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As with most political biographies, this one could have been a lot more interesting. Omar tells of the violence that made her family leave Somalia (their house was riddled with bullets), but she doesn't explain anything about the civil war, the different factions, clans, their ideologies, etc. Recounting her visit as an adult to Mogadishu, she mentions Al-Shabab, briefly describing it as "a violent insurgent group." She writes that her hijab is "a symbol of the purity of my presence in the world," and that she believes in "the tenets and structure of Islam." But she avoids dealing with the question that is on the minds of a lot of Americans: How to reconcile the idea of Islam as a religion of peace with the activities of groups like Al-Shabab? She writes that "hatred has built up in our country in the form of identity politics," seemingly unaware that identity politics is the fundamental doctrine of the party to which she belongs. Having seen Somalia "devolve into chaos basically overnight," she warns against "the disintegration of civilization that is possible anywhere." But she doesn't see, or doesn't want to see, the parallels between the clan-based identity politics that caused the destruction of Somalia and the race-based identity movements whose anti-Americanism is destroying this country.