The Third Choice: Islam, dhimmitude and freedom [Paperback]

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

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1926800001 | ISBN-13: 978-1926800004 | Publication Date: February 1, 2010

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

Durie in The Third Choice has produced a remarkably lucid, compact, well annotated, comprehensive and enduring book. --Jerry Gordon, New English Review  (edited by author)

I salute the courage of Mark Durie and the scholarship exhibited in The Third Choice, which offers solutions to difficult problems hindering the peaceful co-existence of two major world religions. --Archbishop Peter Akinola (added by author)

In The Third Choice Mark Durie examines the most crucial challenges of this new century. In clear language, free from political correctness, and backed by an impressive scholarly knowledge, he unfolds step-by-step the basic foundations of Islam and exposes their inner correlations with jihad and dhimmitude, two theological and legal Islamic institutions that shape traditional Muslim behaviour toward non-Muslims. --Bat Ye'or (added by author)

This extraordinary book stands as a vital wake-up call for an increasingly drowsy Free World. --Robert Spencer (added by author)

To say something worth reading about the relationship of Islam to other faiths an author needs a huge and broad amount of knowledge in different fields of expertise, needs to know how to integrate research findings from religion, sociology and humanities, and needs to be brave, politically incorrect and peace-minded all at the same time. Few people can offer all of this, but, as all of this is true for Mark Durie, I can recommend The Third Choice to everyone interested in the future of world politics. --Professor Thomas Schirrmacher (added by author)

From the Back Cover

Durie's profound work offers enormous historical, social, and psychological insight into the complexities of life in the face of rejection, evil, and suffering.  Echoing the prophet Zechariah, he makes an impassioned plea to all to 'love truth and peace', and to seek the truth and healing.        Ravi Zacharias, bestselling author and speaker

Over the past three decades, the experience of Christians in Muslim-dominated communities has been getting steadily worse.  This has been directly linked to Islamic revival and the reinstatement of Sharia law across the Muslim world.  I salute the courage of Mark Durie and the scholarship exhibited in The Third Choice, which offers solutions to difficult problems hindering the peaceful co-existence of two major world religions.
    Archbishop Peter Akinola, Primate of All Nigeria

With The Third Choice, Mark Durie has introduced real Islam in a scholarly manner, from its foundational doctrines to its political, social and moral philosophies - from its root to its branches.  He aims to inform people that Islamists will not only be unable to tolerate freedom themselves; they will follow the model of their prophet to put an end to the freedom of others.  The Third Choice emphatically calls on all to study Islam personally and understand its quest for dominance.
Daniel Shayesteh, former Iranian Republican Guard, co-founder of Hezbollah and author of Escape from Darkness --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: DEROR BOOKS (February 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1926800001
• ISBN-13: 978-1926800004
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,605,453 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 52 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 (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Third Choice: Islam, dhimmitude and freedom (Paperback)

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.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

Paddy Reader (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Third Choice: Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom (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.

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!, March 15, 2010

By 

B. Hooper (Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Third Choice: Islam, dhimmitude and freedom (Paperback)

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!