Book Review – The Truth About Muhammed by Robert Spencer

Robert Spencer has produced a book of stunning honesty. This is not an inchoate anti Islamic rant, but a well researched exercise in scholarship, which, by it’s depth and clarity, commands only respect. The storey of Muhammad is charted from start to finish, all the salient points explained with admirable simplicity.

Muhammad was a fantasist, a psychopath and a common or garden brigand. The starting point is Mecca, home to the Quraysh clan, Muhammad’s people, who from the beginning rejected the Prophets new religion as a distasteful heresy. Nor could Muhammad claim sole authorship for what he was propagating, there is ample evidence that others had a hand in the early evolution of Islam.

The quraysh would not tolerate this new doctrine. Muhammad fled to Medina, where he was not exactly welcomed with open arms, but, he persevered, making particular efforts to co-opt the Jewish clans, who, like the Quraysh wanted nothing to do with him.

Much of what Muhammad preached had been stolen from other from other faiths, indeed, the promises of what awaited the faithful in the afterlife bore a startling resemblance to Hindu writings on the subject.

Peace was never an option for the adherents of the new faith, it was spread by the sward, and baptised in blood. Muhammad’s raids on the clans were for the accumulation of plunder, and having been robbed of their worldly goods, the victims were given the option to convert or die..

The night ride to Jerusalem was greeted with derision. Many pointed out that the Prophet had never left his house that night and Jerusalem was a months journey from Medina. At this junction the tale was adjusted to a spiritual journey. The locals did not swallow that one either, not that it mattered, apostasy was punishable by death.

The night ride was not the only fantasy, the Satanic Verses is probably the most egregious of these. Muhammad claimed to have been tempted by the Devil, and briefly succumbed to the blandishments of Satan. One does not have to be an expert on the New Testament to recognise the similarities between that and Christ being offered the kingdoms of the World by the fallen one, however, Jesus declined on the spot.

Finally, the Quraysh were overcome and forced into the arms of Islam and Muhammad returned to Mecca in triumph. This merely whetted his appetite, his forces were now unleashed on countries outside of the Arabian peninsular. The modus operandi was the same, submit or die. A certain leniency was offered to Jews and Christians, they were permitted to practice their religion under restrictions, provided they paid a special tax,. This became a central plank in the financing of the Islamic state.

The revelations Muhammad claimed to have received from God, were of an extremely specific nature. When in a fix, he would clain to have been sent divine guidance. Naturally this guidance backed up the Prophet’s position on the matter in hand, thus truncating any further argument.

Intolerance was and remains the keystone of Islam, along with the injunction to destroy all other religions. Islam, in all probability is the most intolerant doctrine ever propounded by man. It is not nor has it ever been a religion of peace. Robert Spencer has shone a light on Islam that has been long overdue in coming. This book should be required reading for all the  Western apologist of the religion of peace, who decline to acknowledge what is under their noses.

Submitted by Stephen Maybery