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Inside Islam: A Guide for Catholics: 100 Questions and Answers

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While on a Catholic womens' retreat last October, I bought this edition at the bookstore of the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama. Just three months before I had written a review on the now dated film NOT WITHOUT MY DAUGHTER after seeing a rerun of it on television. After finding out that the book had been co-authored by a convert FROM Islam I became even more interested in reading it.

This book has an interesting format including a Forward, Introduction, 100 uestions and Answers, a chapter on Sharing the Gospel with Muslims, Contradictory Teachings and Commands of Islamic Theology, Notes and Appendix. It answers some very important uestions I myself have asked as a practicing Catholic. One of these was expressed in # 86 where it was asked: "Given Islamic teachings on jihad, how can Muslims claim to be a religion of peace?" This is not only a uestion I may have had but so might many of the suffering thousands (perhaps millions) of those affected by the bombings of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. As Irshad Manji wrote in THE TROUBLE WITH ISLAM TODAY: A MUSLIM'S CALL FOR REFORM IN HER FAITH: "We have to own up to the fact that the Koran's message is all over the bloody map. Compassion and contempt exist side by side. Look to its take on women. Hopeful and hateful verses stand only lines away from each other. So, too with religious diversity. There's no single thrust in this so-called perfect, indisputable and straightforward text. The Koran's perfection is ultimately suspect." In INSIDE ISLAM: A GUIDE FOR CATHOLICS the reader is also informed: "When the Muslim declares that Islam is a religion of peace, he is either ignorant of the Koran or is extending this "peace" only to those within the Muslim community, without telling you that he is the way he means it. According to the Koran, "Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah. Those who follow him are merciful to one another, but ruthless to unbelievers."

As a well educated woman who married later in life and who, if left to fend for herself, could very easily support herself and her family comfortably, I have also often thought on uestion # 94. "What is the position of women in Islamic society? Do they have the same rights as men?" I had already read in the Geraldine Brooks book NINE PARTS OF DESIRE: THE HIDDEN WORLD OF ISLAMIC WOMEN that being married in the Islamic faith meant "the acceptance of a legal code that valued her testimony as half the worth of a man's, an inheritance system that allowed her half the legacy of her brother, a future domestic life in which her husband could beat her if she disobeyed him, make her share her attentions with three more wives, divorce her at whim and get absolute custody of her children." I could not imagine any intelligent, well educated American woman born and raised in a democratic society ever learning to tolerate such injustice. The authors of INSIDE ISLAM; A GUIDE FOR CATHOLICS agreed with Brooks (and myself I might add) that "The treatment of women in Islamic countries is consistently shocking to modern Westerners....Islam views women as innately subordinate to men." This uestion was followed by # 95 which states: "The Koran's teachings on the status of women seem to reflect those of St Paul's in the Bible. Didn't he tell wives to be submissive to their husbands?" The author's response to this mirrors what I have been told by a number of Catholic priests I have spoken with over the years: "St. Paul's teachings for wives to be submissive to their husbands must be read in the entire context of his letter to the Ephesians....Immediately prior to his "wives be submissive" injunction, St Paul tells husbands and wives to "be subordinate (or submissive) to one another out of reverence for Christ" (Eph 5:21). Thus in Christian theology, there is a mutual submission of husbands and wives to each other in love, a submission reflecting the Church's submission to Christ....In fact, rather than exalting the authority of men over women, St Paul goes on to place an even greater burden on men when he says "Husbands,love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her..."....in other words, husbands must give their very lives for their spouses--they must sacrifice themselvesa and their own wills for the good of their wives and their families. The Koran, on the other hand, has a very different view of the relationship that exists between spouses. Husbands, by divine right, have total authority over their wives....the idea that a husband should sacrifice himself or live "in mutual submission" with his wife is entirely foreign to Islam. In fact, the same verse in the Koran that begins by stating that "men have authority over women" goes on to give divine sanction to wife beating." The Koran teaches male superiority, in part, "because they spend their wealth to maintain them." No wonder educated women are such a threat in such a religion. An educated woman CAN support herself and has no NEED to be with a man CHOOSING to be with him instead because she truly loves him.

Thus as a Catholic and a woman I am grateful to the authors for confirming some of what I already knew and adding more information for further clarification. I am grateful also to be a Christian whose faith does NOT promote the subjugation of women. I think many a reviewer doesn't know the fact that half of the women in prison in Pakistan are there because they have been RAPED! This was documented in Manji's book where she wrote how "Pakistani General Zia al-Ha, in an effort to win favor among village leaders, mixed a punitive reading of Islam with tribal customs. It became a reuirement that a rape be witnessed by FOUR MEN before any offender could be charged." With a lack of sufficient witnesses it was concluded that "it must naturally be a case of adultery committed by the woman and therefore to be condemned by the stone." In other words, the VICTIM of a rape would end up being stoned to death (or imprisoned) as a legal punishment for adultery! What a travesty!

I strongly recommend this book if you REALLY want to know what Islam is TRULY about!

Spencer and Ali have assembled an informative, well-written and easily accessible guide to understanding how Islam compares to Catholicism.

Organized in a question-and-answer format, the text is broken into digestible sections that allow readers to read or re-read areas of particular interest.

It is the only guide of its kind to be released in decades and deserves a wide readership.

Discerning readers should ignore the smear campaign being conducted by Islamic apologists against this book.

The format of the book as Q& A is easy to read and understand the depth of the content. I recommend the book for everyone who want to know Islam as realy it is

After Sept. 11, Robert Spencer's book, "Islam Unveiled," became very popular. As a Catholic, I was hesitant to read a book that I feared would take Koranic passages out of context and then present them as proof of Islam's falsity (precisely because this is what many people do to Christianity). A friend lent me this book, however, and assured me that it wasn't agenda-driven or unreasonable. I noticed that the co-author, Daniel Ali, is a former Muslim, so I decided to give it a shot and I'm so glad that I did. (I learned more about Islam from this book than I did from my religious studies class!)

Given Islam's rising popularity and rapid expansion into Western society, we cannot afford to ignore Islam's claim to be God's final revelation. Despite our best intentions of tolerance among all religions, we cannot be closed-minded to the possibility that a religion might proclaim untruth -- or even injustice. "Inside Islam," which contrasts Islam's claims with those of Christianity, is a must-read for all Christians, and Catholics in particular.

Utilizing a highly readable question-and-answer format, the authors draw from a huge base of knowledge of Islamic theology, scholarship and tradition to demonstrate that Islam cannot be what it claims to be. Extensive endnotes provide the reader with the opportunity to cross-examine sources.

You will read how Mohammad's exposure to Christian heresies distorted his view of Christianity and how these misinterpretations have been incorporated into the Koran -- and how they still inform Muslim views of Christians as idolators to this day. (Mohammad, for example, apparently thought that the Trinity was a union of God, Mary, and Jesus -- and that God had sexual relations with Mary in order to conceive a son. Mohammad understandably saw this crude idea as unworthy of a perfect God.)

You will read how fundamentalist Muslims can appeal to the Koran and the Hadith to support their ideas about the inferiority of women, the inferiority of Christians and Jews (who are called "apes and swine" in the Koran), and the imperative to fight unbelievers.

You will learn how the conceptions of God, humanity, salvation, and the afterlife radically differ in Islam and Christianity. (I thought these theological contrasts were alone worth the entire price of the book!) You will read about the Koran's curious "abrogation theory" which attempts to reconcile contradictions in the Koran by insisting that Allah can change his mind about morality and truth.

"Inside Islam" is a profoundly important book. I would recommend it to Catholics, Christians, and even Muslims. To avoid it, assuming that Islam is a "religion of peace" since it is a religion at all, would be myopic. This book's only agenda is the pursuit of truth. Give it a shot -- you'll be surprised by what you find.

I am struggling with islam since I came to the US and after I read this book, I can see how it has held my people back. The religion can be too oppressive for modern day civilized peoples who believe in human rights, like me.

Not many people who leave islam ever let anyone know about it. I believe this book will help many others like me to compare islam, and come out of the closet. I recommend it to every moslem who is questioning his faith. May you get what I have out of it.

In this paperback Robert Spencer and Daniel Ali (an ex-Muslim) present brief basics about Islam: the Five Pillars, the Six Articles of Faith, why Muhammad turned against the Jews and Christians, why Muslims believe Jesus is a muslim, why Muslims believe Jesus was NOT crucified but that a substitute instead took his place, contradictions of alcohol use, why Muslims believe the Jews fictionalized the Bible, why Allah is not the same God of Christians, how Muslims view predestiny versus "free will," where Allah in the Quran permits slavery, the different types of jihad, the virgins("houris") who await suicide martyers, why Mohammad said Jews and Christians cannot live in Arabia, status of women and their veils, what Muslims can expect in Islam's heaven or "Paradise," where the anti-Semitic texts are in the Quran, contradictions of similar passages within the Quran -- along with other snippets of differences between Islam and Christianity. The citations are informative endnotes. Fundamentalist Muslims won't like this book because the authors quote specific "ayat" or versus in the Quran, and analyze them in their historical context. This paperback makes for a nice informative "theology background" introduction before reading Robert Spencer's two other books on Islam: "Islam Unveiled" and "Onward Muslim Soldiers." One does not need to be a Catholic to comprehend the topics discussed in this book.

Ever since September 11, 2001, I have wanted an authoritative analysis of Islam's main tenets. I finally found one I now consider indispensable in this book. I see that Mr. Ali was raised a Muslim, but now has embraced Christianity, and so I value his ability to comprehend the two. I feel I can now intelligently speak with a Muslim and know where he is coming from. I can even quote his Koran better than he can!
All I ever hear about Islam from Muslims is that it is a peaceful religion. Until this book, I had not seen an ex-Muslim out there giving me the inside scoop. Mr. Ali is not pushing Christianity here, but it is plain to me from reading this, that Islam does not measure up to Christianity.
This was a concise, easy-to-read question and answer format which I appreciated. It gave many references to the Koran, citing chapter and verse. Too many people write opinions about Islam without giving much documentation...this was a refreshing change.
I recommend this to any American who wants the real truth about Islam. I learned more in the pages of this book than I did searching through the internet for hours and hours. The Koran is too jumbled up for me to trudge through at this point.
What I found in researching Islam were Muslims who defended the faith by simply avoiding the tough questions. For once, I found someone who says it like it is, and does not mince words.
Thank you for having the courage to write this!

If you want to understand the essence of why so much of the Islamic world is at war with Western Secularism, then you need to understand (A) the Koran, and (B) some history of Mohammed. This book, one of the best I have ever read, is it. It's short, to the point, objective, and unbelievably informative.

It's from two authors -- one an expert on the Middle East, and the other a former Muslim who converted to Catholicism. Now, don't let that fact, about the conversion, dissuade you from reading this. Obviously he left Islam because of the conflicts he had with it, but this book is NOT an Islam-bashing book; it's a very serious Islam-critiquing book. There is no hyperbole, no revenge; just facts.

Also, the title is misleading -- you DON'T have to be a Catholic to understand and appreciate this book; you simply have to have *some* ancient history under your belt. In fact, if I had written the book, I would have titled it, "Inside Islam: A Guide for Anyone with a Basic Understanding of Human History."

Outstanding book, and easy read. I read it in a single afternoon.

This book is another attempt by those who do not grasp the internal meanings of Islam to critique its outer form. If you really want to understand what Islam is about, take it from renouned scholars of Islam, not those who cannot even read the Quran in Arabic. The core of Islam is very beautiful and this book fails to convey this.

Where do we start. Anyone can write a book and defame Islam. But when you try to re-interpret history to suit your agenda, the lies tend to become obvious and cast doubt on the entire book. For example, the author would like you to believe that a reason for the crusades was "to free those Christians living under Islamic oppression" (p 119). Really ? Please go back and read some history books and find out for yourself.