Open any world newspaper today or listen to an international television news channel and you will be bombarded with headlines, commentary, and spin. It’s what’s making news in our tension-filled post-9/11 world. No wonder so many Americans believe that the Islamic world is our enemy!

But the Islamic world is not our enemy. Ignorance is our enemy.

Culturally Speaking: Promoting Cross-Cultural Awareness in a Post-9/11 World (ISBN: 13: 978-159298-239-4; www.culturallyspeak.com ) by American author Mary Coons fits right into “the news of the day” by addressing the significant differences in religion, culture, marriage practices, foreign policy, and Iraq war sentiments shared by Americans and Arab Muslims in the Middle Eastern Gulf country of Bahrain.

Culturally Speaking offers a new twist to the tired U.S.-Arab bashing filling today’s airwaves and Internet by introducing an open forum of dialogue with average people identifying and promoting the positives in bridging cultural gaps.

Through a conversational tone with American Christians and Bahraini Arab Muslims, overcoming ignorance is the book’s powerful main message. Readers will gain crucial insight into eleven specifically-identified generalizations each group had of one another, along with religious views and cultural practices of this Arab Muslim country that has been home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet for more than fifty years.