Islam, The Religion and the People, Bernard Lewis and Buntzie Ellis Churchill (3)
After hearing many times ‘that’s not in the Koran’ or ‘only radical Muslims believe that’, I decided I really wanted to know more about the religion that is growing so fast and blamed for so many things. I went to the library and scanned a few titles. I picked this book as it seemed to discuss both the history of the religion compared with other religions and its current state. My first surprise was that Islam is the youngest of the main religions (~700AD) and that it is closer to Christianity than to anything else (it is based on the old and new testaments, but the Jews and Christians ‘got it wrong’. Mohammed was the last and only prophet). Also both Islam and Christianity are considered Triumphalists (fortunate recipients of the message, their duty to spread said message and only they will get into heaven), while Jews and Hindus are considered Relativists (the righteous of all religions will have a place in heaven – more like religions are various languages saying the same thing, no need to convert in order to be saved). There were many other surprises that helped me understand some major elements of Islam as a religion and way of life. I am giving this a ‘3’ mainly because I thought it fell short of helping to define and understand the radical Muslims. There were many contradictions in the ‘how and why’. One clear message the authors made was how many of the current issues of radical Muslims started with the Iranian revolution (with Ayatollah Khomeini) in 1979. If you have a desire to learn more about the religion, this book is a good place to start.
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