Posts

Thoughts on Ukraine and Women's History Month

Image
 The war in Ukraine has impacted me more than I thought it would. My family has strong ties to the Poland-Ukraine-Russia region, and so the events there have claimed my attention. But there are a few things on mind that should be written about sooner rather than later, if in a shorter format than usual. Muslims and the War in Ukraine I’ve written at length about reports that Muslim immigrants not so much wanting to come to the West to change their lifestyle as to live their old lifestyle more lucratively, even if that includes honor killing of daughters and enforcing other cultural restrictions. Naturally, the war has threatened Muslim civilians in Ukraine as much as anyone else, but most of the Muslims (and Tatars) in Ukraine are in Crimea (12% of the population), where the Russians have been in control since 2014. The rest of the country counts Islam as the religion of less than 1% of the population. So, a muted reaction to Russian aggression is to be expected, if for no other re
Post a Comment
Read more

The Death Rattle of the Taliban? Ask the Women...

Image
  Terror Quest is pretty harsh on the fundamentalist practitioners of Islam, and some of the worst characters in the book are members of a Taliban-like group. The group promises a “road to recovery” but instead takes the region into a backward and strict interpretation of holy words. In fairness, every religion includes hardliners who claim to live by the “original intent” of the Messiah or Prophet or Word of God. Christians can search forever for what Jesus said about hip-hop or rock and roll, but they aren’t going to find anything. But, if we like, we can cast modern practices such as dancing to popular music into the “sinful stuff that’s bad for you” category and condemn certain types of music on those grounds, as is done in Terror Quest . Today, Christianity, especially in the West, has been through a rigorous secularization process. Christians would see certain behaviors (such as robbing a bank) as crimes that should punished by civil authorities rather than as sins that requi
Post a Comment
Read more

Terror Quest, Hamtramck, and Islam

Image
I don’t want any reader get the idea that Terror Quest is in any way “anti-Islam.” After all, the main female character is a Muslim (Najeeba Hallal), and so is the man who does to most in the end to help her (Butrus the Hanbalite), as well as the key figure in the solution to their problem (Ron Sunaru). Also, the loaded term “anti-Islam” covers a wide variety of behaviors and attitudes. The Pope is “anti-Islam” in the sense that he doesn’t want all Roman Catholics to convert to Islam, because then he would be out of a job. The Crusaders of the Middle Ages were “anti-Islam” in the sense that they wanted to murder all Muslims who opposed them on their march to the Holy Land. Terror Quest is really about the takeover of authority by strict fundamentalists instead of the duly elected officials who should be running the country or state or other political entity. A fanatic fundamentalist attitude is not, of course, limited to one religion or another. In the United States, strict fundam
Post a Comment
Read more

The Terror Quest Playlist

Image
  As far as I know, Terror Quest is the first book to include a suggested playlist of music to listen to while reading the book. I’d like to take a few moments of your time, reader, to explain a bit about the playlist and where to find the songs and lyrics, in case you aren’t sure where to get them for free. As I write this in November of 2021, Spotify offers Premium service for three months for free. It shouldn’t take you more than a few days to read the book, so you should be able to listen to the songs over and over as you go. I haven’t checked to see if all these songs are available on Spotify Free, but if enough readers want that, I’ll do it. Most of these songs are old—really old—but so what? There’s only good music and bad music, and this is some of the good stuff. (BTW, there is a "hidden song" mentioned in the book at the closed "music museum"...guys singing to girls in a barn about something strong carrying them away....do you know what it is?)  Here’
Post a Comment
Read more

Welcome!

Image
  Welcome to the official Terror Quest blog...This is the home of Maxwell Silver, author of the book  Terror Quest from Abuzz Press. Terror Quest is the story of how two people, people no more powerful than you or I, combine to help bring down a repressive government which came to power through hacked election software. Until they can manage that feat, the people of the great state of Ohio are enduring a religious regime as strict as that imposed by the Taliban. As much as the men suffer, life for the women is ten times harder.  Life is this hard under the Tariq Shifa , the Road to Recovery from economic crisis: Rules for Women 1.       Women cannot work outside the home, except for female doctors and nurses, if permission is granted by the local religious council. 2.       Women away from home must be accompanied by a close male relative. 3.       Women cannot deal with a male shopkeeper, or be treated by male doctors. 4.       Women cannot study at any educational institution. 5.  
Post a Comment
Location: Phoenix, AZ, USA
Read more