The Indie Review

In The Eyes of Man By Edmond Alfradi Released

Release piece by Ihsaan Alfaro-Allah 

Book Cover Of "In The Eyes Of Man." By Edmond Alfradi

The book "In The Eyes of Man" by Emond Alfradi has recently been released and is flying off of the shelves as one of the most contemplative collections of work since the post modernist era. The book is being called the newest testament by the New York times and has many contemplations in it. The book itself is a collection of short parables poems and philosophical contemplations extracting the beliefs and philosophies from Rene Descartes “Cartesian Dualism” Nialihsm, Christianity and Islam. Alfradi takes these philosophies and talks artistically about how they all come together.

The Contemplation

The book is now a renown love hate between readers everywhere. Some say that it is a violation of all that is sacrosanct and directly violates the ideals of all that is pure within religions. Others call it an extensive contemplation of who or what god is, The book never tries to redefine god however. It merely uses what we are given from who we and what we know of god, in a new sense. This in turn might scare some “It is a satanic ritual of a book and no one this godless should be allowed access to the world this way”- Donald Trump. Is only one of the very angry and almost fearful quotes that we have found after the great release of the book. However in a recent interview actor and narrator Morgan Freeman said “This is scary to those who do not understand god to the upmost spirituality because it means that you can dismantle god in the political sense and the power of capitalism can be killed with unity. It is beauty in its purest form really.” All over the nation one can observe people going back and forth in debates as “a nation under god” would when their god is challenged. Those of us who are not so personally connected to god in one way might be more open to it. Pope francis writes “There is no hatred to any religion in this book. This book shows how you can find gods love in everything, that makes this god truly amazing.” It is now available in every Barnes and nobles, and hopefully local bookstores near you!

The New York Times

"In The Eyes Of Man"

By Edmond Alfradi Released

TMZ

BANNED!

by Cristina Malorie

The newest book by Edmond Alfradi "In the Eyes of Man" Has been banned on account of being a tool of terrorism and allows for the breaking of good wholesome Christian ideals. The book is being called disrespectful and overly done by some. On the other hand many people agree that this book should not be banned. The internet is swarming with influential voices voicing their opinions.

The Washington Post

A Privilege Gone to far: An opinion on "In The Eyes Of Man" By Edmond Alfradi

Editorial by Mark Cahill

Thank God is how I should begin. The banning of this book is the most needed moral compass that the united states has allowed within literature in so long. Every aspect of life has become so left that we forget to right by what is right and what is said by those who are right winged. We begin with the contradictory misuse of the cover. Alfradi allows for whatever authority that he seems to have of his preconception of who or what God is. The insolence of comparing that which is sacred to one another shows that he hold no respect for God himself. The first poem of the book says "In the beginning, there was contemplation, and within this contemplation man there became self awareness, and within that self awareness man accepted god." - Parable 1 pg 2. This quote while may seem philosophical and with the intent to achieve a deeper understanding, merely shows how arrogant this man is. He puts man in the light of God, as if we have discovered enough things to fully understand what god is. He practically calls us God. That we are the supreme rulers and creators of our own selves. However as an author of books that contemplate faith, I feel the need to say "HOW DARE HE?!" How dare he make the claim that he has the right to tell people what a contemplation is? We are reflected in God's image and the way we pay homage to him is with gratitude and humility, this however expresses none of that. Another Issue that I have with this is his reference to the people of the book. The cover shows us his thoughts on how different religions have fulfilled and mimicked one another parts, and shows how similar their philosophies truly are even refers to them as sister religions, and the phrase "People of the book" is shown throughout the novela. This again is a showing of his ignorance and insensitivity to those who value god in the highest regard. As a christian I show my dedication to christ in the upmost riveting and influential way possible not only in my writing of contemplative literature addressing science and God, but I leave it at what I know, Christianity. I have never tried to speak on the life of a muslim, because our lives are in no way similar. There are no means to live out our every day lives which collide besides the same history. The Quran is clearly a passage with a violent perception of how one is too love their god while christianity isn't. I also wish to debunk the theoretical concept of Cartesian Dualism here and how the concept within itself is completely contradictory. The idea of doubt is the opposite of faith and they do not belong under the same roof. My even larger anger and frustration with this book is that it was written to mostly address the American concept of God and how we use him in the political sense. However in my latest interview with Mr Bill O'reily he had agreed with me on my opinions of this book and remarked " This is the reason why this generation sees so much of a rebellion amongst our children. There is no authoritative stance especially with the internet to address what is morally right and wrong." Mr. O'reily continues to go on and remark on the age of Alfradi, and how there is too much in his life that he has yet to see. In this day and age young people believe that anything shiny with buttons can give them a true spiritual meaning, which is simply and devastatingly untrue. If this book was not banned as it is now, I would hope that my fellow christians would take to the streets! Uproar in protest and anger at how shamefully and pitifully we have been disregarded and that which is sacred taken away from us. This is the only time that I will bless the internet with having sense. People have flooded twitter with understandings of the necessities of why this book needed to be banned. There is no right way to say this besides how fed up I have become with these people diluting and polluting our good wholesome culture and respect for a higher power, with so called "Contemplation". It is a truly a new found terrorism.

The New York Times

I Opine: A statement on the banning of "In The Eyes Of Man" By Edmond Alfradi

Editorial by Instantue Moriger

The recent release of Edmond Alfradi's latest contemplative novela or "testament" as some are calling it has shaken about the cages that have been set and cemented. It has resulted in the piece of literature making the banned book list and being called a devastation to the countries moral compass. Mark Cahil's article he had written for the Washington Post express how this is a well deserved fate for Alfradi, considering his own credentials in writing on God, and how it was never done in a disrespectful manner whatsoever. However Mark Cahil's books have never received the level of recognition that Alfradi is receiving for his newest work of art. What I will contribute, in my opinion the latest banning of the book to is fear. Pope Francis' quote from the press release initially done on "In They Eyes of Man" he says "In The Eyes of Man, is truly a beautiful book, because it releases the ideals and unity, and shows through the contemplation of one man how there is God in each and everyone of us." Pope Francis. This quote has been ignored by many major right winged theorists and politicians. Since they have used God for so long as a means to a political advantage any contemplation that could eradicate hate by using some of the most joyful and free roaming things such as short stories, to substitute as parables and to add poems as well. Alfradi never chooses to say this is how we all should think. In fact he prefaces the book in the prologue with "I have written these short stories and poems after immense research and study on the christian and even my own islamic religion(s), while trying to better understand God. I saw the connections between those two religions for the people of the book, and the words of men such as René Decartes, and Nietzsche as well as other followers of Nihilism, and even now this book acts as my own contemplation, the publishing of it is slightly selfish in the sense that it is a plea of recognition to understand my discovery. In no way do I hold any teachings deemed sacrosanct above others. I am merely a man with questions." (Alfradi In The Eyes Of Man pg 5. ) Yet Cahill continues to call Alfradi arrogant in his new found epiphany and enlightenment which he chose to share with the world as further inquiries to his own life, but like many things written and published by Cahill and the Washington Post, little to know research was done in order to back up the claims which had been so certain, and remarked so harshly on Alfradi. This reaction is because Alfradi posses a threat to those who do not wish for the regular man to contemplate God on his own. That the idea of God being within the heavens and oneself, that they could be up to ones interpretation would take away their powers as nation under God, revoking their rights as the pastors of this land. This is how I opine as a reader. Something that has so much truth in it, made up of creativity from a single man could change the world. In fact Alfradi has been called the literary Kim Kardashian because "In The Eyes of Man" has broken the internet. 

TIME MAGAZINE

Alfradi Speaks: An exclusive interview on 

"In The Eyes of Man"

by Ines caplin

Since the banning of his book, there have been many questions for Edmond Alfradi and his intentions for writing the novela or collection. When sitting down in his home I am greeted by a very happy and humorous young man who is immediately a light. I was at first inclined to inquire if he was the younger brother of the author who wrote such a game changing novel. In an ironic banter he says "Yeah I know, interesting to see that us kids think sometimes too." Alfradi Goes on to talk about

Edmond Alfradi Outside of his home in Brooklyn.

why this is his first and most exclusive interview, and why he had decided to do a written one with our magazine, and not appear on any of the television and or podcasts he was invited too. When asked he said "My face, it is interesting how much we ignore the factor of agism in this
country, because I am as young as I am it is often hard for me to feel as though I am taken seriously." The author continues with:

"I often find myself in situations where those older than me try and condescend what I know or believe to know because of my age. As if the bags under my eyes have acted as some sort of secondary credentials to the questions that I have always had. Do yours add validity to them?" He says, after noticing my dismissive nodding away at the 23 year old. This in truth made me feel guilty. Here I am becoming unnecessarily impatient with a revolutionary author, and an insult is required to get me out of my high brow 50 year old coma. So what inspired this write?
"I often found myself in question, of what is real and what isn't, and my senior year in high school my teacher had introduced us to Renne Decartes and his theory of Cartesian Dualism. The Ideal of I think therefore I am, and the need to find something which he could not doubt, and I remember, always doubting God, yet wrestling with having faith at the same time." Says Alfradi
"Fast forward two years I am sitting in my world religions class, and we had begun a unit on the crusades, and I remember thinking about how God in the hands of man has often shun like gold and revealed himself in different types of currency, but what would those men fighting for their king and their god have though on their own? Who was god in their eyes? Shoot, who is he in mine?" And where did that lead you?
"Well, I grew up a muslim, my mother wears Hijab everyday and my father had always lead us in Salat, and growing up not only with a different faith but my skin also playing a factor in my day to day living I was always trying to find a way out. I often times resented where I came from because of the looks my mother would get or my sisters." Alfradi says
"When Killing Jesus came out by Bill O'reily who ironically has also called my book a detriment to society I was surprised. After 9/11 there was such a break through that addressed the US with it's use of religion in government and I wanted to take it back to its purest form, to square one where I have been standing, which was ignorance. In the famous phrase that calls it bliss I hope those who say that know it only applies to those who never inquirer further. Otherwise it eats you inside out until you can finally begin to grasp the meaning of something. Anything."
I went on to ask him about the prologue and the contemplation of his book:
 "Yes, thats all I intended it to me, but as I said I wanted to see who else felt this stuck, felt the need to break through, using the only thing I know how to, which is write, I wrote until it became what it is now." Alfradi states.
"I am not claiming to know. The entire book is a question. Unlike most I don't fear what I don't understand, and I do not batter those who address the misunderstanding of something or see a new understanding of things even if I don't understand them. I think the smartest people were the ones who asked the most questions. So this is how I asked everyone I could touch, as many questions as possible, and some people simply wanted to burn them." 

Light Switch: Excerpt poem from "In the Eyes of Man"

Stand where the water moves child

where the waves break into pieces and you begin to see faces in the ocean

how blue are the faces of strangers?

how cold is the air that bites your neck? 

You know well that the sand beneath your feat has never been a well run dry by god 

where Adam and Eve drew buckets from the heavens to fill it and give it back to the heavens

But the beginning remains to be seen, it is as dark and grim as the idea of the end. 

The life we live as quick as the flick of the lights. 

The New York Times

The Threads That Wove The Pages Burned: The Cultural Fabric of Edmond Alfradi's Banned "In The Eyes Of Man."

A collaboration piece By Soledad Alfaro-Allah and Shaion Denny

“In the Eye’s of Man” directly incorporates text from the Holiest books this world has ever seen. Between the Bible and the Quran this book gives insight to a different point of view of what God could mean to different cultures. “In the Eye’s of Man” out plays the book “One Heartbeat Away” by Mark Cahill, because it acts solely as a contemplation and comparison of life, and does not by any means try and disprove science, and feed false information to the readers. “In the Eye’s of Man" we are just humans, no object justifies our lives, no human marks us as a value, in the eye’s of God we are here for our own happiness not to be pawns in our government.” “God and Apple Pie: Religious Myths and Visions of America” by Christopher Buck centers it’s around myths formed about the bible. It is reluctant to talk about the myths of how Christianity and Islam are different. Christianity and Islam bare no basic differences in what God should be to us as humans. “Magicians of the Gods” by Graham Hancock talks deeply about the mystical shift in the super continent that created the Aztec civilization. “Magicians of the God” is the second installment of the earlier book “ Fingerprints of the Gods” also by Graham Hancock. Both books explain how the world came to be under god's watch. “In the Eye’s of Man” can only admire. Along with the attempt at a historical contemplation of christianity Bill O'reily's "Killing Jesus" had also acted as another one of the books which drew from religion and tried to show how the structure of God was actually built around currency, and the crucifixion of Jesus was over the dismantling of the church. He threatened the money, which in turn was truly why he was killed. "The Book Of Mormon" The hit play written by the creators of South park also contains a satyrical look at religion in the comical sense while trying to prove a point. 9/11 is also a part of the ism that inspired the creation of this book, because of the discrimination and fear used in order to separate those of one god from others. However "In The Eye's of Man" Proves the similarity of these religions in the smallest and subtlest of ways. From the early 2000's to now religion has been used as a political tool in a new way with the word "Terrorist" Which now in American speak truly means Muslim. The nation going through a traumatic experience such as the attack on the twin towers had allowed for many releases of Literatrue and Art addressing God, and the bible, and the Quran and the Torah from several different points of views. The book "In The Eyes of Man" By Alfradi Stems directly from that.