AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF JUNE 2022
THE COMMUNITY
An arresting and emotional memoir about a family’s indoctrination into a religious cult, a daughter coming to terms with a parent’s devastating choices, and the trials ahead in post-9/11 New York.
In 1978, when Jamiyla was two years old, her mother, Ummi, quit her job, converted to Islam with her husband, and moved into an exclusive Muslim society in Brooklyn. Once inside the Community, the family was separated by its powerful and charismatic leader, Dwight York, who was hiding behind the name Imam Isa. Instead of the devotional refuge they’d imagined, the Community was a nightmare of controlled abuse and unspeakable secrets.
Forty years later, Jamiyla was ready to excavate and understand a past buried in bad dreams, disturbing memories, and inexplicable rage. It was a place Ummi never wanted to return to. Jamiyla had to.
Jamiyla’s emotional memoir tells her family’s story of life inside and outside the cult, and of escaping into new challenges as conservative Muslims in the secular Brooklyn they left behind. A harrowing and deeply personal history fraught with racial tension and devastating personal betrayals, The Community is also a hopeful story brimming with Black pride, justice, and the long-overdue healing between a daughter and mother.
“Upon opening the pages of The Community, one is instantly transported to an abusive cult
located in the heart of Brooklyn—mere miles, yet an entire world away, from the bustling metropolis
of the skyscrapers of New York City. Chisholm chillingly recounts the moment her mom quit her job, converted to Islam, and allowed her husband to move their family into a secret Muslim society,
where they were separated from Chisholm, then only age 2. I was captivated by this harrowing tale,
told through vivid flashbacks of life under lockdown, and in the present day, as Chisholm confronts
her mother about how their lives were derailed. The Community examines how trauma is passed
down through generations, and how religion can be distorted through extremism. The book ends
on a hopeful note, though, years after Chisholm and her mother make their daring escape.”
— Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor
“Journalist [N. Jamiyla] Chisholm debuts with a transfixing look at the secretive Muslim commune her family joined in 1978…As Chisholm untangles their complicated past and the trauma her mother refused to acknowledge, what emerges is a compassionate interrogation of the ‘universal emotion of desperately wanting to belong’ that her family fell victim to. In its striking search for redemption, this uncovers a uniquely human tale”
— Publishers Weekly
“The interviews add an intimacy to Chisholm’s memoir. A seasoned magazine writer, she develops a narrative around her mother’s actions within her apartment as Jamiyla asks her questions. The reader feels they are in the small New York apartment with both women, watching the interaction unfold in real time.”
— Hippocampus Magazine
“The author expertly balances passion with compassion, and her vulnerability electrifies the often harrowing narrative…A heart-wrenching memoir about surviving a religious group helmed by an abusive leader.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Chisholm, a journalist, offers a nuanced examination of how and why people make decisions that harm them, and of the difficulty in extricating oneself from destructive situations.”
— Booklist
“In her memoir, The Community, Chisholm writes about her experience in the Ansaaru Allah Community, breaking open her memories and lying them alongside the events both historical and contemporary that drew people to York’s Black separatist ideology. The result is a thoughtful meditation on the things that hold us together―and the things that pull us apart”
— Essence
“In this compelling debut memoir, journalist N. Jamiyla Chisholm relates the story of her childhood spent in a Muslim cult, the trauma caused and the relationship with her mother that would take years to heal.”
― Ms. Magazine
“Examining The Community w/ N. Jamiyla Chisholm”
“The Nuwaubian Nation led by Dwight York Miniseries Part 1 - Interview with Author Jamiyla Chisholm”
— The CultVault (3 part series)
“The Community: Jamiyla Chisholm’s Memoir of a Brooklyn Islamic Commune”