The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and The Crusades), (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2008.)
Book Review by Ryan Setliff.
This is some truth-telling for those clear-headed enough to fathom the proposition that a devout Muslim is in fact a terrorist.
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam by Robert Spencer is an eye-opening look into the Islamic world, and the militant creed of Mohammed. The teachings of Islam espoused by the Prophet Mohammed some seven hundred years after the time of Christ's earthly ministry are explored in depth and more notably without the politically correct predilections of establishment academics that are Islamophiles. Too often, political correctness has dethroned an objective inquiry into the teachings of the Qur'an in the name of tolerance. An unusual alliance between secular liberals and Islamic revisionist academics in the West casts a fog over Islam for outsiders—heralding it as an enlightened "religion of peace." The cover up remains detrimental to Western nations that will not accept the bleak reality of a embedded culture conflict rooted in Islamic theology. To borrow a cliche from Richard Weaver: Ideas have consequences. What are the consequences of the teachings of the Koran? Violence.
It will be exacerbated in the coming century as Western nations accept swarms of Muslim immigrants. Europe is overrun by North African and Turk Muslims, and terrorism will undoubtedly rear its ugly head as it has in London. Spencer confronts these myths with devastating clarity and peels away the polished veneer for the non-Islamic world to see. He paints a bleak picture and simply lets Islam speak for itself in word and deed. It's no wonder he has received such harsh criticism, as one fanatical Muslim on RevingIslam.com proclaimed: "May Allah rip out his spine from his back and split his brains in two, and then put them both back, and then do it over and over again. Amen."
The Islamic holy book manifests a resounding clarion call for the killing of so called infidels (i.e. Christians and Jews.) One of the four pillars of Jihad involves a holy war against infidel unbelievers and those who reject Allah. Practitioners of fanatical suicidal terrorism get a free ride to paradise without the moral judgment and are heralded as martyrs of Allah. Spencer confronts the consequences of Islamic ideas as manifest in the theological teachings of the Islamic holy book-known as the Qur'an.
Spencer does a shrewd job tackling the internationalists at the United Nations who espouse their politically correct tirades about "Islamophobia" while turning a blind eye to the atrocities committed by the Jihadists—as well as the degradation and exploitation of women in Muslim countries.
It has become fashionable amongst the politically correct crowd and the American diplomatic establishment to distinguish between followers of Islam and Islamists. Islamists are said to be extremist, violent, militant fundamentalists that have subverted the Islamic religion for their own selfish and cruel ends. Though, in my humble opinion, Islamists may more aptly be deemed the Islamic faithful who hold to the fundamentals of the Islamic creed. Jihad remains the duty of the Islamic faithful. The Muslim faithful fulfill the tenets of Jihad by the heart, by the hand, by the tongue and lastly by the sword! That's right, by the sword! The fourth pillar of Jihad refers to waging wars against the unconverted enemies of Islam with a sword.
Spencer perceptively illustrates that the Muslim faithful are merely acting upon the teachings of Qur'an when they seek to kill and vanquish the infidels. Over and over, Westerners are inundated with messages that Islam is supposedly the "religion of peace" when in reality its holy book the Qur'an is replete with innumerable calls to violence as well as calls to kill the infidels in the name of Allah.
There are hundreds of Qur'anic psalms and hadiths (i.e. sayings of the Prophet) urging Muslims to extol the virtues of war and to fight. Yet in some western democracies, it has become hate speech or religious vilification for non-Muslims to make public utterances of actual statements in the Qur'an which are deemed inflammatory. What an absurdity?!?
Spencer reveals acts of religiously-motivated violence by belligerent Muslims who routinely appeal to their hate-filled creed to justify their acts of savagery and barbarity. The earthshaking events of 9/11 should be an eye-opener for Westerners that believe Islam is peaceful and tolerant. Spencer reminds us that the D.C. Beltway snipers John Muhammad and Lee Malvo that were linked with the eighteen shootings and ten murders in 2002 were recent converts to Islam. During the investigation and the ensuing trial, the media and police authorities moved to deemphasize the role of the suspects Islamic beliefs—in the interests of political correctness. A reality check shows that Islamic ideology was in actuality the very impetus for the slayings. Muhammad and Malvo thought they were on divine mission from Allah in the land of infidels. Yet the PC media continuously delineated Muhammad by his pre-conversion name of Williams. The men had radical Islamist literature in their possession. Malvo's drawings of Osama bin Ladin and his ramblings about Jihad were downplayed, and not given much emphasis by an otherwise sensationalist mass-media.
The media also covered up the Islamic affiliation of a disgruntled American serviceman who initiated a grenade attack on his fellow soldiers in Iraq.
Spencer documents various violent acts of murder and bombings in the United States, Europe and the Middle East committed by the warriors of Allah. In contrast to followers of Islam, no professing Christian could seriously justify such wanton violence by appealing to the teachings of Jesus Christ who condemns such acts. And to make this point resoundingly clear, Spencer routinely contrasts the quotable Mohammed with the quotable Jesus Christ.
Spencer sheds light on the status of women under Islamic law. Women are routinely denigrated as chattel in the Islamic world. They are seldom regarded as little more than objects for sexual gratification and housekeeping. Behind the pretense of piousness by a culture that makes painstaking efforts to cover the female flesh is the stark reality about what goes on behind the scenes. Rape is routinely unpunished in the Islamic world, though the protesting victim may be trounced upon as a harlot and she herself maybe wrongly persecuted or given the death penalty. Spencer explains the deceptive after-the-fact motivation behind Mohammed's requirement that four witnesses are necessary to substantiate the crime of rape. Likewise, Islam is exploitative of children as female girls are married at an appallingly young age under Islamic tradition. This reprehensible practice continues today in isolated quarters of the Islamic world. Not surprisingly, with a low status for female, the Islamic world has long embraced and condoned white slavery.
All things considered, Robert Spencer offers a disquieting view of the Islamic creed without the veneer that the politically correct establishment academics have put over it.
With remarkable depth and insight, Spencer presents evidence of just how Islam teaches that Muslims must wage war to impose Islamic law on non-believers. Muslim persecution of Christians has continued for thirteen centuries, and being a professed Christians in a great number of Muslim-majority carries the death penalty, and is punished by a beheading. The intensity of the persecution has only been amplified, and has spread to the West in the form of terrorism from bombings to airline hijackings.
Muslim advocacy groups in Western countries who are ostensibly in the business of anti-defamation are engaged in a systematic campaign of deception to cover up Islamic doctrine and create a palatable façade for Islam-which is purportedly a peaceful, tolerant religion. Likewise, Spencer counters myths about the Crusades that perpetually victimizes Muslims in the annals of history; and he elaborates upon the historical backdrop leading up to the Crusades without the politically correct revisionism. Robert Spencer has edited the Myths of Islamic Tolerance from Prometheus Books and he also authored Onward Muslim Soldiers from Regnery publishing.
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