While clearly biased, this book is I think very factual. Even after reading Karen Armstrong's glowing biography of Muhammad and reading several other books on Islam - I believe Islam is a religion - but really cannot find God in it at all. Muslims will call such a claim "hate" speech - but their hatred of Christianity and Judism is seldom acknowledged.
The key question presented is - what is it about Islam that inspires it's followers to such acts of violence? Beware of any religion with such thin skin that it cannot be questioned.

This book presents a long series of disturbing facts (all supported by literature, the Qur'an itself and Muslim literature as for example the Sunnah, Reliance of the Traveller and others) on Islamism and its human and political consequences.

The authors does slip a little when he tries to compare and justify the catholic church excesses in the past or the "superiority" of the catholic bible. Nevertheless, by reading this book, one has to stop and think about what would be the consequences of a world dominated by Islam (radical or not) and, consequently, ruled by the Sharia (Islamic law). By using modern examples from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Mauritania, Sudan and other islamic countries, most of his arguments can be strengthened. For example, the author cites islamic law in Pakistan which states that "drinking was to be punished by eight stripes. The punishment for illicit sex, for an adult Muslim, was to be 'stoned to death at a public place'; for a non-Muslim, a hundred-stripe public whipping, with the possibility of death for rape" or islamic law in Saudi Arabia, which still cuts off the hands of thieves as punishment (all this based on the holy text).

The author also shows why it it is hard for muslins to be secular (it is against the own basis of their religion) and discuss the contradictions between Islam and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Citations by the Ayatollah Khomeini saying that one of the Shah's most despicable sins was the fact that Iran was one of the original group nations that drafted and approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can make one think further about the allegations of pacific use of nuclear energy by that country. Citations from the Qur'an as for example, "Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you. Deal firmly with them." (Sura 9:123) can help one understand better the origins of the Jihad. Hundreds of other examples are given and carefully discussed.

Nevertheless, I understand why some reviewers might dislike this book. In spite of this, I still think this is an interesting book to read it. Maybe, by getting irritated, one might have to stop and think what can be done to make Islam (or its image) different (if it is indeed possible to do it), and in case one believe that the book exaggerates, the book might force one to think more about religion (Islam and others) and what it can make people do in name of God. The abundance of literature citations and examples in this book is definitely a positive aspect of it. I just wish the author were atheist, this way, the book would be much better.

Well done, even-handed review of the Koran. Grouped logically according to Western concerns with reference to relevant Sura's and partial translations provided...Although having ones own copy handy while reading helpful.

Mr. Spenser you are wrong. Look up the Quran on the internet, Google it if you have time and you will see passages and quotes that to be a true muslim is to be respectful and a BELIEVER in all monolithic Abrahimic religions ( Jews and christians). There is a chapter dedicated to the virgin Mary. Idiots use religion sometimes to justify their criminal motivation in order to gain support. Do not take my word LOOK it up.

Mr spenser, shame on you for spewing more ignorance and hate, we had ENOUGH. Where is this going to get us?. But like your other less virtuous
colleagues (Roberts, Rush) unfortunately your convictions have been sold to the highest bidder. How many more repetitious books on the same subject are you planning to poison naive people?. Look up whom Spenser works for and things will make sense; a sad addition to journalism.
Mover over Chomsky and your boring factual rants, the stage belongs now to Ann culter, Rush limbaigh, rupert murdoch and robert spenser.

Mr. Spenser you are wrong. Look up the Quran on the internet, Google it if you have time and you will see passages and quotes that to be a true muslim is to be respectful and a BELIEVER in all monolithic Abrahimic religions ( Jews and christians). There is a chapter dedicated to the virgin Mary. Idiots use religion sometimes to justify their criminal motivation in order to gain support. Do not take my word LOOK it up.

Mr spenser, shame on you for spewing more ignorance and hate, we had ENOUGH. Where is this going to get us?. But like your other less virtuous
colleagues (Roberts, Rush) unfortunately your convictions have been sold to the highest bidder. How many more repetitious books on the same subject are you planning to poison naive people?. Look up whom Spenser works for and things will make sense; a sad addition to journalism.

If you're tired of just not getting what it is that motivates Muslims to kill, this is the book for you. It gets right to the heart of the matter in the first few disturbing chapters. No idle speculation--chapter & verse from the Koran and current and historical examples of exactly why Islam is inherently dangerous--each one backed with illuminating reason and thoughtful arguments. Are you sick of hearing our leaders refer to Islam as a "religion of peace" and not understanding the violence you see everyday in the news? Read this book. Arm yourself for your next East vs. West argument and go in with the facts. Get inside the minds of Khomeini and bin Laden and find why there is no such thing as a "fundamentalist" Muslim and the folly behind that and many other widely-held beliefs and current popular opinions. While the War on Terror seems, by its design, a means of terrorizing you into giving up your freedoms, this book explains, quite handily, why you have good reason to fear. This book is by no means part of some kind of Right-wing guided agenda to get you on board with the terror war, its aim is enlighten you as to what the facts are. This book is not about hate, it is about understanding what we in the West are facing in regard to Islam. Read this book and get a depth of understanding you will never find in the News.

Just as I finished reading this book, today, Oil Minister, Pierre Gemayel (a Christian) was shot to death in Lebanon. Robert Spencer's well documented and clear explanation of the Koran tells you where justification for an act like this can be found in that Holy Book. On the right page you will find that it is not a crime to kill "pigs" (Jews and Christians).

After reading the reviews below I am prone to wonder how many of the frothy critics of this book actually read it. Even from the far left (the ever stalwart supporters of all those who hate America) I hear the droning mantra bewailing the supposed characterization of Islam by the extreme acts of an anomalous few. But Spencer does not make such a characterization. Most of this book does not examine the actions of extremists but instead the tenets of Islam itself. His conclusions are well reasoned and documented; and horrifying! If you have ever wondered why the millions of "peace-loving" Muslims have not condemned en mass the Jihadists who spew hatred and spill the blood of innocent people all over the world, then get this book and find out. Spencer concludes that violence is a natural outgrowth of the intolerance taught by Islam. Of course, many of us were taught the myth of Muslim tolerance, yet the Quran famously commands any faithful Muslim to "Slay the Unbelievers wherever ye find them. Seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them? (Quran 9:5) It is a verse that is not lifted out of context or a rare anomaly or mitigated by the larger body of teaching (as the nonviolent verses of the New Testament clearly abrogate the descriptions of violence contained in the Old Testament) but, is in fact, only one of many such incitements to violence. Spencer believes that such violent leanings are endemic to Islam and that they explain the complicity of silence we see from the Muslim world when innocents are murdered by Jihadists.

Spencer also deals fairly with the perennially festering topic of the Crusades. It is bizarre and questionable that any present day political ideology should be driven by events that took place a thousand years ago. What's more, I wonder why so many Westerners collapse into a guilt coma at the mere mention of the Crusades without asking some important questions. How did the ancient birth place of Christianity, the stomping grounds of the Apostle Paul, St. Augustine, and the incubator that produced the creed most Christians repeat on Sunday mornings become Muslim in the first place? It was the result of Muhammad's wars of conquest which lasted almost a thousand years that swallowed the birthplace of Christianity and then stomped out the light that once burned so brightly there. The Crusades were a belated, misguided, and often ignoble response to hundreds of years of Islamic "crusades." That march of brutal Islamic imperialism and colonization in the name of Allah ended at the gates of Vienna on a date that should mean something to the world: September 11, 1683. To be a good Muslim is to long for the renewal of that conquest of Europe and the West.

Spencer explains many of the draconian and intolerant beliefs of Islam without the incoherent contortions that Islamic apologists give to such issues as the sickening mistreatment of women and girls or the Nazi-like (complete with yellow patches on the clothing) Dhimmi status (a form of slavery) required of Christians and Jews in Muslim lands. Some treatment is also given to Muhammad, who, had he lived today in any modern western nation would be considered a pedophile due to the fact that his eleventh (and favorite) wife was 6 years old when they married and 9 when the marriage was consummated (the loving husband was 52.) That's really not very much like the historical Jesus, which is one of many examples where the moral equivalency between Christianity and Islam touted by the left crumbles in the light of inconvenient facts. Spencer is required reading for people seeking the truth about Islam and the emerging conflict which will likely define the 21st century.

This is a good book. It describes in direct detail the malaise called Islam. All Muslim societies as a whole are living on borrowed time now. They always potentially were, but never so much as now, in the Post - 9/11 era, when the facade got ripped off. Their arrogant conceited attitude as to their own "superiority" is naked and severe, and their pretenses are equal to those of fully equipped and capable industrialised, technological societies - even though their ramshackle medieval societies are rural and dependent on foreign aid givers for infrastructure - being actually peopled by peasants, tribesmen and nomads. Actually they have been living on the technological dole that the industrialized / modernized countries have been stupid enough to give them. No Muslim country has so far been able to demonstrate a genuine, self-sustained industrial or scientific capability or potential in the true sense of the word and yet all are dyingly desparate to be able to achieve this! What prevents them? Something within their very essence and character does, thankfully, from achieving this ability. I say thankfully because if this impediment didn't exist, the world would be ravaged by despotism and tyrranies that would dwarf Hitler. Muslim societies may be "owners" of vast natural resources, but without outside expertise, they wouldn't probably even know of the existence of these resources, let alone their proper procurement and exploitation. Hence, they do not have the justification to claim ownership of something they can not totally deal with and need outside help to do so. And so they are not fit for, nor deserve control over these resources. (As an example, the flashy Arabian Gulf societies of the oil bearing states exhibit their glamorous but outrightly artificial capitalist patinas, which the European and industrialized world's involvement has brought to them, because of their presence there due to oil extraction. It is not a genuine or organic characteristic indigenous to those desert societies). Such contentions are reinforced most readily by the eager, hostile and hateful attitudes of bellicose "superiority" that are the hallmark of overall Muslim social, cultural and historical attitudes in general towards modern societies and ideas. Such outpourings often assume the extremes of childish histrionics.

This isn't to say that in the present world situation, America is the angel. Very far from it. America can be said to be as criminal and diabolical as the Muslims are, if not more, because of its deliberate and greedy misuse of its vast potential to uplift and shape the course of the future of humanity. It is too late to correct that now, and America is hurtling fast towards its deserved doom. (But not at the hands of Muslims. They are not capable of it, nor would they be a worthy foe. And one devil won't replace another). One key example of American misconduct is how, at a certain time in history, the US cockily thought it could employ the Muslim virus as a weapon to become the sole world superpower so that it could gain global dominance. It succeeded in these nefarious aims and methods, but just look at the aftermath. This was the US's historical mistake that would become its fatal nemesis).

But Muslim societies are most assuredly under the death sentence of history - they are ramshackle, parasitical and dysfunctional repositories of dangerous pathologies that pose a threat to the future continuity and development of human progress and civilization as a whole. They need en masse eradication to prevent them from infecting the future with their pernicious tribal and criminal illnesses. To talk of rehabilitating them is just as ridiculous or logical as "rehabilitating" a putrid corpse. One just wishes that there was a proper leader and leading power of the world around to do this key historical and spiritual job. The devilish United States and its "western" coterie of imperialist followers certainly have no justification in claiming this role.