Author Discusses Middle East Genocide
On YouTube and National TV
WARRENTON (VA) – Author Joe David taped a cable TV interview with Connie Martinson in August, which has been aired nationally on the Connie Martinson Talks Books Show, September 2014. It is currently available for viewing on YouTube.
[youtube fqhsEJecdD0 nolink]
His latest book, The Infidels, is a moving story about a rarely discussed massacre in which hundreds of thousands of Assyrians were martyred, because of their Christian faith during one of the most hushed up genocides of the twentieth century. Set in Persia during World War I, the book tells a moving story of one young girl’s struggle to survive the Great War.
“It is a fictionalization of my mother’s story,” David told Connie. “Although her experiences are different from the story character’s experiences, it is nonetheless an honest recreation of what occurred in Persia and what my mother recorded for me during the period the Ottoman Turks went on a killing spree in 1915.”
This isn’t a just a story about the past, David is quick to underscore. This is story about the present, and what awaits us in the future, if care isn’t taken to end the slaughtering of Christians today in the Middle East.
The Infidels by Joe David
A disturbingly controversial story
about a religious war 100 years ago
The Infidels isn’t just a story about the past. It is a story about the present and what awaits us in the future.
Joe David’s latest book is in the great tradition of novels like Forty Days of Musa Dagh and histories like the Rape of Nanking. It reveals the scars of brutality and inhumanity as history intersects with the ordinary lives of innocent people.
Editor George Thomas Kurian
The World Christian Encyclopedia (Oxford University Press, 2001)
The Nelson New Christian Dictionary (Thomas Nelson, 2002)
I found Joe David’s version of a rarely discussed genocide, the plotted murder of the Assyrians by the Kurds and the Turks during World War I, to be thoroughly engrossing. In writing his novel, David not only demonstrates a significant knowledge of the customs and history of the times, but he also vividly brings to life the past in an exciting and meaningful way.
Anahit Khosroeva, PhD
Senior Researcher, Institute of History
National Academy of Sciences of Armenia
The Great War began with two shots: one aimed at the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Hapsburg throne, and the other aimed at his wife, Sophie. What many thought would be just another Balkan squabble quickly escalated into a major war felt around the world.
As Europe burst into flames and millions of soldiers began battling the forces of nationalism, the Ottoman Turks joined arms with the Germans and extended the conflict to their longtime enemies, the Russians and the Christians. Incited by secular leaders in Constantinople, northwestern Persia became a warzone in which radical religious tribes invaded Christian villages and systematically martyred hundreds of thousands of ‘infidels” who dared to resist conversion.
On a small slice of ancient, isolated land owned by a wealthy Assyrian family, a young Christian girl awakens to the brutal massacre of her race in a war that she is too young to understand. Stripped of her privileged and comfortable existence, pursued by a Muslim governor – a symbol of the rising new world order – and surrounded by hostility and greed, deep-sated hatred and unspeakable horrors, she must somehow come to terms with the nightmare that her life has become.
Visit the past to grasp the present – and the terror facing us in the future
The Infidels by Joe David
Available Worldwide through Thames River Press (London)
Author: Joe David’s first book, The Fire Within, because of its successful dramatization of important issues in education, made the reading list at two universities and received national public attention in the 1980s. For nearly nine years, he was a frequent radio and television talk show guest in major U.S. cities, where he candidly discussed issues in education.
Over the years, he has written for professional journals, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and books, including the Annenberg/CPB Math and Science Project, NPR Radio (The Best of Our Knowledge), The Forum (University of West Florida), U.S. Airways, Basic Education (Council for Basic Education), Christian Science Monitor, and much more. He is the author of six books.
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