The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)

Jammed with facts, irrefutable even by apologists suffering Stockholm Syndrome regarding Islamists (if they think I side with them, they won't behead me right away). But facts alone are useless in the hands of us credulous moderns. We tend to believe what talking heads tell us in fact-free orgies of opinion.

Fifty years ago, public schools told us people would evolve, that we are getting smarter. El Wrong-O, as it turns out. Nowadays kids have no knowledge of history, logic, music, math or science. Poverty-case schools? Hardly. Corrected for inflation, we spend four times per kid what we spent in the 1950s. And yet, who do we vote for? Marry? What do we buy!

And we geezers are just as guilty of myopic idiocy. Nevertheless, books like this could save us from disaster. More, please! At Amazon prices. why wait?

This was an excellent introduction to Islam, explanatory but not trite. The section on the Crusades was a little tough to plow through, but the rest of the book was very readable. I especially loved the boxes comparing the words of Jesus to the words of Muhammad. This is an important book to read given the current state of the U.S.

Islam is fastest growing religion in USA !
Do you see any islamic militants around ?
What a logic man should have to claim that people or even nations would change their faith due to external force.
Thanks.

I read this book to get a better idea of what kind of culture/religion (basically interchangeable in Islam) my wife comes from. She and I have been married for almost 2 years now, and it has definitely been a huge struggle at certain times when dealing with family issues. Her family migrated here more than 2 decades ago from Afghanistan. What a culture shock marrying into this family! My wife became a Christian shortly after we met, and other than her sister who left to live a strict muslim life in Jordan, she was the most devout of her 9 other sisters. Her family thinks she converted for me, but she had been having extremely strong doubts of Islam, and came to her own conclusions. She was kicked out of the house and ostracized from most of her family. As for us, we have been incredibly fortunate to have a church family that has become the family that we need and has been a huge support and encouragement.
One of the things I appreciate about Robert Spencer is that he lays out his argument in a clear, point-by-point analysis, and he uses mostly Islamic sources to make his points (even more-so in his other book I'm reading: The Truth About Muhammad). If you have seen him on TV or on an interview, you will notice also in his writing he leaves out the emotion that can so easily grab hold of anyone addressing the atrocities of such a religion as Islam. He writes in a very level-headed fashion and does not intent to bash anyone. If a person gets offended by what he writes, it's because (1) they're muslim, (2) they believe that Muhammad and the Koran (and Hadith for that matter) are above reproach and criticism, which is ridiculous, (3) and they haven't ever doubted what they believe, because doubt is a sin in itself in Islam.
Spencer makes a great comparison between Jesus and Muhammad in each chapter, showing just how polarized each figure is in what they taught. Muslims believe Muhammad is the supreme example of how to live, and there are MANY verses saying that, or saying that if they obey Muhammad, they are obeying Allah. As Christians, we believe Jesus is God. The difference however is that Muhammad wrote his own religious book, and made himself the "goodest" of all people. So if you follow his example, you will be the most "good" person you can be, which is what Islam is all about: your "goodness" outweighing your "badness." The most amazing thing about muslims is that they also believe Jesus lived a perfect life, and even believe He was born of a virgin! So why they would regard Muhammad as more powerful and a better example to follow is beyond me.
All-in-all, Americans are fed up with the Politically Correct garbage going around the US about Islam being a "Peaceful Religion", which is exactly opposite of the truth. There have been over 9,000 separate incidents of Islamic terrorist acts since 9/11/01. Like my in-laws, muslims learn everything about how to argue how Jews and Christians have everything wrong, how the Bible is chock full of translational errors because it has been translated so many times, etc. But they neglect to learn about who Muhammad really was, what kind of life he lived, why he had so many wives, why he married a 6 year old and had sex with her 2 years later, why he personally had hundreds of people slaughtered and murdered them himself at times, and why they try to hide it when you bring that stuff up!!?? It's not a secret Muhammad was a terrible person: muslims are either living in utter denial of everything they believe, or they haven't learned of it themselves. My in-laws are the Americanized, "peaceful" muslims (fortunately! or they'd be waging jihad everywhere and calling fatwas on us!), and my wife and I had one final "discussion" on religion during the last week of Ramadan (supposedly the time where muslims make peace with family and do other pious deeds) and two of the sisters told us they would kill us both right now if a holy war were waged... now tell me: peaceful or not?

It was interesting but I wouldn't come to any conclusions about Islam without further study. This did bring out a lot of questions about Islam and it's origin.