How We Win is a fascinating book that tries to convey to the reader how we, as a society, can solve the “Islamic extremist” problem through the youth. Farah offers her knowledge and expertise to embrace such a complex topic but often misses the mark. The “youth” citied in this book are no longer relevant to the youth of today as the generation she is so concerned with is the millennial generation who are no longer in the teens and tweens. While the book tries to figure out how to combat extremism that the youth are so prone to, she misses the mark on what causes a person to embrace the extremist ideology. Farah’s expertise is as a diplomatic entrepreneur, foreign policy strategist, and as a diplomat, as well as serving on the board for Homeland Security, there is no doubt that Pandith is well versed in discussing and provide new ideas to combating extremism.

The book is structured with a 33-page introduction that outlines Farah’s vision for countering violent extremism, or CVE. The introduction lays down the groundwork to stereotyping young individuals who are now either in their late to early twenties. The time frame the majority of the book focuses on is 2009, ignoring important Muslim movements in the last ten years. Chapter 1 is an introduction to extremism and how it might affect the community, and chapter 2 is the scary “Millennial” chapter. The third chapter discusses the influence of Saudi Arabia on the Muslim world; chapter 4-5 discusses the use of the internet and Halalization either online or not; chapter 6 on how Muslims are making up the evils of America; and chapter 7 – 9 are on how to create programs to prevent extremism.

In Chapter one, Farah mentions how the United States has shown American Muslim “role” models to the European Muslims, to combat extremism in these regions. The purpose of these “role models” is so that European Muslims can see that if American Muslims can be “democratic” and “assimilate” into society, so can they. One young “millennial” Turkish German snarked, “Why are you coming here telling us how great life is in America? Can’t you see how we have to live here? The Germans think we are filthy and will never accept as German!” [60] Ignoring all the comments that European Muslims were saying to Farah, she continues to state, “We also discovered that the Muslims we met knew little about American Muslims.” [ 60] and her golden gem, “We did meet some European Muslims who were well assimilated, but the stark differences between our opportunities in America and Europe were clear to us all.” In chapter 2 she tries to elaborate on the youth, stating they need role models and had an identity crisis in their native European countries.

There is some reconnection by Farah for some of the reasons “millennials” feel ostracized in their society; she just ever so slightly skims the surface: “With terrorist attacks in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere perpetually in the news, Muslim youth feel as marginalized as ever – singled out, feared, maligned.” [78] Furthering mentioning later in the paragraph that the uncertainty that “millennials” face is the reason they are more likely to fall for extremist efforts. These extremist efforts make the youth feel stronger, in control and empowered. In the section European Muslims in Trouble, in Chapter 2, Farah mentions how, after the Danish cartoon crisis, the Danish official compared himself to the Jews during Nazi occupation. As well as kept referring to the Muslims as “them” and considered them and “a kind of alien species.” [84]

Chapter 3 opens up in China, specifically the region of the Uighur Muslims. Stating, “China saw the Uigher issue as a domestic terrorism problem, and our public highlighting of it as an affront to their Chinese identity. As a result, they were reluctant to hold diplomatic conversation about Muslims.” [109] In Shadian, she was greeted with an eerie Saudi like knock off atmosphere created by the Muslims in the region. The Chinese man was dressed like a “Saudi” man, and the man who hosted her had wives who “covered.” The Hui host mentioned how the “youth sought to learn about Islam by studying in the Gulf countries.” [112] Farah began to see the Saudi influence everywhere, tv channels to the Great mosque that was funded by “private donations.”  While it is highly essential to note the Saudi influence globally in the world, she grossly used a minority ethnic group who are being put into concentration camps as this book was being written and published. News she completely ignored in her book. The “Chinese Islam” has already been attacked and burned down by the Communist regime of China since the Cultural Revolution. Religious groups do not have freedoms to worship in this country, and often are persecuted. These Muslim youth look towards Saudi and not towards their cultural heritage because, especially for the Hui Hui, their “Islam” is constantly attacked.

Besides the vulgar example given at the beginning of her chapter, Farah continues to discuss the Saudi influence in the Muslim world, “the Saudis have funded local presses as well as publishing facilities of their own, ensuring that Wahhabi literature is published and that materials from other Islamic practices and teaching are suppressed.”[121] Textbooks produced by Saudi Arabia have been found all over the world, even in England. Kosovo saw the Saudi influence or the “creeping” “Gulfness” upon its traditional Islam. Charities offered the people scholarships and taught the youth the Saudi ways. Farah even states that Kosovo had an “excess of eight hundred mosques” [141], Wahhabi mosques. Qurans are translated with a more Wahabi interpretation, Farah quotes numerously from Reading the Quran: The Contemporary Relevance of the Sacred Text of Islam. This book is terrific, its primary focus is not on Wahabism or Saudi Arabia itself. For the number of times she quotes from this text, a reader would assume Sardar’s book discusses extremism or Wahabism extensively when it is more like a page.

What is more interesting about the Saudi influence on the local cultures is the destruction of historical and cultural heritage sites. Mosques four hundred years old are being bulldozed, shrines destroyed, graveyards knocked down, and Sufiism increasingly persecuted. The attack on Sufiism and its shrines isn’t all that new to Muslim society, but her point is that the areas that were once okay with these influences are no longer okay. The areas Saudi Arabia influences tends to be ones in which the Muslim community is weakened either by war or by overall society like in Europe and China. To combat this “Gulfness,” the American Government should give rewards to schools, mosques, and NGOs to replace the Saudi textbooks; these books should be publicly cleared. Mosques should have education programs on how mistranslations can lead to extremism or “wrong” interpretation.

Farah’s tone is excellent and does come off as knowledgeable in numerous cases, there is not any well-rounded discussion. Farah constantly hints throughout her book about extremism and random Islamic attacks; she fails to get under the surface as to why. Hinting at “frustration” or “identity” problems, then making a good point about Saudi influence and the scary “internet” that creates extremism all read as “okay boomer” and not as an excellent discussion. Europe has created laws to target Muslim groups, especially France. The Youth in Europe are frustrated because they are not accepted by society, even if they left Islam, they still are discriminated against because of their name, appearance, or skin color. It is far more than an “identity crisis.”

Farah insists that in her book that Muslims need to be more active in their society, create programs against extremism, and be more active publicly. Ignoring the fact that Muslims are publicly outing extremism and have tried to create programs to prevent extremism. Farah is correct that there is an issue in the mosque; these issues need to be solved by the Muslim community and not the Government. Her opinion that the Muslim communities need to be “surveilled” grossly ignores the outcome of programs that already do surveil Muslims. NYPD’s program was proven not to work, after its years of surveilling the Muslim community; causing distrust in the community. These police officers even baited average Muslims to extremism by offering them money, while these individuals did not care about the ideology, they just wanted the money. England also has created programs that watched Muslims, and programs that try to make Muslim Youth be less “radical” and promoting Sufism. What these programs do is further extremism, as Muslims no longer feel safe in their own country or even in their mosques. They go to other places like houses, etc., creating a disdain for whatever group they feel is the issue.

How We Win is a good read for someone who wants an average read about extremism and possible solutions for it. Farah does not demonize the youth or Muslims, but her interpretation can lead to Islamophobic persons to continue their agenda. Farah makes excellent points throughout her book, yet her points lose their power with the information she gives. One point is given but not further discussed until chapters later, which becomes a tad frustrating as it becomes hard to pinpoint whether she is or is not knowledgeable on topics like Islamophobia or the more complex issues of extremism. If the book could be summed up it would be “Whiney Millennials turn to Extremism because they feel frustrated”, #okayboomer.