Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 270 pages
- Published by: Regnery Publishing, Inc. August 1, 2005
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0895260131
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0895260130
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Book Dimensions:
8.9 x 7.2 x 0.7 inches
- Weighs: 1 pounds
Product Review
"A clarion call for the defense of the West before it is too late." --
Ibn Warraq, author"A much-needed antidote to the poisonous propaganda that compromises our current battle against jihadist murder." --
Bruce Thornton, historian"An enormous amount of well-researched material. Throws the ball back into the camp of Arabist historians." --
Walid Phares, terror analyst"Assails, with much erudition, the taboos imposed by the Politically Correct League." --
Bat Yeor, historian"The courageous Robert Spencer busts myths and tells truths about jihadists that no one else will tell." --
Michelle Malkin, bestselling author and columnist
Product Description
Islam expert Robert Spencer reveals Islam's ongoing, unshakable quest for global conquest and why the West today faces the same threat as the Crusaders did--and what we can learn from their experience.
Reader ReviewsAfter reading some of the reviews below I am prone to wonder how many of the frothy critics of this book actually read it. Even from the far left (the ever stalwart supporters of all those who hate America) I hear the droning mantra bewailing the supposed characterization of Islam by the extreme acts of an anomalous few. But Spencer does not make such a characterization. Most of this book does not examine the actions of extremists but instead the tenets of Islam itself. His conclusions are well reasoned and documented; and horrifying! If you have ever wondered why the millions of "peace-loving" Muslims have not condemned en mass the Jihadists who spew hatred and spill the blood of innocent people all over the world, then get this book and find out. Spencer concludes that violence is a natural outgrowth of the intolerance taught by Islam. Of course, many of us were taught the myth of Muslim tolerance, yet the Quran famously commands any faithful Muslim to "Slay the Unbelievers wherever ye find them. Seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them? (Quran 9:5) It is a verse that is not lifted out of context or a rare anomaly or mitigated by the larger body of teaching (as the nonviolent verses of the New Testament clearly abrogate the descriptions of violence contained in the Old Testament) but, is in fact, only one of many such incitements to violence. Spencer believes that such violent leanings are endemic to Islam and explain the complicity of silence we see from the Muslim world when innocents are murdered by Jihadists. Spencer also deals fairly with the perennially festering topic of the Crusades. It is bizarre and questionable that any present day political ideology should be driven by events that took place a thousand years ago. What's more, I wonder why so many Westerners collapse into a guilt coma at the mere mention of the Crusades without asking some important questions. How did the ancient birth place of Christianity, the stomping grounds of the Apostle Paul, St. Augustine, and the incubator that produced the creed most Christians repeat on Sunday mornings become Muslim in the first place? It was the result of Muhammad's war of conquests which lasted almost a thousand years that swallowed the birthplace of Christianity and then stomped out the light that once burned so brightly there. The Crusades were a belated, misguided, and often ignoble response to hundreds of years of Islamic "crusades." That march of brutal Islamic imperialism and colonization in the name of Allah ended at the gates of Vienna on a date that should mean something to the world: September 11, 1683. To be a good Muslim is to long for the renewal of that conquest of Europe and the West. Spencer explains many of the draconian and intolerant beliefs of Islam without the incoherent contortions that Islamic apologists give to such issues as the sickening mistreatment of women and girls or the Nazi-like (complete with yellow patches on the clothing) Dhimmi status (a form of slavery) required of Christians and Jews in Muslim lands. Some treatment is also given to Muhammad, who, had he lived today in any western nation would be considered a pedophile due to the fact that his eleventh (and favorite) wife was 6 years old when they married and 9 when the marriage was consummated (the loving husband was 52.) That's really not very much like the historical Jesus, which is one of many examples where the moral equivalency between Christianity and Islam touted by the left crumbles in the light of inconvenient facts. Spencer is required reading for people seeking the truth about Islam and the emerging conflict which will likely define the 21st century.