A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot's Fight to Save His Faith [Hardcover]

M. Zuhdi Jasser (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 5, 2012

Among the unsettling social shifts in the wake of 9/11 was the global attention paid to Islam. Here in the United States, we became divided, often sadly along partisan lines, between those who believed every Muslim was a potential threat and those who believed no Muslim could do wrong.

For conservative Wisconsin native and former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, these radical times meant facing a new reality as a devout Muslim and a patriot—a certain betrayal within his faith, and a need to answer a question that crossed the minds of even the most sensitive and politically correct: “Can a good Muslim be a good American as well?” Jasser founded the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) to instill in young American Muslims an appreciation for the distinctively positive impact that this nation’s ideals of liberty have had upon the world. As a nationally recognized expert on Muslim radicalization, he offers non-Muslims a definitive comprehension of the difference between Islam and the spiritual cancer known as Islamism, or political Islam, and how violence and extremism run counter to Islam’s true teachings. As he persuasively argues, until we acknowledge the threat of Islamism in all its forms, the majority of Americans will be gulled into recognizing only the most obvious: terrorism.

In A Battle for the Soul of Islam, Jasser embraces both his faith and his country while asking hard questions:

* Are American Muslim children learning entitlement as victims, or are they being taught individual responsibility and critical thinking?

* Are poisonous conspiracy theories dividing their American identity, or are they gaining exposure to reason, nationalism, and patriotism?

* Are Muslims publicly critical of the Islamist movements of the Middle East, or do they remain silent on aspects of religious doctrine that conflict with modernity and universal equality?

* Is the American press downplaying the seditious threat of homegrown Islamist radicalism and the influence of Islamists’ propaganda arm on our governmental policies?

* Is our culture of political correctness a major obstacle toward long-overdue Muslim reform against Islamism?

All these years after 9/11, it’s time for us to understand the true threat of Islamism. It is a Muslim problem that needs a Muslim solution, and A Battle for the Soul of Islam builds a solid, balanced, and imperative must-read foundation for the fight.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Zuhdi Jasser is a brave American patriot, a faithful Muslim and a good man. Dr. Jasser's Battle for the Soul of Islam proposes a cure for one of the greatest problems facing the world today: the violence and extremism of radical Islam." --Mark R. Levin, New York Times bestselling author of Ameritopia

"Dr. Jasser is one of the most courageous and relentless pursuers of truth and freedom in the Muslim world. Battle for the Soul of Islam takes you beyond the sound bites to show you what it really means to be a moderate Muslim fighting against those who have perverted your religion.” --Glenn Beck, New York Times bestselling author of Being George Washington

"A candid, patriotic pushback against Muslim stereotyping...a strident call to energize Muslim Americans to promote notions of pluralism, toleration and equal rights for women." --Kirkus

"Dr. Jasser is an American hero in the war radical Islam has declared on us. Whether we prevail in this long war may very well depend on how closely we listen to him." --William J. Bennett, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Man and former US Secretary of Education

About the Author

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser is the founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD). Dr. Jasser is a first generation American Muslim whose parents fled the oppressive Assad regime of Syria in the mid-1960s for American freedom. A devout Muslim, Dr. Jasser founded AIFD in the wake of the 9/11 attacks as an effort to provide an American Muslim voice advocating for the preservation of the foundation principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, and the separation of mosque and state.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Threshold Editions (June 5, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1451657943
• ISBN-13: 978-1451657944
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #588,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a MUST READ! June 19, 2012

By William F. Pillow, Jr.

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Don't misjudge this book by negative reviews! Those can come from two sources. One is Islamist apologists who insist that Islam is a religion of peace. The other is persons who use their reviews to publicize their personal, typically caustic, view of Islam, Muhammad, and the Qur'an. By contrast, this book should be read by all persons in the West, non-Muslim and Muslim alike. The author, a physician, former U. S. Navy officer, and practicing Muslim, is a lone voice of truth for reforming Islam. This means disentangling the peaceful traditions of Islam from more contemporary efforts by "Islamists" to establish an Islamic world order ruled by their religious leaders. This obviously contrasts sharply with democratic and Constitutional Western governments. Unfortunately, Arabic patriarchal (father as ruler of family) tribal traditions that preceded Muhammad still control shariah (Islamic law) court interpretations, retaining male domination, thwarting gender equality, and opposing as shameful (for the family) all contemporary secular customs and practices. Although social scientists might question the morality of certain modern customs, let's not "throw out the baby with the bathwater." Widespread efforts at multiculturalism and political correctness perpetuate disregard of threats from Islamists as harmless. These two politically-inspired policies are the West's stumbling blocks to upholding each country's pride of heritage and cultural identity. Only as each country realizes its errors of attempted accommodations to Islamists' demands will that country be able to preserve its human rights and religious tolerance guarantees which earlier immigrants had always sought. Read Dr. Jasser's book to understand what everyone should do to recognize and confront the insidious efforts of Islamists and their organizations to subvert our government and our courts. Then get your state legislature to officially reassure ALL Americans of their Constitutional guarantees of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness by enacting ALFAC (American Laws for American Courts) legislation!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful and incisive memoir by a visionary American Muslim hero July 8, 2012

By goodmusicman

Format:Hardcover

Despite my desire to stay away from online debates, having completed this book, I feel compelled to share my thoughts. Dr. Zuhdi Jasser (born 1967) is the founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) and has dedicated his life to three things: helping to heal sick people (he is medical doctor), serving the country he loves (he was a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy), and battling the spokespeople and apologists for the movement he calls Islamism, or political Islam. Jasser is a devout and strictly observant Muslim who prays five times a day, has never in his life consumed alcohol, and who reads from the Qur'an regularly. He is also as staunch an American patriot as they come. Part of his goal in this book is to demonstrate that there ought not be any conflict between his loyalty to Islam and his loyalty to and love of America. But what makes Jasser more unique is his refusal to serve as an apologist for those who advocate a violent or at least separatist interpretation of Islam. The majority of "mainstream" Muslim-American organizations (i.e. the ones sought after by the media and invited to the White House, etc.) are what Jasser calls "Muslim Brotherhood legacy groups." The Muslim Brotherhood gets its inspiration from the writings of Egyptian Sayyid Qutb (died 1966), who advocated a doctrine of Islamic supremacism and, ultimately, violence. Al Qaeda (and its late leader Osama bin Laden) is an ideological child of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) was named by the FBI as an unindicted co-conspirator of the Holy Land Foundation, a group with ties to Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Yet CAIR has become the "voice" of American Islam. At least until Dr. Jasser entered the scene.

Jasser discusses his personal life in this book, starting with how his parents and grandparents fled the repressive fascist regime of Syria in the 1960s to start a new life in the USA, where religious liberty is a time-honored principle (and a bedrock of our Constitution). Jasser's family instilled within him a love of the US, where they were more free to practice their religion than anywhere else in the Muslim world. As Jasser notes in his letter to his children printed as an Epilogue at the end of this book, the writing of the book is his legacy to his children. He wants them to cherish both their Islamic faith and their Americanism. Jasser opposes the political Islamist groups, arguing that Islam is a personal religion about man's relationship with God. The historical facts of Islamic armies conquering empires are, in Jasser's view, just that: historical facts with no religious significance. Those armies and even Muhammad himself, could not have conceived of a democracy like America, and so religion was intertwined with government and the military. But he argues that there is no inherent connection between them and that history shows that allowing government to legislate religion (including Islam) ultimately leads to repressive regimes where religion cannot be freely practiced! Islam for Jasser means exercising one's free will to CHOOSE to serve God.

Dr. Jasser attacks those on the Left who refuse to name the religion of various terrorists who acted out of their radical interpretation of Islam. We must know what ideology we are up against, argues Jasser, and not just oppose the tactics--like terrorism--of those who propagate that ideology. Thus, while Islam per se is not to blame, Islamism, the separatist Islamic supremacist doctrine which all the Muslim terrorist groups around the world adhere to in varying degrees, is to blame and this ought to be noted explicitly in government documents dealing with the threat of terrorism. The astute reader will note by now that Jasser has opened himself up to criticism from two sides: apologists for Islamism and those who simply hate Islam or are convinced that Islam and its scriptures are the direct source of Muslim terrorism. But Jasser is not deterred by these people. In fact, he regularly debates both CAIR spokesmen as well as anti-Muslim polemicists like Robert Spencer. (These debates can be found on YouTube.)

Ultimately, Jasser will be recognized as a visionary Muslim thinker who is paving the way for a much-needed Muslim Reformation to initiate the changes Islam needs in the twenty-first century that parallel the Reformation that Christianity experienced five centuries ago. It is long overdue for a brave and patriotic American Muslim leader like Dr. Zuhdi Jasser to come forward and put in writing a vision for how to modernize Islam, while retaining belief in the divine origin of the Qur'an, that will serve as the antidote to radical Islamist terrorism and simultaneously serve as a beacon of light for freedom-loving Muslims worldwide.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good starting place for learning about Islamism October 2, 2012

By RGL

Format:Hardcover

Dr. Jasser has written an autobiography, explanation of the dangers of Islamism, description of how he has fought Islamism, and an open letter to Americans and his children on how everyone must respond to the dangers of Islamism. I enjoyed all but the last 50 pages of the book. In those last pages, the writer became too personal for my taste. Dr. Jasser deserves a lot of credit for bring the topic of Islamism in America to our attention. I learned a great amount about Islamism and thank him. He writes very well.

RGL