A Romantic novel or a Fundamentalist thriller, or both? A Sharia London is the new novel by Vinay Kolhatkar that brings in an insiders view of radical Islam and the people's struggle to break free from it.
Raw in details, rich with cliff hangers and plot twists this is an "Un-put-down-able" book.
The narrative takes the reader through London and other parts of the Europe, the Middle East and India, as the love story between Marlon Stone, a middle age history professor, and Jamila Kahn, a young beautiful "Muslim apostate" student, evolves. What started as a confronting student who challenged Dr. Stone's politically-correct stand and uneventful life ends in a thriller of terrorism, assassination, mafia fightback and intense love.
"- ....That is your world, Marlon.
- What is your world?
- A Sharia London, and I don't want to be in it."
Marlon Stone is an idealist who thinks that the good side of Islam just needs to gain critical mass to win over the fundamentalists. Jamila, who was raised a devout muslim knows better. She has seen how extremists kidnap and trade young girls for ISIS, how they rape and assault apostate muslims and kafirs. Jamila contends that extremists can't be defeated with patients and time, but with positive actions. She was involved with Azaadi, a secret organization who saves young girls who want to escape Islam.
As Stone starts falling in love with Jamila he recognizes the truth. He gets in the middle of Azaadi and while helping Jamila escape gets himself in danger. The climax of his discovery is when he returns to his class, no longer willing to watch history from the sidelines:
"The epochal moments of a society’s history arise from a clash of values so intense that no politically correct dialogue can even begin to touch it, let alone resolve it."
"In the long narrative of human history, these are the turning points, the twists and turns of the story as it unfolds. Identify these epochal moments ... remember, they are always caused by an intense value clash .. study these pivotal moments, and you understand humanity itself."
What is fascinating about Sharia London are the contrasting values. An middle-age professor who suffers from anhedonia and an intense young idealist student, a submissive mother willing to give her life for a rebel daughter, the Mafia helping fight terrorism when the government failed, living in danger or dying in peace.
However the core moral of the story is an increasing sense of life as danger becomes real and present. Living a life without meaning is closer to being dead while living the life you choose despite the risk and dangers is intense and meaningful.
"Suddenly, he knew. She lived. She lived every day anew like it was her last, extracting every residue of purpose and cheer from whatever life threw at her. Every day."
For the reader the question is "Am I living a life of meaning? Can we find meaning in life as if nothing is happening in the world around us? Do you actually need to be in danger to enjoy life or just live intensively as if everything can abruptly end?
