics, Islamic History
PublishedAugust 15, 2017
PublisherBenBella Books
ISBN1944648372

About

In the book Sharma sharply veers away from the subject of the film of the same name and instead focuses on Wahhabi Islam, Daesh, Saudi Arabia, the Indian sub-continent and more.[6] Sharma has called the book as the final product of his “Islam Trilogy” in various interviews. In one titled “A Jihad for Love and Equality: A Chat with trailblazer, Parvez Sharma” he explains this as,“The Islam Trilogy is my contribution to history which actually began three months after September 11, 2001, when I started filming, A Jihad for Love, the world’s first film on Islam and homosexuality. In 2011, just months after I reported the Arab Spring extensively and bin Laden’s death I decided to go on Hajj. This would be my Hajj of defiance—and if found out I faced certain beheading. But as a filmmaker I knew this would be the greatest journey of my life and there was no way I would not film it. It was historic, you are not permitted to film in Mecca according to Wahhabi theology (even though short YouTube videos proliferate) but I did. Many shut their doors on me. Many foundations who had embraced Jihad were too afraid of this. In any case a three-year struggle ensued and we had another world first— A Sinner in Mecca, a film in Mecca and Medina shot entirely on an iPhone. Then I began writing the book that would say everything the film was not able to. That became A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim’s Hajj of Defiance. Thus the trilogy which represents almost two decades of hard earned work ends as I had always planned it.”[7]

The book like the film has a trailer approaching three hundred thousand views.[8]

The book has been extracted on other platforms.

Publisher

The book was released by a U.S. based publisher from Dallas, Texas called BenBella Books. They declared it one of their front-list titles.[9] In 2017, the publisher said they had 14 New York Times bestsellers on its list of titles.[10]

Audio-book publisher, Tantor Media released an author-voiced audio-book on December 14, 2017.

Author

Author History

He started writing as an undergraduate at Presidency College,[11] Calcutta in India, for the newspapers The Telegraph, The Statesman and The Business Standard. He contributed to US publications like Trikone.

He has written about India, Islam and U.S. Politics on the Pulitzer Prize winning news aggregation portal Huffington Post,[12] The Guardian,[13] The Daily Beast[14] and CNN-IBN (now known as News18).[15]

His work is quoted, discussed, interviewed in academic and non-fiction books. In Robin Wright’s “Rock the Casbah” she begins a chapter called, The Counter Jihad with a quote from interview with him where Sharma says, “Clearly 9/11 was a turning point for Americans. But it was even more so for Muslims.”[16]

Editorial Reviews

# 1 NY Times bestselling author of Zealot and CNN host, Reza Aslan said,[17] “Parvez's heroism is rare and his courage well-documented…he takes us on a surprising and compelling journey through the frontlines of his much contested faith. A brilliant follow up to his films…”. Kevin Sessums, New York Times bestselling author of Mississippi Sissy and I Left It On the Mountain said,[18][19]“Parvez Sharma's Hajj pilgrimage is not only a journey to Mecca but to his deepest self. Both a Muslim and an out gay man, Sharma writes bravely and brilliantly. His religion is ancient. His story is timeless.” [20] Asra Q. Nomani, Muslim women-rights activist and bestselling author of Standing Alone in Mecca says in an editorial review,[6][20][18] "… With his powerful, brave book, A Sinner in Mecca, Parvez Sharma takes us on his hero’s pilgrimage, teaching us of an ethereal truth: the qibla, or direction of Mecca, resides within each one of our hearts…"

Cleve Jones, Author, Harvey Milk contemporary and the man who conceptualized the historic NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt said in an editorial review,[18][21] “…In a divided world, Sharma fearlessly crosses the boundaries and barriers that separate us from each other and finds common ground in the search for love and truth.”[22][23] The Washington Book Review said "You will never think the same way about Saudi Arabia and Islam after reading this beautifully written book."[20]

External Reviews

The book has mixed reviews in the media.

The Guardian newspaper says,[24] “ Written by a man with a deep knowledge of Islamic historic; with courage and fierce emotion.” It adds, “Parvez Sharma is a proud gay Muslim whose first film, A Jihad For Love, was the first ever made about Islam and homosexuality. It made him the subject of death threats throughout the Arab world.” LGBT website Towleroad said,[25] “This Gay Muslim Risked His Life to Reveal a Side of Islam Most Have Never Seen” and added in its review that the book “(Helps us) gain perspective on extremists and religion, but as a glass to view the world here in the United States, the challenges felt by the Muslim community, and the oppressive weight of the Trump administration”

Foreword Reviews said, “Sharma’s spiritual search is intimate and careful, and ultimately one of understanding.”[26]

The book had a four and a half star out of 5 score on customer reviews in Amazon in January 2018.

Publishers Weekly said "Ultimately, the work is fascinating but flawed, with many of its important topics tackled haphazardly; more reflective insight into Sharma’s own faith journey, for example, might have tied the narrative together more closely." [27]

A User MGallaway gave it five stars and said,[20] “Like its author, this book resists easy labels and classification. Combining elements of family memoir, political analysis, history, exegesis, cloak-and-dagger meetings, and gay hookups, "A Sinner in Mecca" exposes religious intolerance—and its economic and colonial underpinnings—and celebrates the beauty of faith in its most intimate, personal form. An antidote to 'soundbite journalism,' this book should be read by anyone who wants to better understand the miraculous complexity of the world.”

A user called Roroblu'sMum gave it 3 stars and says “ Having not seen the film, and not knowing much about the author, other than what I googled, I expected a lot from this tale. I'm from an Asian background myself and involved with things LGBT, but, I had to take this with more than a pinch of salt.”[20]

Extracts of the book are available on Google Books.[6]

The Daily Beast extract, titled “I Survived the Hajj—Islam’s Mashup of Boot Camp and Mosh Pit: Every Muslim is supposed to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, but Parvez Sharma discovered the hard way that this dirty, noisy, and nearly lethal trek was more hell than heaven.” [28] This is a quote from the book extract, “Both she and I knew that the bin Laden family, one of the largest construction conglomerates, had been charged to modernize (aka destroy Islamic history) Mecca and Medina. Osama bin Laden, one of the sons, was for a while in charge of this in Mecca. He like the 15 (of 19) hijackers of 9/11 had definitely performed Hajj. Perhaps more than once and perhaps these toilets were a bin Laden novelty of modernization. This family was the closest to the despicable, ruling Al-Saud monarchy. They always got all the contracts.”

A Huffington Post book-extract titled “ #WAR” in part says,[29] “Fear is the strongest of emotions. And the strongest kind of fear can be manufactured by those who know that fear; real fear is that of the other. A man called Stephen Bannon knew it so well it was as if branded with a hot iron, or worse into his skull. Daenerys Targaryen, in Game of Thrones knows it well. So do all the pretenders to the Iron Throne in the HBO goldmine. It’s a winning formula unlike any other. Tits, dragons, and BOOM! Fear of the other is what gave a monstrous contractor and reality TV star the real-life version of the Iron Throne—the presidency of the United States last year.” One extract on NewNowNext titled “Parvez Sharma’s “A Sinner In Mecca” Tells Of One Man's Hajj—With Potentially Deadly Consequences” details a major life-decision, one of many that Sharma undertook before leaving for Saudi Arabia, “Friends said my circumcision proved I was “crazy” and they would never take such an irreversible, life-altering decision. I had no choice.”

Sharma is doing a book tour with this “Islam Trilogy” in 2017 and 2018. One such event lead to the Times Union published out of Albany to publish a book extract as well, titled “In Mecca with eye, iPhone”[30]

Out of almost two million books on Amazon the book ranks the following way in January, 2018:

#168 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Ideologies & Doctrines > Radicalism

#307 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Specific Groups > LGBT

#1918 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Religious

On Tantor Media, where the book has been given four and a half stars out of five a reviewer says, “Given the perception that the Middle East is largely hostile to the LGBTQ community, Parvez Sharma’s spiritual memoir A Sinner in Mecca is shocking in its clarity and candor.”[2]

Information

Paperback: 330 pages

Publisher: BenBella Books (August 15, 2017)

Language: English

ISBN 1944648372

ISBN 978-1944648374

Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches

Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces

References
  1. Yeffeth, Laura. "A Sinner in Mecca - BenBella Books". BenBella Books. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  2. results, search (2017-12-14). A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim's Hajj of Defiance (Unabridged ed.). Tantor Audio. ISBN 9781541458475.
  3. "Tantor Media".
  4. Boureau, Ella (2018-03-06). "30th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  5. "2017 Foreword INDIES Finalists in LGBT (Adult Nonfiction)". Foreword Reviews. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  6. Sharma, Parvez (2017-08-15). A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim's Hajj of Defiance. BenBella Books. ISBN 9781944648404.
  7. "A Jihad for Love and Equality: A Chat with trailblazer, Parvez Sharma". indulge. 2018-01-17. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  8. A Sinner in Mecca (2015-03-17), ORIGINAL AND OFFICIAL TRAILER FOR A SINNER IN MECCA (2016), retrieved 2018-03-24
  9. Yeffeth, Laura. "Frontlist Titles Archives - BenBella Books". BenBella Books. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  10. Yeffeth, Laura. "About BenBella - BenBella Books". BenBella Books. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  11. Banchetti-Robino, Marina Paola; Headley, Clevis Ronald (2009-03-26). Shifting the Geography of Reason: Gender, Science and Religion. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781443806305.
  12. "Parvez Sharma | HuffPost". huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  13. "Parvez Sharma". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  14. "The Daily Beast". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  15. "Parvez Sharma Blogs | Opinion Articles, Analysis Written by Parvez Sharma - News18". news18.com. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  16. Wright, Robin (2012-08-07). Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World with a New Concluding Chapter by the Author. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781439103173.
  17. Inc., Indigo Books & Music. "A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim's Hajj of Defiance, Book by Parvez Sharma (Paperback) | chapters.indigo.ca". chapters.indigo.ca. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  18. "A Sinner in Mecca | Parvez Sharma | 9781944648374 | NetGalley". netgalley.com. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  19. "What is the book REALLY about? - A Sinner in Mecca". A Sinner in Mecca. 2017-08-11. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  20. results, search (2017-08-15). A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim's Hajj of Defiance. BenBella Books. ISBN 9781944648374.
  21. Noble, Barnes &. "A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim's Hajj of Defiance". Barnes & Noble. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  22. A Sinner in Mecca: Parvez Sharma: 9781944648374.
  23. "A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim's Hajj of Defiance | IndieBound.org". indiebound.org. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  24. Kaiser, Charles (2017-09-10). "A Sinner in Mecca review – Islam, homosexuality and the hope of tolerance". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  25. "A Sinner in Mecca: This Gay Muslim Risked His Life to Reveal a Side of Islam Most Have Never Seen - Towleroad". Towleroad. 2017-09-20. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  26. "Review of A Sinner in Mecca". Foreword Reviews. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  27. "Nonfiction Book Review: A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim's Hajj of Defiance by Parvez Sharma. BenBella, $16.95 trade paper (330p) ISBN 978-1-944648-37-4". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  28. Sharma, Parvez (2017-08-25). "I Survived the Hajj—Islam's Mashup of Boot Camp and Mosh Pit". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  29. Sharma, Parvez (2017-08-19). "#WAR". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  30. "In Mecca with eye, iPhone". Times Union. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
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