Alyssa A. Lappen reviews The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) in Human Events:
In Islam, pigs are not Halal. For that reason, some might assume that the little pig on the cover of Robert Spencer’s bestselling new Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) is meant to insult the faith.
They would be wrong. In fact, the publishing house of Regnery (a Human Events sister company) has trademarked the term Politically Incorrect Guide, along with the little pig, and has posted this insignia on two other books, Thomas Woods’ Politically Incorrect Guide to American History and Tom Bethell’s Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, the latter to be published this fall. Moreover, Regnery is working on several other titles in the series, all to be decorated by a pig.
Apparently the series does intend to be humorous, however. Also on the cover is quotation from an Islamic chat room. A poster wrote of Spencer: “May Allah rip out his spine from his back and split his brains in two, and then put them both back, and then do it over and over again. Amen.” Not funny, but he jovially tags this “–‘praise’ for the author on RevivingIslam.com.”
These lighthearted touches, before one even opens a book on a deadly serious subject, foreshadow many more quips inside. A few examples:
“¢ After Muhayissa murdered K’ab, he was rebuked for the deed by his brother Huwayissa, who was not yet a Muslim. Muhayissa, unrepentant, told his brother, “Had the one who ordered me to kill him ordered me to kill you I would have cut off your head.” Huwayissa replied, “By God, a religion which can bring you to this is marvelous!” And he became Muslim. “The world is still witnessing such miracles today.”
“¢ “Polygamy…is moving westward with Islam. In late 2004, polygamy had become so common among Muslims in Britain that the British were considering recognizing it for tax purposes.”
“¢ “Lying: It’s wrong””except when it isn’t.”
Other funny tidbits are the small boxes in each chapter entitled “A book you’re not supposed to read.” These recommendations include such scholarly works as An Introduction to Islamic Law by Joseph Schacht; The Decline of Eastern Christianity: From Jihad to Dhimmitude by Bat Ye’or; and Islamikaze: Manifestations of Islamic Martyrology by Raphael Israeli; as well as ancient and modern Islamic texts like the Qur’an, Umdat al-Salik, or Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law, translated by Noah Ha Min Keller and Milestones by Sayyid Qutb.
But for all the humor, the 231-page text is in fact a somber discussion of Islam for the layman, and the scholarship at its base is impressive. The book includes 21 pages of footnotes, the vast majority of which cite Muslim sources themselves.
Spencer attacks the notion, head on, that the Qur’an teaches tolerance and peace, for example, by citing the Qur’an itself.
Read it all.