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43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read this book if you only have limited time about this topic, March 3, 2006
This review is from: Islam And The Jews: The unfinished battle (Paperback)
I am Chinese. But I want to learn more about the continuous conflicts between Arabs and Jews (between Islam and Judaism, now I should say, after reading this book). I bought several books besides "Islam and the Jews," such as one edited by Robert Spencer, one written by Bernard Lewis, and one written by Bat Ye'or.
The book by Mark Gabriel is the easiest to read and understand. One of the reviewers said that this book has a "bad" writing style equivalent to that of a 10-year old. I should say that this book is so easy to read so that even a 10-year old will grasp the ideas very well. The writing style of Gabriel is causal, unlike the scholarly and paintaking style of Ye'or and others. For example, Ye'or wrote an entire book about Dhimmitude; Gabriel described what I need to know tersely in one chapter (Chapter 18). Despite the causal writing style, the materials are serious, the analysis great, and the attitude sincere.
Gabriel, formerly an Imam and a professor in Islamic history, is now a Christian. He dedicated two chapters to preach about Christianity as a means to resolve the Islam-Judaism conflict(like other reviewers, I don't think that will work). If Gabriel has a hidden agenda in his book, I guess it is related more to his current faith in Christianity than his bias against Islam. Everything he said seems very objective to me.
If you want to have a reasonably good and credible understanding about the conflicts in the Middle East and about those Islamic radicals, you need only to spend three hours on Gabriel's book.
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86 of 96 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How the Quran Views Non-Muslims, December 28, 2003
This review is from: Islam And The Jews: The unfinished battle (Paperback)
I served in the U.S. Army back in 1991 when we liberated Kuwait (sorry, I didn't find Saddam back then). That started my interest in Islam, after noticing that the public buses in Saudi Arabia had signs on the front door directing: "Women enter through rear door." Why so? -- and what gives with all of these veiled women, and why were poor, foreign women with young babies begging for alms on the streets? ISLAM AND THE JEWS cites verses in the Quran explaining the separation of the sexes in public places. (The begging women turned out to be divorced women left on the streets to survive.) What I really find so valuable about this book in how the author cites specifically numbered Surahs(paragraphs-verses)from the Quran/Koran in revealing the beliefs of Allah as given to the Angel Gabriel as spoken/recorded by Muhammad. One can read the many other current books discussing Islam, but very few cite specific verses from the Quran to explain or justify WHY and/or HOW a Muslim is supposed to follow Islam. This ex-Muslim Egyptian-born author details why there appear to be "contradictions" within the Quran. Why is it reported in the American press that Islam respects Jews and Christians? This book explains that when the Jews would not follow Muhammad's revelations, that he then received a new revelation that the only "good" Jews or Christians were those who would pay a tax(zakat) to the Muslims -- essentially, a "protection racket." This ex-Muslim author must be revealing the "truth" about the fundamentals of Islam, after all, just look at the sad, poor, embarrassing bad-mouthings that are written by his critics: they just don't like his documentation. I have two of the Qurans mentioned in this book, the moderate Ali translation, as well as the English translation published by the religious ministry of Saudi Arabia: The Noble Quran. I have looked at EVERY citation listed by this author, EACH one is a true and correct quotation! The author explains that the Quran is not written in a straight timeline sequence. It is recorded from the largest chapters to the shortest -- hence, the chronological dates of each chapter are all mixed up. One has to refer to another booklet to see how scholars believe the chapters were revealed to Muhammad by date. What is really enligtening in this book is that the author explains how Muhammad's (Allah's) views changed about Jews. Originally, Muhammad had tolerance for the Jews while he tried to entice them to convert to Islam and pay taxes to him. However, when they didn't, Muhammad told his followers that it was okay to wage war against the non-Islams and loot their valuables. This author's companion book: "Islam and Terrorism" makes a wonderful revelation (with specific verse citations) as to how the Quran justifies Usama/Osama bin Landen's suicide-bomber attacks against Christians.
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54 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Warning, Not Politically Correct, February 11, 2005
This review is from: Islam And The Jews: The unfinished battle (Paperback)
We have all heard how Islam is a religion of peace and that there are just a few extremists that are abusing the religion to kill and torture innocent people. What we have not heard enough about is how Islam has a violent side and history that is not all that "peaceful." To deny the truths that Dr. Gabriel writes about is to bury your head in the sand and hope that it is all better when you pull it out (if you ever do).
As he says, he did not write this book to hurt Muslims but to help them. Islam needs to mature as a world religion and welcome the 21st century. This does not mean trying to take the world back to medieval times where women could not have a formal education and non-Muslims were treated as second-class citizens or, even worse, killed.
In order to solve any problem, you first need to recognize what the real problem is. Dr. Gabriel believes, and is convincing, that he knows what the problem with Islam is and how to help correct it.
For those armchair Americans who think they know all about Islam from their living room TVs, this is a man who has lived it, not just read about it or seen it on TV. I would trust his opinion much more than most of the other negative posts I have seen on this site. Buy the book and hear the real story of Islam from an honest man who had the incredible intellectual courage to change his mind.
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