Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create accountShop the sale
In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks from April 22nd-28th. Don’t miss out—purchases support your local bookstore!
Shop nowA Sinner in Mecca
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreThe Hajj pilgrimage is a journey every Muslim is commanded by God to go on at least once in a lifetime if they are able and, like millions, Parvez Sharma believes his spiritual salvation lies at Islam's ground zero, Mecca. But unlike the journeys of his fellow Muslims, the consequences of his own could be deadly.
In A Sinner in Mecca, author and filmmaker Parvez chronicles his pilgrimage as a very openly gay Muslim to Saudi Arabia, where Islam's heart beats . . . and where being true to himself is punishable by death. Risking his life, Parvez embarks on a Jihad of the self—filming his experience along the way. Already under fire for his documentary A Jihad for Love, which looks at the coexistence of Islam and homosexuality, he would undoubtedly face savage punishment if exposed—from being thrown off a cliff to public beheading.
Parvez's odyssey is at once audacious, global, and remarkable. He meets everyone from extremists to explorers of the spiritual kind, and the world they open up is frightening . . . yet breathtaking. In Mecca, Parvez comes out to a pilgrim, who then asks him why he would want to be part of something that wants no part of him. This book is his answer to this question and many more.
Parvez Sharma is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. His film A Sinner in Mecca has garnered worldwide media attention and was a New York Times Critics' Pick. He also directed and produced the multiple award-winning A Jihad for Love, which premiered at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival and opened the prestigious Panorama Dokumente section of the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival. The film went on to screen for over eight million people in fifty-one nations and was theatrically distributed in the U.S. and Canada. He was named one of "50 Visionaries who are Changing your World," in a list headed by the Dalai Lama. His writings on Islamic, racial and political issues have frequently appeared on the Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, and the Guardian, to name a few. He has become a prominent speaker on Muslim issues speaking at hundreds of live events around the world and conducting workshops with the U.S. State Department and Department of Homeland Security.