The Community

A Memoir

By: N. Jamiyla Chisholm

Narrated by: Karen Chilton

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.

©2022 Nicole Jamiyla Chisholm (P)2022 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“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 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

Good book

Try it. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy the book, but it gave a perspective on something I had no experience with. I liked it and feel like it was not a waste of time.

A moving story

I enjoyed reading this first person telling of life in the Community, a cult like Muslim community in the late 1970s. As told by the woman who was a small child when the events occurred, we are shown the potential reasons for making the choice for your family to be indoctrinated into a cult, the harshness of life in the community, and the after effects after leaving. Even though it is not the primary focus of the story, woven throughout the telling is the ever present misogyny, racism and white supremacy.

Karen Chilton did a phenomenal job narrating and breathing life into the story. Listening to the narration added beautiful dimension to the story.

Hardly believable

This book is hardly believable but not because it can't be believed, rather it boggles the mind to think that people would willingly sunny to a community that would deprive them of freedom and rights, not realizing how it would permanently affect them. interesting read.

What a troubling story!

Beautifully told, but such a sad and complicated life this brave woman has lived! She seems to have survived her experiences in “the community” but how many others have suffered because of this cult-like organization and its evil leadership? She was very bold to write this book, and I hope no harm comes to her because she had the courage to do so.

Did NOT disappoint!

This book was truly engaging and extremely heartbreaking. I've become a fan of cult bios and podcasts and you don't often get stories about black people who were engaged in cults. This book tore me apart from start to finish because it is the story of a daughters' stunted growth, a mother's desire to keep a family together at all costs that resulted in drastic mistakes, a father's failures, and a family torn apart that eventually somewhat reconciled. Very chilling and very worthwhile.