Recently, I was dating a Muslim girl who informed me that in order to continue the relationship with her, I had to convert to Islam. Because I was completely in love with this girl I actually gave this serious thought and read this book and "Struggling to Surrender" by the same author. I can only assume that the author was very honest and upfront in his feelings. Unfortunately, Lang's arguments justifying Islamic practices and beliefs were very weak and, after reading his interpretations of Islam and rationalizations for certain troubling tenets of the faith, )particularly regarding the status of women and the role of Islam in politics along with Islamic concepts of religious tolerance), I was left much more troubled about converting than I was before reading his books. I am very happy for Prof. Lang that he has found contentment in Islam but I am not as ready as he is to spin everything in the Quran and the hadith in order to make it more palatable to American society at large. My intellectual and moral problems with Islam were not answered or assuaged after reading the book. On the contrary, reading the book as well as reading the Quran and biographies of Muhammed convinced me that Islam is incompatible with western concepts of democracy and fall very short of contemporary ideas of equality and tolerance. Being tolerant by the standards' of 7th century Arabia doesn't mean it is tolerant according to contemporary concepts of "toleranc." Also, Lang's anti-Semitism is obvious and troubling. Equally troubling is how his political views and ideology are totally determined by his religion, not be any objective analysis. Also, I am not a Christian but was raised Catholic. After reading Lang's arguments, I actually started to realize the philosophical superiority of Christian social thought, even if Christians and Christian societies fail to live up to it. He almost made me want to become Christian again! (almost!) Far from convincing me that Islam is a peaceful, wonderful religion, he convinced me (a person who actually wanted to convert!) that Islam is fundamentally intolerant of other faiths, irrational, and incompatible with progressive social thought.

If you want to read a book by an apologist for Islam who fails to make any convincing arguments to justify Islamic practices, this is the book for you. If you actually want rationally argued justifications for Muslim practices that might satisfy your intellectual curiosity about the religion, go somewhere else.

Recently, I was dating a Muslim girl who informed me that in order to continue the relationship with her, I had to convert to Islam. Because I was completely in love with this girl I actually gave this serious thought and read this book and "Struggling to Surrender" by the same author. I can only assume that the author was very honest and upfront in his feelings. Unfortunately, Lang's arguments justifying Islamic practices and beliefs were very weak and, after reading his interpretations of Islam and rationalizations for certain troubling tenets of the faith, )particularly regarding the status of women and the role of Islam in politics along with Islamic concepts of religious tolerance), I was left much more troubled about converting than I was before reading his books. I am very happy for Prof. Lang that he has found contentment in Islam but I am not as ready as he is to spin everything in the Quran and the hadith in order to make it more palatable to American society at large. My intellectual and moral problems with Islam were not answered or assuaged after reading the book. On the contrary, reading the book as well as reading the Quran and biographies of Muhammed convinced me that Islam is incompatible with western concepts of democracy and fall very short of contemporary ideas of equality and tolerance. Being tolerant by the standards' of 7th century Arabia doesn't mean it is tolerant according to contemporary concepts of "toleranc." Also, Lang's anti-Semitism is obvious and troubling. Equally troubling is how his political views and ideology are totally determined by his religion, not be any objective analysis. Also, I am not a Christian but was raised Catholic. After reading Lang's arguments, I actually started to realize the philosophical superiority of Christian social thought, even if Christians and Christian societies fail to live up to it. He almost made me want to become Christian again! (almost!) Far from convincing me that Islam is a peaceful, wonderful religion, he convinced me (a person who actually wanted to convert!) that Islam is fundamentally intolerant of other faiths, irrational, and incompatible with progressive social thought.

If you want to read a book by an apologist for Islam who fails to make any convincing arguments to justify Islamic practices, this is the book for you. If you actually want rationally argued justifications for Muslim practices that might satisfy your intellectual curiosity about the religion, go somewhere else.