The Road to Mecca

I am currently reading the book The Road to Mecca by Muhammad Asad and it is quite fascinating. Asad was born as a Jew in early 20th century Austria-Hungary and during his work as a journalist he travelled extensively throughout the Muslim world. He subsequently fell in love with Arab culture and converted to Islam. His dissatisfaction with Western society is something that precedes his Middle Eastern journeys, only he never suspected where this would ultimately lead him. 

"I was not unhappy: but my inability to share the diverse social, economic and political hopes of those around me-of any group among them-grew in time into a vague sense of not quite belonging to them, accompanied, vaguely again, by a desire to belong-to whom? - to be a part of something- of what?"

His personal insights strike a chord with me greatly, and I find myself significantly relating on an intellectual and emotional level. Coming from a Jewish background, it is not remarkable that Asad (formerly Leopold Weiss) would feel alienated from European society and feel an affinity for Arabia. After all, Jews and Arabs are both of Semitic stock and Abraham was originally from Ur in current day Iraq. That's where my differences come in. I am an American of North European background and thus while I find this story and this culture appealing, at the same time it is completely foreign to me. Nevertheless it is an enlightening read.