Good, but marred by white washing
343159
Human beings do not understand history as a mere collection of facts, but through the structure of a narrative. Understanding history, then, in part involves understanding the narrative. The trouble is, there's more than one narrative, and that is all too easy to forget. Tamim Ansary's aim of Destiny Interrupted, as I understand it, is to present Westerners with the Islamic narrative.

Destiny Interrupted is not a perfect book, but it has enough virtues that I am willing to overlook its shortcomings. First, the book contains a lot of information about history, and it covers some new areas for me. For instance, the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, the beginning of the Czars in Russia and the beginning of the Ottoman Empire are all very tightly related. Anyone who is looking for a primer for understanding the broad goings-on of the near Eastern world over the last 1,500 years will have a hard time doing better than this. And it's all presented in a very engaging manner.

A second plus about the book is that it has helped me understand how hard the Industrial Revolution has hit Muslim societies, and why they are not all rushing to greet the Enlightenment with open arms. Whereas in Europe, individualism evolved over a period of several hundred years as feudalism decayed, Islam was thrown into cold water. The culture shock continues to this day. As much as I am a cheerleader for Western values, I can understand how galling it must be to have them imposed from the top down. Some of it was just plain gratuitous, like Ataturk's getting rid of the Arabic script and changing the day of rest from the traditional Friday to Sunday, the Christian day of prayer, for crying out loud! That does nothing to make people free and equal, it just wrenches them from their cultural underpinnings!

I would very much like to give this book five stars, but I am disturbed by some of the white washing that takes place. Some much harsher reviewers have mentioned the Ansary's handling of the Banu Qurayza tribe incident, and they are right to complain. This is the story of the execution by Muslims of as many as 900 men of a Jewish tribe in Medina (formerly Yathrib) for betraying Muhammad at the Battle of the Ditch, where Muslims won their final military victory over their pagan foes.

The early sources such as Ibn Ishaq explicitly mention that the surviving women and children were taken as slaves. Even the Qu'ran contains a brief reference to  this, though it doesn't give the numbers or specify women and children. But according to Ansary, they were exiled and allowed to live out the rest of their lives with Jewish tribes. He provides no source for this claim, nor does he acknowledge that some sources (all that I am aware of!) say that they were enslaved. I have read at least one article challenging Ibn Ishaq's account, but what could be the justification for cherry picking it in this way believing the deaths but not the enslavement part?

Ansary does not pay much attention to the jihads that killed tens of millions of Hindus over the centuries. He doesn't ignore them, but you wouldn't guess their scale by this book. He also describes the Muslim Brotherhood as starting out as "a kind of Boy Scouts for Muslims." Only in a very superficial way: being composed of young people, being organized into military units and the like. But Robert Mitchell's book "Society of Muslim Brothers" makes clear that it was totalitarian and supremacist from its inception in the mind of Hasan al-Bana.

In other regards, Ansary is at pains to give both views, as when he takes up the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

I recommend you read this book to understand the Muslim world. Just don't let it be the last book on the topic you read!
2897728
White one gets dirty super super fast, and is impossible to clean. Fits nicely, feels good. I ordered a blue one to replace it. Do not get white.
4859327
Fits very well, but discolors over time. Perhaps cleaning with a detergent would help.
4134240
I would have given this 5 stars if not for the grease or oil stain in the front. I need it soon and do not have time to return it. I am going to try to wash it out, but after one wash already it's not looking good. The white is more of an off white or cream color. I ordered it too large as well. Order your true size.
1183341
Bought this recently, it has good grip and fits me just about right. Only thing I didn't like is that it gets dirty real fast because its white. It got dirty from the first use. Will update if needed.
3938043
They look nice and come with a rack, which is great.
But they get white stains when you put in the dishwasher. I have similar silicone utensil that dont, so the problem is not the dishwasher or the soap.
3414780
I had my Speed Queen AW542S delivered today and have washed three loads.  Whites, perm press,and towels.
I replaced my front loading LG who, after three years, had the bearing go out, with this top loader.

I had forgotten what 'clean clothes' were like until today.
The whites were actually WHITE.
And, without fabric softener, my clothes actually came out of the drier FLUFFY.
4162665
Nice and not smelly but wash separate as the purple stained some white socks in the same load.
2342559
Fit fine and was comfortable to wear, but after washing it the shirt had stains all over it.  I'm not sure what caused the stains, maybe sunblock, but the once white shirt was covered in gray and orange stains and looks horrible.  Buy a color other than white
2664566
My son loves this jersey. But if I had noticed that the washing instructions were HAND WASH ONLY, I would absolutely have not purchased this WHITE product. Soccer jerseys, especially white ones, get very dirty and it is highly inconvenient to have to wash this jersey by hand each time my son wants to wear it.
4462879
Good quality cotton and well made, my reservations are that it arrived mangled into a tiny little bag and looked dirty. I didn't want to wash it as it was for a present, so I took it out and ironed it which improved the appearance. After it was given to my husband, I washed it and it looked much better. Background was white instead of off white and colours were brighter.
4625469
I like it a lot but when I washed it it stained and ruined all of the other delicates in the laundry load it was in. It would have been nice to have a warning about that. :(
3324847
comfortable and long, but somewhat transparent through the white material
3934545
I love the cut and fit but with the very first wash there was a duty grayish looking cast to the material. The washing instructions were followed and I have tried everything I could think of to make it look white again but nothing has worked.
3011993
Love it with the exception the white turns colors and you can not clean it to get back to white.
139513
These sweatshirts are very nice. But one of the other ones I ordered bled when I washed it and dyed the white part of the lettering. Be careful of this. I will be giving two of these as presents, so hopefully they won't have the same problem.
4341074
Basically, these work great for a white board, but the cleaning cloth is useless.  A solution of Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds in a spray bottle works like magic though!  Comes off white board, chalk board, wood floors, etc.  Have yet to try and get it out of clothing, but they are far better to have around than stinky markers.
Update: Easily got this out of kids clothing; I threw on some Shout stain remover just in case and had no marks once out of the dryer.  Also, if kids are drawing on windows, water will get it off just fine.