Hello Saeed,

Congratulations on your book ‘Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother’.  I was engaged from the first page and didn’t want to put it down.

I liked and enjoyed the structure that you chose as the means to give a critique on much of the modern world by using a letter to your mother but also the use of the story of your mother’s life and your life to explore wide ranging themes.  Even more so I really enjoyed the story – as well as your apologies!  Your parents were remarkable and all three of you have dared to step into the unknown, which despite the fear this can contain is the only way to live life as far as I am concerned.

As one of many, if not the majority of, Australians who opposed our joining the war against Iraq I was glad to see your reference to the marches against the war.  While no fan of Saddam Hussein, I am still appalled that we would go to war without the sanction of the UN.  The lies were obvious from the start and I believe Australia lost a lot of credibility among other countries for falling in to step with the ‘coalition of the willing’ or whatever nonsense term was coined by the spin doctors for the 22 Slovakians, 54 Lithuanians etc that joined the USA and UK.

There is one thing I would say, although my knowledge of the Muslim world is very limited, I and many others in my country know of the extraordinary achievements of the Moors in Spain and Sicily and the extraordinary empires of 1,000 plus years ago – that said I have very little knowledge of the specific achievements.  Though two visits to Sicily have shown me much of the Moorish architectural influence.

Adding the play to the letter in one book is ‘novel’ and I am not entirely sure they go together but then again why not, especially as Rasheed is a beacon of hope who shows that by compassion, dignity and honesty each individual has the ability to effect change for the good no matter how desperate their own circumstances.

I am still deeply upset by the story of Sarita and Mahesh.  I am also jaded, for theirs is just another desperately sad story where evil seems to prevail.  How can we not dwell on these stories and go under.  For even though the good of Sarita and Mahesh no doubt still flows in many varied ways today their lives were cut short and somehow, someone was able to convince someone else to kill them.  This aspect of human nature is one of the tragedies of our species and one of the reasons I do not believe in a loving god. On an individual level theirs is one of the saddest stories I have heard and is on a par with the story of Sophie and Hans Scholl who, as you may know, were executed for futile, naïve, yet so important resistance to the Nazis in Germany.

Do you think you can obtain a copy of ‘Cultural Amnesia’ by Clive James?  If not please send me your address so I can post you a copy as I am sure you will greatly enjoy reading the series of essays.  The book is dedicated to Sophie Scholl.

Thank you once again for the gift of your book.  It is a great book and I hope it is made available in bookshops around the world.

Until next time, all the best,

David
David Handley | Founding Director | david@sculpturebythesea.com
www.sculpturebythesea.com