This Shall Be a House of Peace by Phil Halton
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Thought this might be an interesting read, but overall it was rather a drag & dragged. It's a fictional telling of the origins of the Taliban, though by my understanding, a quite rosy re-telling. It does remind one that in the beginning--when they were getting their start--the Taliban had high aspirations & dreams for bringing peace to a land wracked by warlords, bandits, perverts, and law-breakers (well, was there really any law, since there'd been war & civil war for some 15 yrs?). But, it was all based on a very simplistic, extremist view of Islam that was skewed by the hateful/vengeful perspectives of the Muslim Brotherhood, which gave birth to al Qaeda...which led to ISIS/Daesh...which led to horrible repression, deaths & killings, buckets of ignorance, etc. Not to mention a lack of any kind of joy & pleasure in things like music, flying kites, etc. "House of Peace"--NOT--only a sham & shame & fruit that gave no life & that brought only death & destruction. All only a focus on the external, a fastidiousness of dry & dead religious rules/laws, completely lifeless & bringing only death & the destruction.


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