Iraq People, History, Politics Book

In The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists, Khaled Abou El Fadl notes that two of the major things driving Islamic extremism are the use of torture and the constant stream of Islamophobic rubbish such as this book. Every time a book like this comes out, the extremists use it as evidence that "the West" is irreconcilably opposed to Islam.

To be clear, unlike either El Fadl or Karsh, I have no horse in this race. I was raised by an Episcopalian mother and Jewish father. My father's feelings about Zionism were ambivalent. I never knew any Muslims until recently. Although literally all the Muslims I have known have been peaceful and honest (generally more so than my other acquaintances actually), I have no desire to become a Muslim.

When I looked up Ephraim Karsh he seems to have good academic credentials, so I am at a loss to explain why he chose to start his book with a very misleading translation of a saying of the Prophet Muhammad. The only thing I can figure is that he is being selective with his facts; presenting them in such a way as to make his case.

Take for example the statement that there is no such concept as the separation of church and state in Islam. True and scary sounding, until you realize that the reason for this is that there is no analog for the concept of church in Islam. With no concept of church, how can you have a concept of separation of church? If you want to know about the history of secular ideas in Islam and how they apply in the present, read Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari'a by Abd Allah Ahmad Naim.

With so many good histories of the various Islamic empires and of the Prophet written both from an Islamic and non-Islamic view, I highly recommend you skip this trash and read something else.