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 After reading this I have to come to the conclusion that most persons converting to this fastest growing faith are not truly aware of the foundations of Islam. Noting the referrence to Islams early stages as being known as the Moon God faith. The Moon God faith has clear historical and archeologic evidense that Islam was founded as a cult. This cult with the logo of the Crescent moon and star (as remains today in Islam) condoned killing with revenge anyone even questioning the faith. As Time moves forward, this faith expanded its position of death to the outsider or non believer. Until the time of the Prophet Muhammed this book details out the Sunnah sect of Islam, the faith had become organized by force. Muhammed initially proclaims peace and a way similar to that of Christ, but as Muhammeds teachings progress it is clear he to sees revenge upon outsiders and especially in the sunnah sector. I believe this as Muhammed became frustrated due to the non- conformance of wishful peace making. He couldn't change that inbred belief. The very term hard line Islam is born out of Muhammeds teachings, one so specific that persons not conforming to Islam will self inflict pain upon themselves in the after life by scrapping their faces with nails throughout eternity. I find that this book has done one thing for me, it has convinced me Islam is an invention and built upon for centuries as a tradition is born and clothed into a culture. there is no doubt in my mind about that after reading this factual book. Read SB: 1 or God to get even a more factual account of this invention, by Karl Maddox.
If Spencer is right, the West faces a primitive, violent, and fiercely chauvinistic religion whose followers, to the extent that they are pious adherents to its teachings, cannot be reasoned with, only resisted. Islam is at its core inimical to democracy and human rights as we in the West understand them. To expect Muslims to drop their belligerence toward the West, which has existed since Islam's founding in the 7th century, is to expect them to jettison core values of their faith - something for which there is no precedent in Islamic history. The Koran, writes Spencer, is more central to the Islamic faith than the Bible is to Christianity. Muslims believe it was revealed directly from God to the Prophet Muhammad. He will find there many divine instructions to make constant war on the infidel, who is only to be given the choice of conversion, slave-like subjugation (in historian Bat Yeor's word, dhimmitude) - or death. And throughout Islamic history, that's exactly how Muslim societies have behaved toward non-Muslims, who are by the very fact of their unbelief not considered innocents in the eternal, divinely mandated conflict. Undeniably, Christians have in the past committed many despicable acts in the name of God, but they did so in violation of scriptural teaching, not in fulfillment of it, as in Islam. This literalism has profound consequences for the way Muslims live. Unlike in Christianity, there is no scriptural mandate for separation of church and state in Islam, making secular democracy an alien and hostile concept. Women have few rights over and against their husbands, who may legally beat them, and men in general. Enslaving infidels and raping infidel women are justified under Koranic law (and still occur in some Muslim lands). Spencer does not believe that Islam can be tamed. While Muslims in the West live in peace, prosperity and religious liberty, Christians and other non-Muslims are persecuted, sometimes unto death, throughout the Muslim world today. Because Islam demands death for heretics, moderate Muslims will always risk their lives by offering more liberal interpretations of their faith. And most crucially, in his view, Islam cannot be other than a religion of violence. "Of course, most Muslims will never be terrorists. The problem is that ... Islam's violent elements are rooted in its central texts," Spencer writes. His final verdict on Islam is sobering, particularly when one considers the rapidly increasing Islamic presence in Europe. Is Islam Unveiled pessimism, or realism? We can only know for sure if we have a serious public discussion of the issues Spencer raises in this important (but unsatisfyingly brief) book
However, this author tackles issues that need to be confronted, and he does so logcially. One negative reviewer stated that he does not put polygamy into historical context. This kind of relativism, that one person doing bad should be accepted because other people have done bad, simply does not work. You either accept that these things are bad, or you don't. Muslims don't, end of discussion. If you believe polygamy (that is, only a man marrying many women - why not a woman marrying many men), is equable, then you will have difficulty with this book's arguments. If, however, you believe that men shouldn't sleep with underage girls (as Muhammed did), or that women should be treated equally (Islamic courts say that a woman's testimony is worth half that of a man), then this book will be one you will want to read. This book explores these issues so that non-believers can find out what exactly Islam stands for. Many Muslims will say that Islam gives rights to women. Yes, it does, but these are so limited it's almost not worth mentioning. A case in point; property rights. This author points out that they still are entitled to half as much as men! Islam stands for peace! Yes, this too is true. Peace amongst Muslim men. Whilst they state "There is no compulsion in religion" that is only again, part of the story. The author shows that there are numerous Koranic injunctions to kill or war against non-believers. (Whether they mean all non-Muslims, or 'pagans' can be seen by the fact that Muslims themselves live out the injunction by waging war against ALL non-Muslims). Muhammed divides the world up, that area already under Muslim domination, and those areas that aren't but soon will be. The issue of the Crusades is also smartly dealt with by the author. For too long Westerners have had to apologise for these misadventures. If you want to be relativist, if that is your bent, then consider that There are numerous anti-Christian books also available on amazon, but are their authors in fear of their lives? How many authors has your local church condemned to death? In the past 200 years, how many busses have Christian fundamentalists blown up as suicide bombers? I would highly recommend this book to anyone who seeks to look at Islam without the biased of one who just accepts its tennets without logic, or question.
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As testified by the other sixty-odd reviews, very many things can be said about Robert Spencer's book. Let me just state that Spencer is a cat writing about dogs (or the other way around, it doesn't matter). In other words, Spencer cannot possibly imagine that there are any viable alternatives to the cathood (i.e., capitalist liberalism-cum-democracy). As for the details, I would only like to point out Spencer's near-complete silence about sufism - a powerful movement within Islam which clearly demonstrates both the intrinsic spiritual power of this religion and the inability of people like Spencer to fit it into their "Islam as an enemy of humanity" set of mind.
