Tea With Hezbollah, A Review

I don’t read a lot of non-fiction.  So when I do read a non-fiction work, it must have something special about it to make me finish.  Tea With Hezbollah, by Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis, had that special something in it.  

I’m a Ted Dekker fan.  He writes great, action-packed thrillers time after time, and when I got an email from a publisher with this book for review, I immediately responded that I’d be interested.  From the onset the authors state that this book is not about religion and it’s not about politics, it’s about humanity.  They ponder if Jesus’ greatest teachings—to love God and to love your neighbor—are still applicable today.

Their plan was simple and built on a whim.  They would travel into the Middle East and meet with prominent leaders of Islam thought: muftis, sheikhs, ayatollahs, and others.  From leaders of non-violent protests to US deemed terrorists, from Arabic taxi drivers to Osama bin Laden’s brothers, Dekker and Medearis were granted intimate access to some of Islam’s most valuable minds.  They traveled across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Israel to make these meetings.

Their interviews were simple.  They brought out the humanity of the people, showing that they are real people not so unlike you and I.  Muslims believe Christ was a great prophet and that his words are important.  What, then, do they think of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan?  This was the driving question behind everything. 

I found the book fascinating.  The author’s fear was palpable on each page, questioning whether or not he would survive the trip.  The questions were intriguing and insightful.  “What makes you laugh?”  “What kind of car do you drive?”  “When was the last time you cried?”  The answers could just as easily have came from a neighbor or a friend.  “What’s the biggest misconception American’s have about Muslims?”  Vice versa.  These answers were always similar, that we American’s tend to distrust all Muslims, that we think they all are terrorists.

I felt challenged and sad after reading this book.  The label of Christian is a dirty and bloody one.  So is Jew.  So is Muslim.  All three of the Big Religions have a dark history filled with violence.  There has been just as much bloodshed by Christian hands in the Middle East as by any other group.  All in the name of God.  All in the name of Jesus, who told us to turn the other cheek and to love our neighbors, our enemies, as ourselves.

Tea With Hezbollah is an amazing, short read, topping out at just over 230 pages.  Along with an interesting and complex history lesson, you also get insight into another world of thought.  This is the kind of book I hope others read and take to heart.

That said, I was given an extra copy of Tea With Hezbollah to give away here on my blog.  If you would like to be eligible for this book, just send me an email (subject: TEA) or leave a comment saying so.  Make sure I have your email address so I can contact you if you win.  I’ll let the contest run until next Monday.  And tell your friends, if’n you want to and if’n you think they’d be interested.

You can purchase the book from Random House, here, as an e-book or hardcover.  It also is available at Amazon or your local bookstore.

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, a division of Random House.