Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful inside account of Islam, great critique
Review: A wonderful critique of Islam and the Koran. This is one of the only books by a Muslim that you will find that includes a vast breadth of essays describing the Koran. This is one of the only place you will find Muslims and former Muslims analyzing the birth of Islam and its Christian and Jewish roots as well as the truth behind such customs as the Veil and Female circumcision as the author shows these beliefs to be stolen from other cultures and only adopted by Islam as Islam quickly absorbed all that helped it crush human rights and women while at the same time adopting an intolerant view towards other cultures, races and religions. A very interesting account. The author explodes many myths about the Koran and delves deeply into Arabic scripture, which he is fluent in and was schooled in Egypt, to explain the profound implication o the early Koranic verses. This is a wonderful book, a great companion to anyone in the west who is studying the Koran or taking an Islamic civilization class. A very profound book, Talmudic in its insight, very eye opening for those interested in Islam and its rise and the implications of that rise for Western Civilization. A truly masterful account
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful inside account of Islam, great critique
Review: A wonderful critique of Islam and the Koran. This is one of the only books by a Muslim that you will find that includes a vast breadth of essays describing the Koran. This is one of the only place you will find Muslims and former Muslims analyzing the birth of Islam and its Christian and Jewish roots as well as the truth behind such customs as the Veil and Female circumcision as the author shows these beliefs to be stolen from other cultures and only adopted by Islam as Islam quickly absorbed all that helped it crush human rights and women while at the same time adopting an intolerant view towards other cultures, races and religions. A very interesting account. The author explodes many myths about the Koran and delves deeply into Arabic scripture, which he is fluent in and was schooled in Egypt, to explain the profound implication o the early Koranic verses. This is a wonderful book, a great companion to anyone in the west who is studying the Koran or taking an Islamic civilization class. A very profound book, Talmudic in its insight, very eye opening for those interested in Islam and its rise and the implications of that rise for Western Civilization. A truly masterful account
Rating: 
Summary: A Hot Potato
Review: Anyone familiar with Ibn Warraq's books readily knows why he is pretty much universally reviled by Muslim polemicists (he has several death fatwas outstanding against him - hence his use of a pseudonym for publishing). This book is no different. In it, Ibn Warraq presents a large collection of articles from scholars who spent their lives investigating the Qur'an and its history. This, in and of itself, will cause most Muslims and "pro-Islam" people in the West to view this book as a "hostile" source. Any collection of articles that deconstruct the Qur'an and which demonstrate flaws, imperfections, and inconsistencies in the Qur'an will be viewed as such.Bad point: Much of the information in the book is very dated. We're talking about information first presented by the likes of Noldeke, Wellhausen, and Goldhizer in the late 19th century. Good point: Much of this information is still relevant today, if only because of the relative paucity of scholars who are actually willing to critically examine Islam without slavishly seeking to substantiate the Islamic party line. Many of the linguistic arguments still have not been satisfactorily answered by Muslims or Westerners to this day (i.e. rebuttals based on circular reasoning such as relying upon the traditional Islamic view of the Qur'an to SUBSTANTIATE the traditional Islamic view of the Qur'an don't count). If Muslims think that the essays in Ibn Warraq's book are "hostile", then they should acquaint themselves with the works of more modern researchers from the last thirty years like Crone, Cook, Nevo, Wansbraugh, etc. These and other investigators are even more "hostile" if only because they have a greater base of archaeological, numismatic, epigraphic, etc. data from which to assess the traditional Islamic historiography. As we can see from some of the previous reviewers, those who don't like this book are generally a bit biased themselves. One from March 20, 2003 (below) barely addresses the actual content of the book, and spends up who-knows how much bandwidth giving us a screed about the "peaceful" aspects of jihad and how the Qur'an really promotes peace, love, harmony, and all that other good stuff. Another review (Edgar Hopida, Nov. 16, 2002) complains about bias in this book, using such objective terminology as "this book represents the one-sided, misleading, and dishonest evidence about the Qur'an, Islam, and its rich history" and "Orientalism, has for centuries attempted to deconstruct Islam, trying to give biased proof that the Occident is superior over the Orient." Would Mr. Hopida care to explain why "Orientalists" have been inclined towards trying to do the exact same thing with the Bible? Perhaps they were trying to give biased proof that the Occident is superior over the *Occident*, too? Basically, this is a book which the reader will either appreciate for its factual content, or else will despise for its factual content, depending on whether Islamic presuppositions are brought to the table before reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting
Review: Book can be divided into three sections, first section about the paralells between the Abrahamic religions to prove that Prophet got his ideas from Judaism and Christianity and therefore not an original but a copy cat. We all know that Islam accepts Christianity and judaism as legitimate religions to have same stories dd not suprise me. Second part about certain statements that commentators disagreed about their meanings and authors provide their own interpretation adding to pool some more. Nothing is new all commentators agrees that there are certain things that are interpreted differently. The last section is sections from Bell's Intrioduction to Kur'an. Book has a very good list of sources, of course each of them has their own biases. I find the book interesting to be able to have collection of so many essays, studies under one roof although they all seem to have same bias.It is a book that is good for counterbalancing the other extereme.
Rating: 
Summary: Laughable Scholarship
Review: I came across this book while writing a research paper on the history of Qur'an. Ibn Warraq seems to have picked essays for inclusion based simply on how hostile they are to Islam. Most of the materials of the book are outdated, the rest are definitely not 'mainstream.' The only reason I can think of to even look at this book is if you are studying islamiphobia or hate literature, if you are looking to learn about Islam from a 'western' author, I would recommend Esposito or Armstrong.
Rating:
Summary: What the %$&@%?
Review: I don't get the one star reviewers. Some of them proudly say they haven't read the book and yet providing a review? Helloooo.... is that how you want others to provide reviews on books that are favorable to Islam? GROW UP. The other breed on one starers maintain that the author is not "qualified" to write this book. Earth to Mars, he is an "editor". He's just compiled this book. I don't think, personally, that its a 5-star book. Just giving it 5 to balance some of the reviews by bozos.
Rating:
Summary: Islam
Review: I havent read the book and i dont intend too, however all this baised comments from people who believe this mans word is Gospel is quite astonishing. As can be expected people will build their opinions about this book based on their pre-concieved conceptions. However i like to point out a few things. Firstly when Islam was introduced it wasnt as a apologistic religion. This was a religion which shock the very social fabric of Arabia to the core. This was a religion which challanged the norm of society. A current argument about Islam is regarding its treatment of Women. To put this in context the Arabs before Islam used to bury their new born daughters alive. Women were treated like a commoditiy i.e. when a man died his son 'inherited' his wives. However Islam elivated the position of women. A 1400 year old religion mind you. Islam has promised the man paradise who treats his mother well. It has given them rights beyond the comprehension of that time. Contrast this to the situation of females in the 'western' society. I beleieve only a few hundred years ago the church was discussing whether or not women had a soul. Or the struggle for women to vote.
Islam is a religion of peace and it is a religion for the people. It is not a religion of war, but it acknowledges that strife and hostiliy is ingrain men and so it lays strict guidelines for conflict.
The reasons for fatwas and such being raised against people who write books like these is because non-muslims who read these books would get a false image of Islam and might develope false ideas about it. Not to mention the hurt these types of book cause by attacking personnal and sacred beliefs of millions of Muslims.
In the end all i say to people reading this book or thinking of buying it, is not to judge Islam with what muslims are doing around you, but to judge Islam as a religion. Only then will you realise its glory.
Thank You
Rating:
Summary: The Koran is too pushy about submittion
Review: I think war and violence are wrong. Teh Koran seems to mention lots on that. Scary. Where is the peace? Where does the book talk about love to one another? DO people pray for one another in unity, maybe they do but the nature of the religion is too bossy and a bit scary.
Rating:
Summary: The Koran is too pushy about submittion
Review: I think war and violence are wrong. Teh Koran seems to mention lots on that. Scary. Where is the peace? Where does the book talk about love to one another? DO people pray for one another in unity, maybe they do but the nature of the religion is too bossy and a bit scary.
Rating:
Summary: Quite disappointing...
Review: I was hoping to find in this book modern exegesis and critique of the Qur'an and/or Islam, not from a polemical point of view but from that of true scholarship. What I found was a collection of articles that are quite dated and recycled. The inclusion of such writers as C.C. Torrey (Christian polemicist) and Abraham Geiger (Jewish polemicist) is a bit surprising. While their views are worth consideration, if you've read their works, they most definitely make no claims at objectivity. This is not to discount the work of these scholars but to note that there is really nothing new here other than one collection of these various articles. As this it makes a worthwhile volume. As for the articles themselves, after persuing them it became clear to me that, on the whole, much of what they say is but conjecture. As I continued to read it began to dawn on me that I wasn't quite sure what the point was. Granted, it is nice to have another angle through which to view the Quran/Islam rather than pro-Islamic scholarship or, worse, propaganda. In this regard, the book has great value. However, what is passed for 'scholarship' merely falls into individuals with credentials passing off conjecture/hypothesis as 'truth'. In this regard, the book title is a bit misleading. One example comes to mind: it is conjectured that Dhu L' Kifl is none other than Melchizedeq. That's fine to conjecture but it reminded me of all those who try and discount Christianity as a pagan/idolatrous Judaism, convinced that Jesus is merely a knockoff of mythological figures, and Judaism as a usurpation of various Canaanite deities, violently taking over all these faiths through the warior God YHWH. There are countless volumes of polemic against these faiths. Perhaps in this regard it is refreshing for someone to challenge Islam head on and to force Islam to defend itself intellectually in the modern world, something defenders of Christianity and/or Judaism have spent countless hours and years of practice doing. If these articles are so accurate and true, and of course they may very well be, it appears that most, if not all, Muslims are a bunch of fools blinded by ignorance. In spite of all the articles here it did little, if anything, at helping to explain why it is that Islam was - and is - so successful. It is good to have so many points of view in one collection but there is nothing new here that hasn't already been said.
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