Description
During a particularly low point in 2021, I decided to lash out on the world - or at least, my insulated world of opinionated book geeks that is Goodreads - by assuming a fictional character named Faizal. He is a particularly fiery, if uneducated, Muslim resident of the United Arab Emirates, and there is nothing he hates more than people that don't share his fundamentalist interpretation of Islam ... nothing, that is, apart from cute young women that won't accept his friend requests. On a more serious note, I wish to make some things clear to anyone that reads this book. I have struggled to reconcile with the misleading way I have portrayed myself to generally well-meaning people, and I also acknowledge the problematic aspect of imitating a Muslim and then interacting with others in a way that does not do the religion any justice. My intention is not to disrespect Islam or Muslims at all - I am actually very fond of the religion, even if I do not belong to it. However, I do recognise that someone doing the same thing in the guise of an unpleasantly blockheaded Christian would probably anger me. My hope to justify this lies in the general assumption that most people are not dumb enough to hold the words or actions of one person as being indicative of a much larger group. This applies to Muslims, Christians, Jews and any other broad identity. Also, I do feel kind of bad for stirring up pretty decent people on Goodreads, and I'm sure that were anyone of them to find this book and thus realise that the whole thing was a trolling exercise, they would think very little of me. But, my doing it was merely for the sake of entertaining myself. Therefore, my chronicling Faizal's interactions on Wattpad are likewise intended for entertainment. It goes without saying, however, that I will be changing the names of all real-life people encountered. After all, a snitch is nearly as bad as a troll.
Clearly a Intelligence Person
