With this week's suicide bombing at the Kabul Airport, I once again decided to dive into exploring radical islam.

I chose the book, 'Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam" by Yasmine Mohammed. It's definitely a catchy title, yet several Goodreads reviewers felt, as I did, the title didn't accurately reflect the thesis of the book.

One reviewer wrote, "The title is absolutely a misnomer...this is not the book it was marketed to be. It is very much a personal memoir..

Reading page after page, I believed the author wasn't afraid to stand before her readers naked, (figuratively speaking) to pour out her heart of the abuses she experienced during her childhood.

Her story heartfelt, was one of survival; an autobiography escape from religious radicalization.

Surprisingly the abuses occurred not in the Republic of Indonesia (currently the most populous Muslim country) or from Nigeria (believed to bypass the USA's populace by 2050). The abuses didn't even occur in Iran called a "theocratic republic" by CIA World Factbook yet its constitution has been described as "hybrid" of "theocratic and democratic elements" by Francis Fukuyama.

This book was set mainly in Canada! How could this happen there?

Unfortunately this book left me with more questions. I question whether her own brutal abuse (both physical and emotional) blinded her to religion as a whole.

Just as a Goodreads reviewer wrote, "I kept thinking... that you could take the account of any girl from any "Fundie "(fundamentalist) Christian family and probably have a lot of similar material. The one difference being, liberals are lots more comfortable condemning one of these two narratives..."

Another wrote, "Yasmine is justifiably angry that this Canadian social services failed to remove her from abusive family but she failed short of establishing that the failure was a result of a cultural relativism in the social service... Her argument that Islam is inherently abusive is to make every family in the West suspect by virtue of their religious affiliation."

Many reviewers gave her high scores; several gave five stars because of her "courage" in writing the book. I myself feel that her emotions leapt off the pages and into your heart. Yet, I agree with a Goodreads reviewer who wrote, "it fails to explain how western liberals empower radical Islam." (the title of the book)

Even in this emotionally, moving book which strongly felt for the character, I didn't find enough logical, concrete answers so I searched elsewhere. My desire to understand Afghanistan tribal perspectives led to me to another source for information. Serendipitously, yesterday on the radio show, Fresh Air, I discovered an interview with future author and Chief news correspondent, Clarissa Ward. Clarissa, like Yasmine, is also a mother. She recently returned to the USA after three weeks in Afghanistan interviewing both city and tribal women and even talking with the Taliban.

While activists in the west consider the importance of women's rights and education for girls paramount, these issues are not even on the radar in many Afghan tribal communities. The tribal women told Clarissa that the Taliban says "girl's education is bad" and so "we believe them." As incredible as this sounds to us in the West, most villagers there see no current incentive or a need to focus on opportunities for girls.

Rather than prepare girls for a future filled with education, international travel or their own career, as we'd do here in the West, those in the Afghan tribal communities are happy to keep the status quo such as having girls bake bread, care for the animals and doing those household chores which have always been done. This simple focus on what appears important now is like the mindset of those young village girls who are not going to school, not thinking about the future, simply doing the household chores and not planning ahead.

Clarissa often heard from the Afghani people she interviewed,

"We don't care who is in charge. We just want peace. We just want to be able to leave our homes without fear of airstrikes or gunfire."

But at what cost? Benjamin Franklin once said:

"Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Who's more correct-the author or the villagers? Only time will tell.