Ibn Warraq, the renowned ex-Muslim and scholar of the Qur’an and Muhammad, says that my new book The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS “shatters many myths.” Here are some of the myths it shatters:
1. Muslim Spain was a paradise of multiculturalism
2. Modern-day jihad terrorism is a reaction to American foreign policy
3. The Christians of the Middle East welcomed the Muslim conquerors because Byzantine rule was so oppressive
4. Muslim countries were always tolerant and protective of their Jewish populations
5. The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is over the Israeli settlements and occupation of Palestinian land
6. Muslim rule in India characterized by “tremendous cross-cultural respect and not religious conflict”
7. “Islam has always been part of America’s story”
8. The conflict between Islam and the West began with the Crusades
9. Wahhabi Islam is a perversion of traditional Islam, which is peaceful
10. The practice of Islamic jihadists taking infidel women as sex slaves began with ISIS and Boko Haram
Click here to preorder The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS, the first and only comprehensive narrative history of jihad against not only Europe, but India, Africa, and much more.
Bonnie Lorangerhe says
I preordered the book and can’t wait to read it. Why is it taking so long to publish. Robert is everything ok?
Robert Spencer says
Yes, this is a standard length between completion of the book and publication.
St. Manuel II Palailogos says
“3. The Christians of the Middle East welcomed the Muslim conquerors because Byzantine rule was so oppressive”
Only the Byzantine-hating Copts, Armenians, Jacobites and Nestorians. And only a small percentage of them. Most of them hated Muslims more.
“5. The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is over the Israeli settlements and occupation of Palestinian land”
It initially was.
gravenimage says
St. Manuel II Palailogos wrote:
“5. The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is over the Israeli settlements and occupation of Palestinian land”
It initially was.
………………….
What crap. Muslims have persecuted, oppressed, and murdered Jews for 1400 years. They didn’t want to see Jews living freely.
Julea Bacall says
Read the Qur’an/Hadiths. It did not begin with that at all 700AD. Islam says it is the One and Only True Abrahamic Religion. They say Jews were cursed by Allah and orders Islam to take its place-and history with all Abrahams Jewish sites. The only way they would pretend to tolerate Jews or any others or people with no religion is if they are under Submissive Islamist rule. They are definitely not Multi-Cultural. That would be against Allah. It is a very bigoted Supremacist Apartheid ideology from the beginning. Really. Read it before anything else and go from there looking at what they did through history. Remember it started with about 100 ‘companions’ who became the army in Mecca/Medina. Read the Charter of Hamas, which is even more CLEAR. They Believe it. They Must or else. So why shouldn’t we admit believing what they do can fit in free country. Why do we pretend ‘they don’t really Believe all that’ when we hear it in Sermons today and when they say the Qur’an/Hadiths apply from yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, till Judgement Day and for everyone after as the commands of Allah.
Japetto Danatelli says
I can’t wait to read this book, I’ve been licking my chops ever since Mr. Spencer announced its coming. I can’t wait to read about all the religious based violence muslims have been living for 14 centuries, I’m not talking sarcastic, I really mean it. It’s like that train wreck you just gotta look and see, it has something to do with the psychology of gore. One theory I’ve read says that we might be attracted to gore because it helps us know how to act in situations of real violence. Reading about islam’ gory past will make a useful backdrop, in my opinion, for understanding our present situation with islamic violence, bigotry, and hate. Seeing today’s muslim violence in that larger context will go far in dispelling many of the myths the left have perpetuated for the sake of their multicultural pipe dream, like saying that islam is a “religion of peace.” Of course most of us JW fans already have at least a working knowledge of islam’s 14 centuries of jihad war and terror, but I think Spencer’s book is more comprehensive than anything that’s come before, he’s pretty much said the same thing about his own book. I’m just talking as an average dummy, I don’t have a scholarly view of things. It’s just that I know how well intentioned and informed Spencer is, if he says his own book is good then I know that’s more than self-serving praise.
I just ordered the Kindle version, most likely I’ll be ordering the hard copy too. Thanks!
gravenimage says
+1
Julea Bacall says
Just read the Qur’an/Hadiths while you are waiting. I know its tedious but you will glad you did because then you say Oh, So THAT is why. It has to be Believed or else and it is for Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow and till Judgement Day by Allah’s orders. It is not just a historical thing like the Bible but must be taken literally (and I mean Must be)
All of its bigoted, Supremacist, totalitarian, apartheid like way of life. Its like a Warlord Manual for Control and Conquer making all the little members Holy warriors to do the dirty work or Political work in Democratic countries
Kepha says
Whenever the matter of Islamic “tolerance” comes up in my world history classes, I always sneak in something about the laws governing Dhimmi and point out their supremacist bent.
A lot of the garbage of “Islamic Tolerance” can be traced back to the work of Pierre Jurieu, a French Protestant professor at Sedan exiled to Rotterdam by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1681. He saw the Ottomans allowing the non-Muslim communities to at least exist as superior to the recent action of Louis XIV towards his Protestant subjects. Clearly, the models Jurieu had at the end of the 17th century were scarcely good ones.
Of course, the fiercely anti-Christian philosophes of the 18th and the noisy and shallow journalists of the 19th and 20th centuries took that ball and ran with it, when they were generally ignorant of just about everything except that they hated the way they were raised. While I welcome one more of Robert Spencer’s books hitting the market, I fear that the only way our EmCeePeeCee’s are ever going to learn about the true behavior of Islam is when they will be forced to live under it. Experience is the best teacher, but only because Mr. Experience gets the class that will neither listen to its elders nor read books–and he teaches not by the hickory stick, but by a hobnailed club.
Wellington says
On a very technical point, Kepha, the Edict of Nantes (1598 and issued by arguably that greatest of all French Kings, Henry IV—and what a womanizer he was) was revoked by King Louis XIV in 1685 and not 1681 (though William Penn received Pennsylvania in 1681 from Charles II but I digress).
Hope you and yours are doing well in a world that is not well at all. Take care.
jayell says
“Islam has alsways been part of America’s history”.
Really?
“The first immigrant Muslims came from Syria-Lebanon to the East Coast as early as the 1870s, later to be followed by European Muslims; Muslims from the Indian subcontinent came to the West Coast in the early 1900s…………
“The first known American mosques were established in Biddeford, Maine, in 1915; in Ross, North Dakota, in 1920; in Highland Park, Michigan, in 1923; and in Michigan City, Indiana, in 1925. Declining immigration and rising assimilation eventually caused most of these mosques to close…..”
So American history began around 1870, did it? And no doubt it stopped when the mosques closed!
boakai ngombu says
i once saw a book – VANITY publication – in a Colorado bookstore which sought to prove that islam (a failed religion/brutal political ideology) came to the continent along with slaves sometime before the REVOTUTIONARY WAR.
Michael Copeland says
“Islam has…. been part of America’s history”. Indeed.
Thomas Jefferson informed himself about Islam. He put an end to the payment of “jizya” protection money to the Barbary States (to buy off their piracy) by sending in the Marines to Tripoli and Derna.
““…the Algerines take the lead in predatory warfare and piracy…”
“And all this is endured from a banditti, whom an American expedition of half a dozen ships of war, has reduced into complete humiliation…”
(Captain Croker’s Report 1815)
https://gatesofvienna.net/2018/06/what-happened-at-baltimore/
gravenimage says
Good post.
mortimer says
THE FACTS ABOUT THE ISLAMIC CORSAIRS AND PRIVATEERS LICENSED BY THE SULTAN :
The Barbary pirates, sometimes called Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs, were Ottoman pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. This area was known in Europe as the Barbary Coast, a term derived from the name of its Berber inhabitants. Their predation extended throughout the Mediterranean, south along West Africa’s Atlantic seaboard[citation needed] and into the North Atlantic as far north as Iceland, but they primarily operated in the western Mediterranean. In addition to seizing merchant ships, they engaged in Razzias, raids on European coastal towns and villages, mainly in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, but also in the British Isles,[1] the Netherlands[citation needed] and as far away as Iceland.[2] The main purpose of their attacks was to capture Christian slaves for the Ottoman slave trade as well as the general Arab slavery market in North Africa and the Middle East.[1]
While such raids had occurred since soon after the Muslim conquest of Iberia, the terms “Barbary pirates” and “Barbary corsairs” are normally applied to the raiders active from the 16th century onwards, when the frequency and range of the slavers’ attacks increased. In that period Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli came under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire, either as directly administered provinces or as autonomous dependencies known as the Barbary States. Similar raids were undertaken from Salé and other ports in Morocco.
Barbary corsairs captured thousands of merchant ships and repeatedly raided coastal towns. As a result, residents abandoned their former villages of long stretches of coast in Spain and Italy. Between 100,000 and 250,000 Iberians were enslaved by these raids.[3]
The raids were such a problem coastal settlements were seldom undertaken until the 19th century. Between 1580 and 1680 corsairs were said to have captured about 850,000 people as slaves and from 1530 to 1780 as many as 1,250,000 people were enslaved.
Ewanda says
Is there some reason that Mr. Spencer has chosen to initially published this valuable book in hard cover rather than soft cover? It is made so much more expensive that until the soft cover comes out, it is out of reach for many of us who need the information in confronting those who choose to ignore the threat. The money spared in the difference in purchase price could be spent buying other pertinent educational material on the subject. I can hardly wait till it is issued in soft cover. In the meantime I will ask my library to order it in but I hope that future tomes will be easier to afford. …… and don’t mention Kindle as the inexpensive way to go. To set up to “Kindle” is costly too.
The excerpts from it entice the appetite to want to read more. It must have been a very tedious and challenging book to research and write.
Robert Spencer says
I don’t have any control over that. That is decided by the publisher.
Ewanda says
Thank you for replying to my query. I really appreciate understanding the mysterious world of publishing. I also am looking forward to devouring the information in your book. It should go a long way to helping present the true face of Islam to those that have stood as a living blockade to sending this Ideology the way of Mayan, Aztec, Peruvian, cleric cultures that promoted barbaric human sacrifice.
Human sacrifice practiced by Islam? What do we think they are doing when they yell “allahu akbar” when they kill Apostates, Christians, Jews, Polytheists, Homosexuals, Atheists, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus, plus anyone who is not an orthodox Islamist, run trucks onto pedestrian walkways, lock people in their places of worship and set fire to them, (did I leave anyone out?), destroy precious archaeological sites …?
They are practicing human sacrifice. They are no different to those Central and South American brutal cultures.
overman says
l only buy kindle books these days. And Roberts book is nearly three times cheaper than the Hardcover version – £7 compared to £20. So, a bargain imo.
“9. Wahhabi Islam is a perversion of traditional Islam, which is peaceful”
That is a question that just entered my head yesterday, although l’ve been curious about for a while.
After watching the movie ‘Body of Lies’ (2008, DiCaprio) last night – in which DiCaprio had a rant about this perverted wahhabi interpretation (also claims the koran has no place for the murder of ‘innocents’ or ‘suicide’), l’ll be interested to see Robert’s viewpoint. l mean, are there actually two versions of the Koran? l’m not quite sure.
Clip with DiCaprio –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S7K-Np6LnQ
gravenimage says
Ewanda, most books are published first in hardback, and the paperback comes out months or up to a year later.
Ewanda says
I understand now
RonW says
Kindle is not expensive if you have virtually any kind of modern technology. There are Kindle apps for Android, iOS, and Windows devices. Do you really not have even one kind of smart device? I read ebooks on my phone, a Nexus 7, and a Dell Wndows notebook.
gravenimage says
Most–perhaps all–of Robert Spencer’s books eventually come out on Kindle.
TheBuffster says
RonW – you don’t even need a “smart” device. I can read Kindle books on my laptop.
True, you can’t handily take your laptop into the bathroom with you or take it on the tram. But still, to buy books cheaply and get them read, it’s a great alternative.
Walter Sieruk says
Of the above list of ten myths about Islam, concerning myth number ten which reads “The practice of Islamic jihadists taking infidel women as slaves began with ISIS and Boko Haram.” The myth is a blatant falsehood and outright lie. For about the horrific treatment of women into sexual slavery. actual began withe founder and prophet of Islam, Muhammad. Furthermore women are not viewed and equals in Islamic countries, they are thought of as property” and the “selling women and girls for prostitution is just the dehumanizing complement to forcing women and girls to cover their bodies and hair with veil.” [1] Likewise, a former Muslim who is now a Christian also revealed information about Islam and females sex slaves. For is exposed that “Slavery is cherished in the Qu ‘ran and non -Muslim girls and women are used a sex slaves. Also there is no protection for women in Islam; they are exposed to every kind of abuse on one hand, but on the other hand they are responsible for the temptation which afflicts men.” [2] Wow, all this cruel Islamic misogyny and not regard for human rights has its origin in the founder prophet of Islam, Muhammad. As shown by two Christian writers who in their book inform the reader that “Muhammad endorsed enslavement of all types…he endorsed sex –slavery as a gift from Allah, and enjoyed offering sex slaves as gifts…” So since Muhammad is view by Muslim as the perfect man and a great example it’s not surprise that, in time, Islam is enslaved more people than any other culture.” [3]
[1] THEY MUST BE STOPPED by Brigitte Gabriel, pages 181,182.
[2] ISLAM AND THE SON OF GOD by Daniel Shayesteh , page 128
[3] JESUS AND THE JIHADIS by Craig A. Evens and Jeremiah J. Johnston, pages 124, 125
gravenimage says
+1
gravenimage says
10 Myths Busted in Robert Spencer’s The History of Jihad
…………….
Excellent stuff!
Matthieu Baudin says
Nothing beats an endorsement by Ibn Warraq.
gravenimage says
Thumb’s up.
Pal says
“Islam has always been part of America’s history”.
It comes from here:
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/02/03/remarks-president-islamic-society-baltimore
gravenimage says
Yes–this claim is disgusting and false.
duh swami says
The history is real, but the driving force behind it is the result of the hallucinations and delusions of men…”Shahada’ is one of the most devastating lies ever told…
duh swami says
“Islam has always been part of America’s history”.
What year did ‘always’ start?
IanB says
I’ve pre-ordered the Kindle version and I’m looking to reading it.