The renowned and pioneering historian Bat Ye'or reviews my book Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't at Middle East Quarterly:
Spencer, director of JihadWatch.org, is not a man to recoil from difficulties. In his most recent, solid study, he examines the current state of controversies in the United States relating to Islam and Christianity. He exposes the ignorance and misunderstanding that riddle many discourses on religions.Beginning in the 1960s, the search for common points led too many academics and intellectuals to efface the oppositions among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in order to distinguish essential common points. But the differences are vast: The totalizing Islamic interpretation of revelation gathers together under a single power the spheres of politics, religion, and justice, something unacceptable to the two biblical religions. And while the Bible does not mention Muslims, who, of course, did not exist at the time of its redaction, the Qur'an mentions Jews and Christians in numerous verses, most often negatively. Other differences include the contents of the sacred texts and differing interpretations of the prophethood.
Spencer's work is crucial, given the stakes of today's worldwide jihadist war. For example, he demolishes false equivalence between jihad (a warrior ideology that is structural to Islam and has been deployed across thirteen centuries) and the Crusades (defensive wars spread over two centuries).
He instructs those many in the West who do not understand the possibility of an Islamist-provoked catastrophe putting an end to democracy's comfortable political and social order. More broadly, Westerners rarely perceive that their foreign policies conform to the exigencies of international jihadi strategies—for example, that European leaders are constrained under the threat of reprisals to accept immigration and to restrain their own freedom of expression to appease Muslim sensibilities. This policy of submission permits Islamist propaganda to dominate Western media and campuses.
If Westerners do not understand the ideological language used to justify the suppression of their liberties, if they ignore the historical, juridical, and theological structure of jihad and its corollary, dhimmitude (subjugation of religious minorities), then they will understand nothing about current events. They will become—like their predecessors of whose history they are ignorant—the slaves of their conquerors.
Written in a clear and easy style, and not without humor, Spencer's latest book Religion of Peace? supplies the keys to understanding the challenges that confront us. He provides the knowledge essential to enable Westerners to defend their democratic institutions as well as the fundamental values of freedom and human dignity.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
Bravo. Here we have the voice of reason and scholorship reviewing the voice of scholorship and reason. Well done.
Good review, great book.
Her observation that multiculturalism has caused academics to focus only on the traits that all ideologies share is profound. Imagine if we had done that in 1942: oh look, we all wear hats, ergo this great war is unnecessary, to paraphrase Pat Buchanan. My mother often remarked that she never understood how the Germans could be so brutal since they make such beautiful music.
Jews, Christians and Muslims all believe in God. That's wonderful. The problem of course is that Muslims believe that this same God has given them instructions to subjugate, enslave or exterminate the non-believers if they fail to embrace the Islamic ideology. Even if all three were to agree that they all believe in the same God, there will never be agreement on the Muslim-specific instructions and that is why the Islamic ideology must be either forcefully confined to the inhospitable land of its birth without prejudice or be expunged from the planet.
A breath of fresh air. Do keep posting the positive . All of this negative does become old and tiring.
"Jews, Christians and Muslims all believe in God. That's wonderful. The problem of course is that Muslims believe that this same God..."
"Allah" the pre-Islamic Arabian pagan moon deity, a rock idol, has nothing whatsoever to do with the REAL God of Judaism and Jesus of Christianity.
Nothing. Less than Nothing. Mohammedans worship a piece of basalt with a crescent moon carved into it's chest.
I've read this book twice and it's absolutely excellent. Thoroughly meticulous, thoroughly referenced, cogently argued, brilliantly analytical and ultimately very persuasive in its conclusion.
This book must become a text in all schools, universities and government administrations across the Western world. It is invaluable in convincing people of the stark differences between Islam and Christianity, not only in their religious texts but also how these religious ideas have been played out and developed throughout history in their respective societies.
Now, back to reading Andrew Bostom's "The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism", an equally amazing book....
"Beginning in the 1960s, the search for common points led too many academics and intellectuals to efface the oppositions among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in order to distinguish essential common points..." (from post above quoting Bat Ye'or).
I would count amoung those "intellectuals" Pope Paul VI and those responsible for the drafting of the Second Vatican Council document "Nostra Aetate." Excerpt:
"The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth,who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their desserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting."
"Since in the course of centuries not a few quarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christians and Moslems, this sacred synod urges all to forget the past and to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom."
I can't think of a better illustration of Bat Ye'or's point than this.
JS,
Thank you for posting the alarming excerpt from "Nostra Aetate." It appears that the Church chose to ignore 1 John 4:
Islam is by definition anti-christ; it denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that is, that God became man, yet the R.C. Church is prepared to conflate its "esteem" for "Moslems" with the anti-christ doctrine that "Moslems" profess! "Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet." So what? A prophet who points to Mohammad and is subservient to him is hardly worthy of the name. Why not boldly declare that Mohammad was not a false prophet at all and that the Church really did corrupt the New Testament and be done with it!
Lex, what about Jews? They don't acknowledge Jesus as God, either.
Hey - you know I'm anti-Islam. But what about Judaism not acknowledging Jesus as God? Do you think Mo appropriated that same disbelief for Islam that is doctrine in Judaism?
*
"A prophet who points to Mohammad and is subservient to him is hardly worthy of the name." --Lex
Oh you got that right. Mohammedanism says Jesus is a "slave" to Allah! A SLAVE! And, that Jesus will assist Allah in the future in destroying both Judaism and Christianity. Yeah, right! RC Church - don't you know these things? What's wrong with you? Stand up for Jesus, you cowards. There is nothing to "esteem" about evil, one-big-lie Islam!