The Third Choice: Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom [Paperback]

Mark Durie (Author), Bat Ye'or (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0980722306 | ISBN-13: 978-0980722307 | Edition: 1

The Third Choice provides a compelling introduction to Islam on the basis of its primary sources, the Qur'an and the life of Muhammad. Topics covered include the sharia; interpretation of the Qur'an; abrogation; women's rights (including female genital mutilation); lawful deception (taqiyya); Muhammad's responses to opposition; Islamic antisemitism; religious freedom; and prospects for reforming Islam.

After this critical introduction of Islam, there follows an explanation and critique of Islam's policy for non-Muslims living under Islamic conditions.  The doctrine of the three choices (conversion, the sword, or the dhimma pact of surrender to Islam) is explained, including an analysis of the meaning of tribute payments (jizya) made by non-Muslims (dhimmis) to their Muslim conquerors.  Durie describes the impact of dhimmitude on the human rights of non-Muslims in Islamic contexts around the world today, in the light of global Islamic resurgence and advancing Islamization, including pressure being exerted through the United Nations for states to conform to sharia restrictions on freedom of speech. 

The Third Choice offers indispensable keys for understanding current trends in global politics, including the widening impact of sharia revival, deterioration of human rights in Islamic societies, jihad terrorism, recurring patterns of Western appeasement, interfaith dialogue initiatives, and the increasingly fraught relationship between migrant Muslim communities in the West and their host societies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Mark Durie's presentation is as lucid as it is compelling.  His work enables the reader to actually understand the precise psychological character of the moral capitulation that we now see overtaking so many minds.  Peter Day. --Annals Australasia

The title of this riveting and important book comes from the principle that non-Muslims have three choices in a Sharia-dominated world: embrace Islam, be killed or enslaved, or live as subservient dhimmis.  Mervyn F. Bendle. --News Weekly

This book is a great read. Roland Croucher. --The Baptist Witness

Durie in The Third Choice has produced a remarkable lucid compact, well annotated, comprehensive and enduring book. Jerry Gordon. --New English Review

From the Author

I wrote this book to help people understand Islam, and what it means to live under Islamic dominance if you are not a Muslim.  The Third Choice is written in a way which is accessible to people of all faiths or none.  It contains a lot of original material, which readers will not find elsewhere. 
For readers who are looking for an overtly  Christian response to the material in The Third Choice, I can recommend Liberty to the Captives, which offers spiritual keys to finding freedom from Islam. 
My earlier book Revelation considers the question of whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Deror Books; 1 edition (April 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0980722306
• ISBN-13: 978-0980722307
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,548 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr Mark Durie is a theologian, human rights activist and pastor of an Anglican church. He has published many articles and books on the language and culture of the Acehnese, Christian-Muslim relations and religious freedom. A graduate of the Australian National University and the Australian College of Theology, he has held visiting appointments at the University of Leiden, MIT, UCLA and Stanford, and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1992.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 66 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Frank discussion of dhimmitude and what can be done about it March 28, 2010

By ChrisLA

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Westerners have a hard time understanding why Muslims are so sensitive to criticism of their ideology. This new book by an Australian evangelical minister, Mark Durie, provides some valuable insights. The author recounts about a young scholar who was in Egypt and wanted to study the Coptic theological analyses of Islam. He went to the Coptic Bishop in Cairo and asked where he could locate such books. The Bishop told him that they don't exist. How could this be, with Copts living under Islamic domination for 1,400 years? This would be baffling to Westerners, but perhaps not to Copts.

Durie's book gets down to basics in "unpacking" the Islamist thinking about dhimmitude -- the non-Muslim's liability for refusing to submit to Islam -- and jizya -- money paid to Muslims to restore what was their Allah-given rightful inheritance (being the entire world). One of the requirements of dhimmis is that they never criticize Islam or Muhammad, explaining why to this day, any criticism of Islam is seen as a serious offense to Muslims. The book is well-documented and carefully reasoned. It is not your typical anti-Islam rant, nor is it at all preachy.

Non-Muslims must resist the incipient dhimmitude attitude in the West that we shouldn't offend Muslims by criticising their ideology. On the contrary, this fact-filled book will help non-Muslims speak the truth in love to Muslims who most need to hear that their ideology, based on the Quran and the Sunna of the Prophet, runs counter to prevailing attitudes of freedom, equality, and true brotherly love in the West. This message is timely and important.

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Compassionate, yet realistic May 28, 2010

By Paddy Reader

Format:Hardcover

This is a very scholarly and methodical approach to explaining the concept of dhimmitude to anyone who will listen, Muslim or not. To be brutally literal, one could argue that dhimmitude per se only refers to civilisations who were under Islamic rule, and since the west is not, then use of the term is misleading. However, it is correct to suggest that dhimmitude is not only a geo-political or historical state, but a state of mind. It is a figure of speech, of sorts, to warn against an uncritical acceptance of Islamic claims. The book is not written for a pro-Christian echo chamber, but rather to those who believe (correctly) that all faiths are deserving of critical scrutiny and reasoned unbiased analysis.

Durie makes no attempt to feign "tolerance", nor pander to those multicultural sensitivities which so stifle honest debate these days. However, he does go to lengths to show compassion for Muslims at a personal level, without patronising them. Where Durie does not compromise, is insisting that "interfaith dialogue" is not a path to learning objectively about Islam regardless of how fashionable this might be to career religionists. He insists that personal study of Islam's own scriptures, overlaid against a backdrop of past and current Islamic behaviour, is the only way to fully understand. Durie doesn't fail at providing real world examples of Islamic behaviour or incidents to underpin his points, and his work is fully referenced. In fact, the scope and depth of his references and their relevance is quite alarming. You might say that this book does not pontificate or editorialise, so much, on the rights or wrongs of Islam, instead crediting the reader with the intelligence and autonomy to work out those moral issues for themselves. Rather, it suggests how these issues can and do affect our own society and how we must deal with it at a personal level.

HIs writing style is scholarly and erudite but could be read and understood by all levels. An excellent and vitally important book.

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant! March 15, 2010

By B. Hooper

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is the book I've been waiting for since before 911. (Yes, I read "Jihad in the west" by Fregosi before 911 and few other important books.)

Open it up and find out what people like Ravi Zacharias, Andrew Bostom, Robert Spencer and Bat Yeor are saying about "The Third Choice".

It maybe the most important book on Islam ever written. I've read more than a few and it is the best one I've ever read. It explains the real reason we are fighting this war on terror. It also explains why so many Jews and Christians have good things to say about Islam. (Yes, that's always confused me too.)

Buy a copy or 100. Every academic, journalist and politician ought to read this book. Atlas Shrugs calls it a "Blockbuster". She's right.

Everyone needs to read this book, even those Muslims who believe that the Sharia is great. Maybe they've never heard about the detrimental effects it had on non-Muslims and Muslims. (Yes Muslims, because extremists don't allow any criticism of the Sharia most Muslims have never even dared to think that there might be a serious problem with trying to implement the Sharia no matter how well meaning or moderate the implementers are.)

Like the dvd "The Third Jihad", "The Third Choice" introduces people to the difficult issues gently. Durie does not avoid the difficult issues or water them down but tells us plainly, from history, what it was like to live under the Sharia and why we must resist it at all costs. After reading this book people will be more inclined to consider what Mark Steyn, Robert Spencer and Bat Yeor have to say.

Just buy it!