[tweaked on October 2, 2015]
*It Is About Islam* consists of three parts || Part One: Islam 101 || Part Two: Thirteen Deadly Lies || Part Three: What Can Be Done
|| Part One: Islam 101 ||
As the subtitle implies, Part One (Four chapters) provides essential knowledge that everybody should be familiar with.
1: Islam and End Times
Beck starts off by explaining the Muslim version of Armageddon, a confrontation with infidels (ALL non-Muslims) that will be "akin to World War III, with devastation beyond comprehension." At this time, Christians, Jews and others will be tortured and "led to Hell in crowds" and Jesus Christ will return "to impose Islamic law on the world." The barbaric ISIS murders broadcast on social media thus serve as recruiting videos for thousands of young men eager to bring about the apocalypse. Beck closes Chapter 1 by saying that these ideas are "the deep-seated ambitions and fervent desires of our enemies. We underestimate them at our peril."
2: From Revelation to Empire
After the shocking predictions of Chapter 1, Beck steps back and gives us the history of Muhammad's teachings, including the idea that Christians and Jews have "perverted their religions." Christians worship Jesus Christ (= idolatry in Muslim eyes) and "Jews ignored Jesus as a prophet". Here, Beck misses a detail: The Qur'an 9:30 also says that Jews make a similar error: Jews supposedly consider Ezra to be the son of God (!) [Ezra (Uzair or Uzayr in Arabic) is the scribe who reintroduced the Torah to the Jewish exiles returning from Babylonian captivity].
After Muhammad's death, his non-Quranic teachings (reliable oral traditions, called Hadiths) were organized into collections used as the basis for sharia, all-encompassing guides for how to live as a good Muslim and how to deal with non-Muslims (basically, collations of Muhammad's sayings and deeds). Beck finishes the chapter by explaining how Muhammad's followers rapidly conquered the Arabian peninsula and created a caliphate, a growing empire that stretched from India to Spain [Beck glosses over the savagery that was involved: he mentions the 1066 pogrom that killed thousands of Jews in Spain, but ignores the millions of Hindus and Buddhists massacred by the Mughal emperors who conquered India]. By 1300, however, the Ottoman Empire [centered in Turkey] was shrinking, and Muslims were confronted with a philosophical challenge: why was the *dar al-harb* (the non-Muslim world) growing?
3: Wahhabism and Salafism
Many Muslims maintain that the reason why *dar al-Islam* had shrunk was because Muslims had strayed from the teachings of Muhammad. The solution was therefore to return to the purest form of Islam, represented by wahhabism in the desert (Saudi Arabia) and salafism (the Muslim Brotherhood) in cities. Because the Brotherhood includes many well-educated Arabs, their flexible long-term approach has been enormously successful (before writing this book, Glenn Beck produced a series of programs detailing MB infiltration of the US government, well worth checking out). Beck devotes the last few pages of this chapter to the rise of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has seized the moral high ground against the wahhabists and the salafists by waging war against the US and Israel.
4: Reestablishing the Caliphate
According to a book published in 2005, September 11th, 2001 was one of the first steps in al-Qaeda's twenty-year plan to bring about the apocalypse:
I: The Muslim Awakening (2000-2003), provoking the West
II: Opening Eyes (2003-2006), recruitment to the cause
III: Arising and Standing Up (2007-2010), expanding the fight to Syria and other places
IV: Collapse (2010-2013), the collapse of western-style regimes in the Arab world
V: Caliphate (2013-2016), the reestablishment and gradual growth of the Caliphate
VI: Total Confrontation (2016-2019), the West's final, dying breath
VII: Definitive Victory (2020), the Caliphate will become the "world's lone superpower"
Beck reminds us that although the final result might seem absurd, "the first five phases have been right on schedule." This is especially worrisome when we observe this summer's [2015] vast, unchecked invasion of "refugees," many of whom are carrying fake Syrian passports. Seriously, how many of these young men are planning to emulate the REAL refugees of the past by becoming productive, well-educated, law-abiding European citizens?
|| Part Two: Thirteen Deadly Lies ||
The heart of this book seems to be Part Two, an extended refutation of the lie that the chaos we see "has nothing to do with Islam." The 13 lies are:
#1-Islam is a religion of peace ...
#2-Islam is not much different than Christianity or Judaism
#3-Jihad is a peaceful, internal struggle ...
#4-Muslims don't actually seek to live under sharia ...
#5-America is safe from sharia law
#6-The caliphate is a fanciful dream
#7-Islam is tolerant toward non-Muslims
#8-Addressing frustration, poverty, and joblessness ...
#9-Critics of Islam are bigots
#10-Islam respects the rights of women
#11-Iran can be trusted with a nuclear weapon
#12-The Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate, mainstream Islamic group
#13-Islam respects freedom of speech
Mr Beck clearly explains what is wrong with each statement, with plenty of examples. I have two complaints, however:
(1) This book doesn't connect the dots and explain why opinion makers are so determined to peddle falsehoods. I suppose this was a conscious choice to avoid overwhelming readers with horrifying truths.
(2) Most of the examples of lies are taken either from the US or the Muslim world. It would have been more convincing to also provide European examples. Lie #8, for example (Addressing frustration, poverty, and joblessness), is utter nonsense when one looks at the example of Scandinavian governments such as Sweden's, which has zero colonial history, provides active support for the Palestinian cause and bends over backwards to provide goodies for Muslims at the expense of their own citizens, and yet allows its citizens to suffer at the hands of malevolent outsiders.
|| Part Three: What Can Be Done ||
Part Three is the weakest part of this book. Glenn Beck mentions three things Americans should do, and one to forget about, most of which are rather obvious to outside observers, but bear repeating.
(1) Understand the enemy (blaming oneself by negotiating with an implacable enemy doesn't make any sense).
(2) Don't be afraid to speak (don't be cowed into submission)
(3) Understand American traditions (an important point given the sad state of American education)
(4) Only Muslims can reform Islam (this should be obvious)
A more general criticism about this book is the lack of an index. Of course, I can look for individual terms using Kindle Search, but the effect is not at all the same as using a professionally-compiled index.
I appreciate the fact that there are extensive end notes (hyperlinked references) for each chapter, but there is no easy way to jump from the text itself to the notes at the end.
To end on a positive note, I did learn a few new things, such as the art that was destroyed in the rubble of the World Trade Center (Picasso, Lichtenstein and Rodin), Along with "a collection of 40,000 negatives of photos by Jacques Lowe that recorded John F. Kennedy's presidency." Mr Beck reminds us that if we allow Muslims to get the upper hand, we will lose much more than religious freedom. Point well taken.
Although I don't agree with everything he says, I respect Glenn Beck for encouraging readers to check things out for themselves. Don't just reach for the first Qur'an you can find, however.
The original text of the Qur'an is extremely difficult to read because it is
(1) written in dense prose,
(2) repetitive,
(3) non-chronological
Imagine trying to read a detective story where the author used a pair of scissors to cut up his manuscript and rearrange it so that the longest chapter was first [the first chapter is an exception] and the last chapter was the shortest. Now try to imagine that the author also left out essential background about the major characters. That is why standard translations of the Qur'an are confusing for Western readers.
The Islamic Trilogy will help readers solve this Islamic mystery:
Mohammed and the Unbelievers (The Islamic Trilogy Book 1)
Mohammed and the Unbelievers (The Islamic Trilogy Book 1)
The Political Traditions of Mohammed (The Islamic Trilogy Book 2)
The Political Traditions of Mohammed (The Islamic Trilogy Book 2)
More than half of the Qur'an is about how to deal with the kuffar [unbelievers]. Thus, the Qur'an is about policy (politics), unlike the New Testament, which is a primarily religious book.
A Simple Koran: Readable and Understandable (The Islamic Trilogy Series, Vol. 3)
A Simple Koran: Readable and Understandable (The Islamic Trilogy Series, Vol. 3)
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle Cloud Reader.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Flip to back Flip to front
Follow the Author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
| Price | New from | Used from |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial | |
|
Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
"Please retry" | $8.26 | $2.21 |
Frequently bought together
- +
- +
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Customer reviews
We know little about the ideology behind the violence we are experimenting in our days because nobody wants to talk about it. Religion believes is a very delicate thing to discuss when the PC police is always naming you bigot or intolerant. Beck does a phenomenal job describing with their own scriptures (Koran/Quran), how a segment of their populations is growing so attached to violence and chaos. While reading, I highly recommend you to keep your smartphone/tablet in hand, because if you want to check the facts Beck is talking about, a simple google search will suffice.
Images in this review
Top reviews from other countries
Mr. T. J. Eyre
Radical islam doesn't it turns out is not really a religion, it's an oppressive political death cult masquerading as a religion.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 4, 2016Tim B.
As with Mark Steyn's "America Alone" and Brigitte Gabriel's "They ...
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 11, 2017
jeffrey mellor
Disappointed with some of the writer's strategies towards the end ...
Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on September 23, 2015Spiderman 33
Excellent book for those who want to know why the p.c. culture about Islam is so dangerous
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 2, 2018
