This is a very personal, emotional book to read - you have to prepare yourself. It is so moving, visual and shocking. Brigitte is an excellent writer and really knows how to express herself - you feel as though you're right there in the bomb shelters with her and her parents as they suffer unimaginable horrors. I'm so glad I was able to read this book because it is a real warning for America not to fall into complacency - that we all need to stay vigilant and know and understand our enemies. This story is so inspiring; it'll make you feel like you can accomplish anything after reading what she went through to beat the odds and become an American success story.

Brigitte Gabriel paints a grim picture of the islamic threat to U.S. and western civilization. Along with Noni Darwish's book Now, They Call Me Infidel Because They hate sounds an alarm that Americans should heed. Gabriel, a Lebanese Christian journalist details her experience under the Islamic Jihad that created the civil war in Lebanon. She also reveals that even the Christian maronite parochial school which she attended demonized the Jews and the Israeli's. So what else is new. The Christian faith continues to demonize the Jews. During WWII The Catholic Pope was the first foreign state to recognize Hitler. The Pope made a deal with him. If the nazi's left the jews converted to Catholicism alone, the Pope Vatican would turn a blind eye to the suffering of Europe's Jewish citizens. Now that Chritians too are under attack, they are sympathizing somewhat with their Jewish brethren. Too often in the past they were sacrificed as expendable to placate the hateful policies of other countries and nationalities including the Nazi torture and persecution of an entire people and civilization. Roosevelt knew what was happening and did nothing about it. Now as a nation we cannot afford to ignore the evil intentions of Israel's Muslim neighbors. As she says in her book "First comes saturday and then comes Sunday." This Arab phrase means "First we kill all the Jews. Then we kill all the Christians." Make no mistake. This is the fundamentalist intention. They are using our bill of rights against us. Spewing hateful speech to incite violence, they cite their first amendment rights to prevent any government action to stop it. While I applaud Brigette Gabriel's bravery in coming forward to speak publically about this threat, I do think she has gone a bit far. After reading these two books I not only support ethnic profiling, but I encourage it. Controlling discourse on campus and religious institutions is another ball of wax. Once we start down that slipery slope who knows where limitations on our 1st amendment rights of free speech, free press, and free religion will stop. Since the essence of a democracy is freedom of speech, press, and assembly, we could end up selling our American soul to preserve it. Then what would we have saved. Perhaps, more important would be to give equal funding and access to speakers like Noni Darwish and Brigitte Gabriel on college campuses and other forums. Gabriel's characterization of the entire democratic leadership as indictable for treason goes a bit too far. These comments indicate that she doesn't really understand the democratic process set up in this country. I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 for three reasons. First, that she draws the line too far. Second, her prose is often repetitive, and thirdly, it is not elegant. I still think that this book is a must read for every American. This woman is in constant danger because of what she states publically. I think that she and Noni Darwish are alive only becasue they are women who are viewed as inconsequential in the Muslim culture. Assasinating her would give her credence. She lays to rest the western belief that female suicide bommbers are participating out of feelings of desperation. They are participating after being harrassed and cajoled and accused of honor violations for which they will be killed. Particularly telling is the incident of the Arab girl raped by her two brothers and then killed by her mother because she had sexual intercourse outside of marriage. Her mother suffocated and beat her for 20 minutes before she died. How can we ever hope to understand this culture and win it over by conciliatory means? They understand and respect only force and strenght. Gabriel puts and end to the notion of Islam as a peaceful religion. The issue presented is where do we draw the line to protect ourselves without giving up completely what makes us Americans. First, I think we should use the Israeli Mossad for security profiles and follow their recommendations on profiling. The petrochemical complex already uses ex mossad agents for their security. One is unaware of this heightened security when entering the plants, but it is there. Like England we need more video surveillance. We must pay senior intelligence and FBI agents competitive salaries so that we don't have agencies run almost entirely by 'junior pilots", because the senoir people have left for more lucrative jobs in private industry. We must see the fundamentalist muslim threat as immediate and real. We must be politically incorrect at times to deal with the danger. College campuses must remain vigilent that professors treat students of any faith or nationality with equal respect. If Arab professors present a pro Muslim viewpoint equal class time should be given to talented speakers presenting the opposing view. Thus, students will not be unduly influenced by a polarizing Jihadist, anti-western, anti-Israeli view. Most troubling to me was the chapter on the fifth column at college campuses. The students who will be our future leaders and captians of industry are at a very impressionable age. It is too easy to imbue a professor with mentor like qualities held up as an ideal to be followed. We must also be vigilent on the true recipients of charitible donations. However, when it comes to Mosques preaching hatred and death, we must tred carefully. Any law abridging such speech could also be used to curtail legitimate government critisizm, a hallmark of democracy. Certainly, Barak Obama's pastor's speech would fall under this umbrella. I deplore what the Rev. Wright and his progeny have said, but I defend his right to say it. Where should we draw the line and how? Gabriel gives some suggestions, but I think they go to far. I do agree with her section on profiling. We could present more options for patriotism in classrooms such as reciting the pledge of allegiance. We could keep books such as this one and the Darwish book on school and public library shelves. We could also place the books on recommended reading lists on high school and college campuses so that students are assured of getting both sides of the argument. Right now they are primarily hearing the pro-muslim side only. Keep up the good work, Brigitte. However, I think

Brigette Gabriel does an awesome job of showing what Islam really intends to do on a world scale. I have been researching Islam for over a year, and this book only adds the personal testimony of a person who has lived through the result of ignorance regarding Islamic intentions. I anxiously await the next book to be written. If Brigette comes to my area I will definitely go to see and hear her myself.
Pastor Dave Aune

All I can say is WAKEUP Canada.Open your eyes and ears to a very real threat to your freedoms.

This was a very eye opening book about a subject that our schools and media don't talk about. I highly recommend this book and even bought the audio book version for my friend that doesn't like to read. I wish all of our government officials would read this book before meeting with countries in the Middle East.

The unfortunate truth of a misguided people (followers of Islam) continues to play havoc in the lives of Christians and other faiths around the world. Ms. Gabriel's heart wrenching story is just another sad example of how unprovoked hate has driven, for centuries, a society to murder and torture innocent people. The recent apology of American Leaders for a soldier shooting a Quoran is ridiculus and laughable. This kind of act routinely takes place in this and other free countries without prejudice. I only hope Ms. Gabriel completes her mission of waking up the sleeping giants and they stomp the insect before it grows!

There will be a moment, in reading "Because They Hate," when the force of Brigitte Gabriel's theme hits home. Suppose she's right. Suppose that Hezbolla's takeover of Lebanon truly does reflect the Muslim stranglehold foretold in the Qu'ran and the Hadith. Suppose that the hellish violence which the author endured as a young girl in a Christian town in southern Lebanon is what all of us in Western Civilization can expect when Muslims bring their jihad to our doors. After all, they hate us not because they envy our wealth, or because we are intolerant, or because we support Israel, nor for any of the rationalizations you may have heard. They hate us because we are "dhimmis," non-Muslim. Even if you are Muslim, they can hate you if you are not sufficiently devout for them.

Read "Because They Hate," and you will never again accept the moral equivalence argument. You will never again say or even think that Muslim fundamentalism is no worse than Christian fundamentalism, or Jewish orthodoxy. The fact is that they want to kill you and to destroy your democratic institutions. You are a dhimmi and it is their religious obligation to kill you. Every non-Muslim is an insult to Islam and may be killed with impunity; there is no such thing as an innocent Christian or Jew. If you think you know a moderate Muslim, ask him what motivates suicide bombers, the 911 hijackers, or televised beheadings, and that "moderate" will justify every act of violence one way or another. Here's how Gabriel puts "moral equivalence" into perspective. If a Christian preacher were to take out a contract on someone we'd be outraged. Yet Muslim imams commonly issue fatwas requiring the murder of journalists, politicians, and of course even cartoonists, and where's the moral outrage?

Gabriel watched, through the eyes of a teenage girl, the influx of Palestinian refugees, and the escalation of violence against Lebanese Christians as immigration altered he country's demographics. As long as Muslims were a minority, peace was maintained, but when Muslims became a majority, hellfire erupted around her. She watched her beautiful home destroyed, her father's restaurant destroyed, her friends killed, and the landscape bombarded. She watched the Lebanese civil war through the cracks in the bomb shelter which was her home for six years. She dragged her badly wounded mother back into the shelter after a rocket attack, and saved her life by getting her to a hospital in Israel. She watched as Israeli doctors and nurses cared for injured Christians and Muslims, even ahead of wounded Israeli soldiers, solely based on the severity of the patient's injuries.

Gabriel went on to become a war correspondent, then news anchor, in Israel. She married an American and emigrated to America. She doesn't want what happened to her childhood home happen to her new home. You may believe that the likelihood of widespread Muslim violence in America is a distant threat. The argument that the author makes is that the less we take Muslims at their word, the more conciliatory we are, the more tolerant we are, the more likely that day becomes. Actually, let's try a simple test. Ask a few Christian friends the meaning of "first comes Saturday, then comes Sunday." Then ask a few Muslims. Christians get it wrong every time, but Muslims don't; they know. It means that first we'll overthrow Israel and kill all the Jews (whose Sabbath is on Saturday), then we'll overthrow Western Civilization and kill all the Christians (whose Sabbath is Sunday). It is not Brigitte Gabriel who is warning you; it is the enemy itself who is.

Every United States citizen should read this
book, "Because They Hate," by Brigitte Gabriel.

It's written so well that it commands you not
to put it down! You get all involved in it,
as you might with a good mystery novel.

But the main message is one of serious warning.
This is a first hand, factual account, of the
way Islam works to take over the world, and I
do mean that they intend USA to be a part of
their dictatorship.

If you still have doubts as to the danger of
Islam to your way of life, then read this book.

Brigitte Gabriel has no doubt gone through some powerful experiences as a Christian Lebanese woman. There is little doubt some of the atrocious stories she shares in her book, "Because They Hate," did and continue to take place in some corners of the world. But the impact of her message is lost when she herself resorts to a hateful dogma essentially calling for World War 3. Gabriel is almost like the Cuban exiles in Florida who denounce the repression of the Castro regime but fully back terrorist attacks on the island and civilians as long as it's "fighting Communism." Gabriel takes the same tone in her book, calling for even more disastrous military campaigns into possibly Iran. It is no wonder she is a featured speaker at many radical right-wing Christian events including CUFI, the notorious John Hagee cash cow used to promote Israeli aggression and expansion.

Gabriel frames her book around traumatic childhood experiences involving her family and persecution by Muslims of local Christian communities. She describes the horrific practice of mothers who's wombs are ripped open by militias, the fetuses taken out (a practice very common among U.S.-trained forces in El Salvador during the 1980s by the way). Gabriel is no doubt throwing meat to the lions of the Christian right, who believe we are in some cosmic battle against the Satanic forces of Islam. The main problem is that "Because They Hate" ironically makes you wonder about the deep-rooted hatred among those who celebrate Gabriel and her book.

The book essentially calls for fighting hate with more hate, read some of the reviews on this page and you'll find fans smashing Islam as "incompatable with Western values." Gabriel fails in her efforts to inform readers on the dangers of radicalist Islamic groups by creating a dangerous, toxic scenario of us (civilized Western Christians) against them (barbaric Muslim hordes). She quickly dismisses Israeli atrocities in the occupied territories or the fact that U.S. interventionism has played a great part in encouraging the rise of radical dogmas in the region. Consider that we overthrew Iran's only democratic government in the 1950s because it nationalized the nation's oil, or that Hezbollah gained strength in Lebanon after Israel basically destroyed the nation's infrastructure. Ronald Reagan didn't help much when he funded and armed the radical Islamic groups that later morphed into the Taliban and Al Qaeda in order to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan (Reagan's CIA Director said he preferred Koran wavers to Communist atheists any day). These are crucial moments in history that the reader should know in order to understand "why they hate."

The sections where Gabriel touches on domestic policy are frightening fantasies taken from Mussolini's favorite daydreams. Gabriel encourages citizens to "report terrorist activities" or other suspicious going ons and that we must fight to promote "patriotic education" in our schools. Gabriel apparently believes that any form independent thinking is simply too dangerous and opens the door for Islamic radicalism to rush in (ironically, both Gabriel and Islamic radicals have a lot in common when it comes to these topics). She pretty much tells anyone who disagrees with the war in Iraq to shut up and "support the troops." Gabriel also promotes some bizarre fantasy that if we don't act soon, Muslim hordes will overtake America and destroy our democracy (eventhough George Bush has done quite a fine job at that thank you). Gabriel's evidence for this hypothesis is flimsy and uses some immigration data from Europe. So lock your doors and bolt the basement shut because the Muslims are coming!

So what are Gabriel's solutions? Basically more war, the U.S., Israel or both need to destroy Iran (why not Pakistan? They actually HAVE NUKES) and try to impose Western values on the region. How the U.S. could handle a third conflict she doesn't explain, or what happens if Islamic radicalism is even more inflamed from greater imperial interference?

There are some positive aspects to Gabriel's book, mostly when she condemns hateful practices by Muslim extremists, but she never feels compelled to condemn our own violence (starting with the invasion of Iraq which Gabriel praises). She champions the struggle of women to fight for more freedom in Islamic societies, which is also admirable. Of course she fails to mention that activist women's groups, such as in Iran, are desperately calling for an end to threats against the Islamic Republic considering outside interventionism never helps domestic groups calling for change.

Gabriel's book suffers from the same handicap of her good friend John Hagee's books, they make some valid points (Hagee denouncing anti-semitism for example), but then lose any real credibility when they detach themselves from reality and start trying to sell the reader this apocalyptic vision of good vs. evil. The political, cultural realities are much more complex and Gabriel fails to grasp that and instead resorts to hateful preaching against a particular religious group that caused her family harm. There is a creepy, ironically for a Middle Easter woman, colonial bent to the book in the way it tries to show the reader how OUR way, no matter how equally violent, is much better and should be adopted by the East if it wishes to progress. "Because They Hate" lacks any valuable scholarship, and instead just delivers more hate.

Brigitte is a great story teller, I couldn't put the book down. I love how the story is told simply and in matter-of-fact fashion. I admire her courage. There were many times I cringed and almost was brought to tears. The time is finished for being politically correct. I've been following these things the past few years, it is so obvious. All has been written down in the Bible so for those who have ears...

The devil, once called the Morning Star (Lucifer), the "carrier of the light," was the one who appeared as Gabriel to Muhammad. I pray for the lost souls. We are taught to love our enemies. There is no greater law than that. They have no such teaching. This train is on a crash course. Buckle up.

P.S. I originally rated the review having read only half of the book. I now think the book deserves closer to 3 STARS because the author is heavily biased. I was really pissed off by her blindness to the other half of the truth. I agree with the first 60% of the book but not the latter. I wholly agree with her view on Islam but completely disagree with her blind submission (pun intended) to all things American.

How is it not obvious that the U.S. gov't had some type of involvement in 9/11? One thing she doesn't realize is that people are being "anti-American" because our gov't has been hijacked and criticism and dissidence is bloody patriotic!! We are being "anti-American" because the morals and all we stood for are all but vanished! How can she blindly support the wicked, God-less, post-modernist culture that is now in development?! Quakers and Puritans, hello?! Do you see any? Look around. She's living in a fairytale land.

She also comes off as strongly anti-Arab. Love your enemies, remember. While I agree with her points, that they may revel in their un- and mis-education, she hadn't mentioned their previous contributions of science and mathematics. She could have gone at it a little differently. While I am definitely on the side of Israel, pro-Israel if you will for my fear of God, it is fair to also mention that they have a strong lobby in the U.S. as perhaps Norman Finkelstein and such describe. Fact is fact.

She can have well driven home her points as well as have told more of the truth and been objective. Bush & co. speak half-truths as silly as it sounds. They are right that Iran, Syria & Co. are a dire threat, but the Bush Regime's actions completely support the beast of Islam and the Middle East. "Terrorism" and Islam are at the gate with a bloody sword, but we also face a brewing insane tyrannical gov't in our backyards, which seems to be spreading to other parts of the globe as well. She could have had her cake and eaten it as well.

This a powerful book and should be read by every American. It tells us the goals and tactics of radical Islam. The writer has lived through revolution and writes from her first hand experiences.

I just want to comment on one thing on this book that made me not even think about buying it. That is when Miss Gabriel translated the word "Qital" in Islam as it means slaughter and killing.
"Qital" does not by any means mean slaughter or killing. It means "Fight". Any fight that breaks between two groups of people is called "Qital". Also, when Quran ask Muslims to fight or prepare for fight, that is only in the concept of defense. Quran never ask or urges Muslims to attack others. You have to be very very expert in Arabic Language to understand Quran. And very obviously Miss Gabriel does not even have the basic understanding of the Arabic Language.

This book should be required reading for all American's. She is extremely passionate and that shows through in this book. She tells the heart wrentching tale of her teens years under seige by these Muslim extremist and details the simularities between how it happened in her home country and things going on here today. It does not take a smart person to see where we, as American's are headed if we do nothing to stop this radical religion from taking route here and in other parts of the world. People should be listening to the warnings and hear what she has to say!

There are but a few people in this country that I have heard from or read their books that seem to care as much. Bridgette Gabriel, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, George Autry, and a few others come to mind.

If you read nothing else but this book, it will forever change your thoughts on where we are headed.

After having read "America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It" by Mark Steyn, "While Europe Slept" by Bruce Bawer, "The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion" and "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)" by Robert Spencer, this book "Because They Hate" provides the clearest warning for ALL non-Muslims. It should be read by as many people in the Western World as possible. The Koran (Qur'an) spells it out very clearly for anyone willing to take a moment to read. The Koran demands uncompromising devotion and allegiance in the name of Allah and the Prophet Muhammad. It commands all Muslims to either convert all non-Muslims (unbelievers) to Islam or kill them.

Brigitte Gabriel brings a real world characterization of this mindless radical Islamic mindset. She lived through the terror and now serves as one of very few voices in the cause of raising the alarm about radical Islamism.

I urge everyone to read this book. "Forewarned is forearmed:
paying attention to a warning allows you to prepare for trouble."

Brigitte presents a harrowing personal experience of what it's like to live as a Christian (infidel) under the bombs of Islamic jihadists. Even though I believe that we Christians and Jews need to find ways to evangelize Muslims, we have to remember, that we are their target. Political correctness has no place when it comes to Islam and terrorism. I applaud her for telling it like it is.

With absolute authority gleaned and ingrained from living in Arab culture as a Christian, Brigette Gabriel reveals the ultimate reality of the goal of Islam in the world. I've always been amazed at the level of cowardice and ignorance the main stream media, world leaders, and an alarmingly high percentage of the populace display. As much as I or anyone else would welcome a utopian existance, the reality is that oppressive evil must be defeated, or it will destroy the spirit of mankind.

The truth is frightening. Read this book and learn the frightening truth, or make believe everything is okay until your world, your nation, and your life is destroyed. It's a wake up call for everyone.

From the lady who lived through HELL. The Muslims attacked the Christians when the Christians were outnumbered in Lebanon. They hate because that is what their religion teaches them. All Muslims, not just the "radicals". We need this book as a Wake Up Call before it is too late. The haters are here and just waiting for the signal to do their dirty and deadly work.

What an eye opener! Brigitte Gabriel knows from whence she speaks. She tells the truth and is doing everything she can to get Americans to wake up and see what's happening to the country their children will have to live in. My opinion is that Americans have been lulled to sleep by the neverending quest for entertainment so that they have ignored what Islam has been doing for decades, even centuries. Americans are too busy doing movies, TV, music, ...anything to keep them from really thinking about what is really important and seeing that their country is going to go down because of the calculated Islamic invasion that is happening under their noses. EVERY AMERICAN NEEDS TO KNOW THIS!

Do they hate our way of life? No. Do they hate us because of our support for Israel? No. Moslems hate us because they simply hate. Ms Gabriel has it exactly right. People who think Moslems kill us because of Israel, or Iraq, or our troops are in the Middle East is missing the fact that Moslems blow up trains in India, behead monks in Thailand, massacre school children in Russia, office workers in NY City, patrons in Israeli cafes, villagers in Sudan, vacationers in Bali, commuters in London and Madrid, teachers in Indonesia, not to mention other Moslems. The list goes on and on, all in the name of "Allah". Islam is at war with every culture it comes in contact with, not just America and Israel. This is a clash of civilizations between those that can coexist with each other, and those that cannot. Must read!

Brigitte Gabriel is a brave, intelligent, charismatic Lebanese Christian, born into a well-off Maronite Christian family in south Lebanon during a time when Lebanon was the most progressive and tolerant of Middle Eastern nations. Gabriel's account of the rapidly changing situation in Lebanon is fascinating, gripping and unforgettable.

With beautiful prose Gabriel recounts her memories of the Lebanese civil war - a war invoked by religious differences of a tolerant Christian government and radical Islamic elements that came (as so often happens) from outside to change a wonderful tradition. Gabriel's description of her life in a bomb shelter with her elderly parents is harrowing and extremely emotional.

Gabriel has a unique, first hand view of the region that often baffles the West. Her experience with the Israelis helping her, not judging her, is eye-opening. A situation in which a Lebanese ambulance driver charges Gabriel for the transportation to the Israeli broder, whereas the Israelis provide all services free of charge especially stands out. Gabriel did a great job promoting understanding through an inside look of Israel and Lebanon. At the same time Gabriel invoked a chilling fear of the radical "islamofascism", a fear that is very real in today's day and age. Gabriel's first hand accounts leave no questions as to the modus operandi of this destructive Islamic force.

I gave this book four stars only because towards the end of the book Gabriel starts to rant and to spill hate. While I will never defend Islamic radicalism (or any radicalism or extremism for that matter), I found Gabriel's ending a bit disturbing, and not disturbing in a way of being afraid for the future, but disturbing to see how radicalism in Lebanon produced another - opposite - radical in Gabriel. We have to be careful of our responses being clouded by defensive hate, as no good can come out of it. Defending oneself is one's right, while hatred can only cloud our judgements.

I definitely recommend Gabriel's book to all who are concerned with radical Islam. This book is a great example of how hatred breeds hatred and how radicalism breeds radicalism.