Rating: 
Summary: Eye-opening -- a profoundly important book
Review: After Sept. 11, Robert Spencer's book, "Islam Unveiled," became very popular. As a Catholic, I was hesitant to read a book that I feared would take Koranic passages out of context and then present them as proof of Islam's falsity (precisely because this is what many people do to Christianity). A friend lent me this book, however, and assured me that it wasn't agenda-driven or unreasonable. I noticed that the co-author, Daniel Ali, is a former Muslim, so I decided to give it a shot and I'm so glad that I did. (I learned more about Islam from this book than I did from my religious studies class!)Given Islam's rising popularity and rapid expansion into Western society, we cannot afford to ignore Islam's claim to be God's final revelation. Despite our best intentions of tolerance among all religions, we cannot be closed-minded to the possibility that a religion might proclaim untruth -- or even injustice. "Inside Islam," which contrasts Islam's claims with those of Christianity, is a must-read for all Christians, and Catholics in particular. Utilizing a highly readable question-and-answer format, the authors draw from a huge base of knowledge of Islamic theology, scholarship and tradition to demonstrate that Islam cannot be what it claims to be. Extensive endnotes provide the reader with the opportunity to cross-examine sources. You will read how Mohammad's exposure to Christian heresies distorted his view of Christianity and how these misinterpretations have been incorporated into the Koran -- and how they still inform Muslim views of Christians as idolators to this day. (Mohammad, for example, apparently thought that the Trinity was a union of God, Mary, and Jesus -- and that God had sexual relations with Mary in order to conceive a son. Mohammad understandably saw this crude idea as unworthy of a perfect God.) You will read how fundamentalist Muslims can appeal to the Koran and the Hadith to support their ideas about the inferiority of women, the inferiority of Christians and Jews (who are called "apes and swine" in the Koran), and the imperative to fight unbelievers. You will learn how the conceptions of God, humanity, salvation, and the afterlife radically differ in Islam and Christianity. (I thought these theological contrasts were alone worth the entire price of the book!) You will read about the Koran's curious "abrogation theory" which attempts to reconcile contradictions in the Koran by insisting that Allah can change his mind about morality and truth. "Inside Islam" is a profoundly important book. I would recommend it to Catholics, Christians, and even Muslims. To avoid it, assuming that Islam is a "religion of peace" since it is a religion at all, would be myopic. This book's only agenda is the pursuit of truth. Give it a shot -- you'll be surprised by what you find.
Rating:
Summary: Unbiased Analyses of Islam
Review: Ever since September 11, 2001, I have wanted an authoritative analysis of Islam's main tenets. I finally found one I now consider indispensable in this book. I see that Mr. Ali was raised a Muslim, but now has embraced Christianity, and so I value his ability to comprehend the two. I feel I can now intelligently speak with a Muslim and know where he is coming from. I can even quote his Koran better than he can!
All I ever hear about Islam from Muslims is that it is a peaceful religion. Until this book, I had not seen an ex-Muslim out there giving me the inside scoop. Mr. Ali is not pushing Christianity here, but it is plain to me from reading this, that Islam does not measure up to Christianity.
This was a concise, easy-to-read question and answer format which I appreciated. It gave many references to the Koran, citing chapter and verse. Too many people write opinions about Islam without giving much documentation...this was a refreshing change.
I recommend this to any American who wants the real truth about Islam. I learned more in the pages of this book than I did searching through the internet for hours and hours. The Koran is too jumbled up for me to trudge through at this point.
What I found in researching Islam were Muslims who defended the faith by simply avoiding the tough questions. For once, I found someone who says it like it is, and does not mince words.
Thank you for having the courage to write this!
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I am struggling with islam since I came to the US and after I read this book, I can see how it has held my people back. The religion can be too oppressive for modern day civilized peoples who believe in human rights, like me. Not many people who leave islam ever let anyone know about it. I believe this book will help many others like me to compare islam, and come out of the closet. I recommend it to every moslem who is questioning his faith. May you get what I have out of it.
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I am struggling with islam since I came to the US and after I read this book, I can see how it has held my people back. The religion can be too oppressive for modern day civilized peoples who believe in human rights, like me. Not many people who leave islam ever let anyone know about it. I believe this book will help many others like me to compare islam, and come out of the closet. I recommend it to every moslem who is questioning his faith. May you get what I have out of it.
Rating:
Summary: Easy, concise, direct, and brilliantly informative!
Review: If you want to understand the essence of why so much of the Islamic world is at war with Western Secularism, then you need to understand (A) the Koran, and (B) some history of Mohammed. This book, one of the best I have ever read, is it. It's short, to the point, objective, and unbelievably informative. It's from two authors -- one an expert on the Middle East, and the other a former Muslim who converted to Catholicism. Now, don't let that fact, about the conversion, dissuade you from reading this. Obviously he left Islam because of the conflicts he had with it, but this book is NOT an Islam-bashing book; it's a very serious Islam-critiquing book. There is no hyperbole, no revenge; just facts. Also, the title is misleading -- you DON'T have to be a Catholic to understand and appreciate this book; you simply have to have *some* ancient history under your belt. In fact, if I had written the book, I would have titled it, "Inside Islam: A Guide for Anyone with a Basic Understanding of Human History." Outstanding book, and easy read. I read it in a single afternoon.
Rating: 
Summary: Islam: 100 Brief Basics
Review: In this paperback Robert Spencer and Daniel Ali (an ex-Muslim) present brief basics about Islam: the Five Pillars, the Six Articles of Faith, why Muhammad turned against the Jews and Christians, why Muslims believe Jesus is a muslim, why Muslims believe Jesus was NOT crucified but that a substitute instead took his place, contradictions of alcohol use, why Muslims believe the Jews fictionalized the Bible, why Allah is not the same God of Christians, how Muslims view predestiny versus "free will," where Allah in the Quran permits slavery, the different types of jihad, the virgins("houris") who await suicide martyers, why Mohammad said Jews and Christians cannot live in Arabia, status of women and their veils, what Muslims can expect in Islam's heaven or "Paradise," where the anti-Semitic texts are in the Quran, contradictions of similar passages within the Quran -- along with other snippets of differences between Islam and Christianity. The citations are informative endnotes. Fundamentalist Muslims won't like this book because the authors quote specific "ayat" or versus in the Quran, and analyze them in their historical context. This paperback makes for a nice informative "theology background" introduction before reading Robert Spencer's two other books on Islam: "Islam Unveiled" and "Onward Muslim Soldiers." One does not need to be a Catholic to comprehend the topics discussed in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Islam: 100 Brief Basics
Review: In this paperback Robert Spencer and Daniel Ali (an ex-Muslim) present brief basics about Islam: the Five Pillars, the Six Articles of Faith, why Muhammad turned against the Jews and Christians, why Muslims believe Jesus is a muslim, why Muslims believe Jesus was NOT crucified but that a substitute instead took his place, contradictions of alcohol use, why Muslims believe the Jews fictionalized the Bible, why Allah is not the same God of Christians, how Muslims view predestiny versus "free will," where Allah in the Quran permits slavery, the different types of jihad, the virgins("houris") who await suicide martyers, why Mohammad said Jews and Christians cannot live in Arabia, status of women and their veils, what Muslims can expect in Islam's heaven or "Paradise," where the anti-Semitic texts are in the Quran, contradictions of similar passages within the Quran -- along with other snippets of differences between Islam and Christianity. The citations are informative endnotes. Fundamentalist Muslims won't like this book because the authors quote specific "ayat" or versus in the Quran, and analyze them in their historical context. This paperback makes for a nice informative "theology background" introduction before reading Robert Spencer's two other books on Islam: "Islam Unveiled" and "Onward Muslim Soldiers." One does not need to be a Catholic to comprehend the topics discussed in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow. This is such a monumental work.
Review: It is interesting that anyone could possibly even to purport to know how 1 billion muslims around the globe think and feel. Especially with respect to Catholics. Two excerpts from the introduction: "...Islam itself is an incomplete, misleading, and downright often false revelation which, in many ways, directly contradicts what God has revealed through the prophets of the Old Testament and through His Son Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh." "In most of the answers, the authors have provided the reader with an explanation of Catholic teaching on the topic at hand, so as to illustrate more clearly the deficiencies of many Islamic beliefs and at the same time to help you more fully grasp your Catholic faith." This book chooses to treat Islam as something completely different from Christianity. Religions are religions, as people are people, and they are all filled with the sainted and the insane, neither of which might be apt to care for said pillars of a religion. As a cultural Muslim, married to a Catholic, which might describe my wifes beliefs and attitudes, but then again maybe she is a human being and therefore not simply guided by the prescript of a book and its assumed ideals, I find this book as thoroughly insane an attempt to get into the mind of the Muslim as that bilge contained within Patai's, "The Arab Mind." I love books when they tell me how to think of others, then way I can just turn off my brain and absorb.
Rating:
Summary: Wow. This is such a monumental work.
Review: It is interesting that anyone could possibly even to purport to know how 1 billion muslims around the globe think and feel. Especially with respect to Catholics. Two excerpts from the introduction: "...Islam itself is an incomplete, misleading, and downright often false revelation which, in many ways, directly contradicts what God has revealed through the prophets of the Old Testament and through His Son Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh." "In most of the answers, the authors have provided the reader with an explanation of Catholic teaching on the topic at hand, so as to illustrate more clearly the deficiencies of many Islamic beliefs and at the same time to help you more fully grasp your Catholic faith." This book chooses to treat Islam as something completely different from Christianity. Religions are religions, as people are people, and they are all filled with the sainted and the insane, neither of which might be apt to care for said pillars of a religion. As a cultural Muslim, married to a Catholic, which might describe my wifes beliefs and attitudes, but then again maybe she is a human being and therefore not simply guided by the prescript of a book and its assumed ideals, I find this book as thoroughly insane an attempt to get into the mind of the Muslim as that bilge contained within Patai's, "The Arab Mind." I love books when they tell me how to think of others, then way I can just turn off my brain and absorb.
Rating:
Summary: Seems honest, well researched, nuanced
Review: People tend to assume that all religions are basically the same. If you stop and think though, it often seems rather that different cults exist at different points along a spectrum extending from very benign, to very destructive, with countless points in between. Therefore, although people rarely want to think about the distinct 'textures' of distinct religions, it can be important to do so, especially in the case of a religion that until recently had little presence in the West and is now growing rapidly through conversions, immigration, and reproduction. Such is the case with Islam. Bernard Lewis, the famous scholar of Islamic history, has said that Europe will be Islamic by the end of the century. And Islam is growing rapidly in the U.S. too.
Since human rights organizations report that some 51 of the world's 53 Muslim-majority countries are currently NOT democracies that protect freedom of the press and other civil rights Westerners take for granted, it seems necessary to ask:
1. Will Islam, as it grows in the West, tend to chill or threaten civil liberties increasingly?
2. And if in some decades, a Muslim-majority should arise in a Western country, what is the likelihood that freedom and democracy will be replaced by Sharia?
3. Exactly how resistant to democracy is Islam in its core beliefs and examples?
4. Is the lack of democracy in Muslim-majority countries primarily a result of temporary historical factors having little to do with Islam?
5. Since mere debate of the previous questions is highly unlikely to lead to a consensus among experts, should not Western countries subscribe to the following prudent, pragmatic principle?: "Until at least a majority of Muslim-majority states become pluralist democracies, the West should limit Muslim immigration to make sure that Muslims have no future prospect of becoming a majority in a Western country."
Whether you agree with the above principle or not (and I don't know if Spencer does), anyone who cares about personal and social freedoms, and sees the current state of Islamic politics, can use Spencer's book to make progress in thinking about the nature of Islam. Some experts are more optimistic about Islam than he is (Karen Armstrong, Michael Novak) and any decent person will try to learn about all sides in order to avoid unbalanced or extreme views. But whether or not Spencer turns out in the long run to have been more right than wrong, his books are intelligent, nuanced, extremely well-researched and certainly worthy of inclusion in any honest study of Islam.
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