New Spencer book available today

Today is the official publication date for my new book, Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't. It should at this point be available at any self-respecting bookstore, as well as at Amazon.

Here is information about the book from the Conservative Book Club:

From bestselling author Robert Spencer... Why we can't defeat Islamic jihad without defending the faith that built Western civilization -- Christianity

Tune in almost any liberal pundit and he'll tell you: there is a religion that is bent on destroying our Constitution, stripping us of our liberties, and imposing religious rule on the U.S. And that religion is ... Christianity! About Islam, however, the Left is silent -- except to say that whatever propensity to violence that "great religion of peace" may have is more than matched by Christianity. But are such assertions true? Could the global threat of Islamic terrorism really have arisen in a Christian context as easily as in a Muslim one? Are conservative Christians really more of a threat to free societies than Islamic jihadists? Is the Bible really "just as violent" as the Qur'an? In Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is -- and Islam Isn't, bestselling author Robert Spencer not only refutes such charges, but explains why Americans and Europeans must regain an appreciation of our Christian heritage if we can ever hope to defeat Islamic supremacism.

Though Spencer is a Christian, he writes not to proselytize, but to state a fact: Christianity is a true "religion of peace," and on it Western civilization stands. Islam is a religion of the sword with more than 100 million active jihadists seeking to impose sharia not only in the Islamic world, but in Europe and the United States. And they will succeed, warns Spencer, if Westerners continue to delude themselves that Western civilization is uniquely responsible for the evil in the world, that Christianity is just as inherently violent as Islam, that all religions are equal in their capacity to inspire magnanimity, nobility, generosity, and greatness of soul. In Religion of Peace?, he calls for a grand alliance of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, and all other victims and potential victims of the global jihad -- an alliance centered around the values that the Judeo-Christian tradition has given the world.

* Why the most determined enemies of Western civilization may not be the jihadists at all -- but the Leftists who, at a time of peril from global jihad, think the chief danger comes from their churchgoing neighbors

* How Christianity and the Jewish tradition from which it was born are at the heart of Western civilization -- while Islam is hostile to it, historically and theologically

* Why the Islamic world has never developed a distinction between religious and secular law -- and the ominous implications of this

* "Love your enemies" vs. "Be ruthless to the unbelievers": the radical differences between Islamic and Christian teachings about warfare against unbelievers

* Western immorality vs. Islamic Puritanism: is the Islamic world really more moral than the West?

* How Christianity embraced reason from the beginning -- while Islam rejected it as a limiting factor on God

* The consequences of this for the development of science, technology, and even politics

* How attacks on Christianity are part of a larger effort to instill a sense of cultural shame in Europeans and Americans -- a shame that undermines the willingness to defend ourselves

* How Christianity led to the abolition of the ancient practice of slavery -- while it continues even today in the Muslim world

* The Crusades: just like present-day jihad? Why, in fact, they were a centuries-late and small-scale response to Islamic conquests that overwhelmed half of Christendom

* Exposed: the persistent myth of a tolerant, pluralistic Muslim Spain and a tolerant, pluralistic Ottoman Empire

* The myth of a "Christian theocracy" movement that seeks, Taliban-like, to crush Western freedoms

* How the Left's promotion of a moral and theological equivalence between Islam and Christianity prevents people from realizing just how seriously jihadism threatens Western society and its ideals of human rights

* Why, in order to defeat the jihad, we must stand up proudly for our Judeo-Christian civilizational heritage

* The grand coalition that is needed between people of all faiths -- and no faith -- to defend equality of rights and freedom of conscience from the jihadist onslaught

Posted by Robert at August 13, 2007 7:10 AM
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