Robert Spencer's superb book: 'Religion of Peace: Why Christianity is and Islam isn't'

How true it is. Robert Spencer is one of the best researchers and writers on the fascist cult that calls itself Islam. One of the more ridiculous 'values' that modern Western society has is its rage against all things Christian and tolerance of all things Mohammedan. Wouldn't a wise man offer the opposite? Isn't Western civilisation built not on illogical Jerry Falwell sermons, but on the virtues of the Bible? Isn't Islam the exact opposite of those virtues and values? Robert Spencer reveals why the West needs to embrace the ideas [not necessarily the institutional structures] of Christianity and reject Islam as a faith. Christianity is a religion and Islam isn't and this fundamental difference is monumental when you look at defending Western civilisation.

The glory of the book lies in its direct attack on the politically correct and deeply disturbed culture of relativity that is annihlating Western self-confidence. The West IS based on Judaic-Christian virtues, ethos and the ideas about natural law; the separation of church and state; the golden rule; free-will; equality, charity, peace, ownership and private property. All of these ideas – and the rationality of science and political-economy which flows from them – are Judeo-Christian concepts. Islam has none of these. Islam, as Spencer so well relates, is the exact OPPOSITE of Christianity. How moronic then to see our Western world delve into pompous and ignorant anti-Jew and anti-Christian relativism.

Spencer's book, like all his works, is well researched, amply supported by sources, and pithy in its direct and cutting dismissal of multi-cult piety and nonsense. Some examples suffice to illustrate the intelligent commentary to be found on every page.

Multi-cult piety:
-'...Blair and other Western leaders talk endlessly about freedom, democracy, and tolerance – none of which are superior to the law of God, as Muslims view it. And Muslims recognise that these Western leaders don't care enough about their own religion and culture to defend them.' [p. 9]

[CR; Marxist cultural relativity will destroy the West from within].

Islamic Objectives:
-'While the accused Christian theocrats are few in number, and they deny the allegations against them, there is no shortage of Muslim leaders who openly and unapologetically proclaim the necessity of imposing Islamic sharia law upon the world.' [p.39]

-'We fool ourselves when we imagine that the problem is a localized Islamic fundamentalism, a 'hijacking' of an originally peaceful religion,...Nowhere in that [Muslim] world is there a significant anti-jihad, anti-al Qaeda, or anti-bin Laden movement....' [p.25]

-'It seems absurd that liberals downplay the threat posed by Islamic jihadists....they [jihadists] see themselves as engaged in a worldwide holy war against unbelievers.' [p.45]

[CR: Islam embraces almost the contrarian position on every important issue, that the chattering Marxists and limp wristed liberals hold so dear.]

Islamic violence in the modern world:
-'In Iraq likewise, the dire predicament of Christians facing jihadist persecution after the fall of Saddam Hussein demonstrated this point...Ancient Christian communities that had lived in Iraq for centuries began to face persecution from both Sunni and Shi'ite jihad groups....Overall the Middle Eastern Christian population has dropped from 20 percent in 1900 to less than 2 percent today.'' [p. 48-9]

-'In Southern Thailand, two thousand civilians – Buddhist schoolteachers, rubber tappers, and other innoncous non-Muslims—have been killed in jihad-incited strife since 2004.'

[But of course you never read or hear about this in the mainstream Liberal media. We can also mention the daily rocket attacks against Jews, the 2 million Jews and Christians kicked out of Arab countries since 1945; the 100.000 dead Maronite Christians at the hands of Arafats fascist PLO...etc. etc]

Sharia Rules:
-'30 percent said they [Muslims in England] would prefer to live under strict Islamic sharia law than England's democratic system.....80 percent of the Lebanese population said they supported Hizballah.' [p. 56-7]

[CR: Even in the US, about 1/3 of Muslims believe that the US should adopt Sharia Law.]

Jihad and war:
-'In contrast to the Bible, the Qur'an exhorts believers to fight unbelievers. The commands, taken at face value, are open-ended and universal.' [p.69]

-'...but if they fight you, slay them. Such is the reward of those who suppress faith.' [Qur'an 2:190-193]

-'...Those who believe, and suffer exile and strive with might and main, in Allah's cause [jihad fi sabil Allah], with their goods and persons, have the highest rank in the sight of Allah: they are te people who will achieve salvation.' [Qur'an 9:19-20]

-As Qutb [Muslim post War theologian], states 'Muslims were first restrained from fighting; then they were permitted to fight; then they were commanded to fight against the aggressors; and finally they were commanded to fight against all the polytheists.' [p. 77]

-Qur'an 9-29 says that Muslims must war against the unbelievers until they either become Muslim or 'pay the jizya [apartheid tax] with willing submission.' [p.79] Al the major Sunni schools agree on the importance of jihad.

'-Making war on the unbelievers is one of the responsibilities of the Muslim umma.' [p. 85]

[CR: Islam was spread by Arab imperialist war, not by group hugs, and earnest, honest, dialogue.]

Islam and Slavery:
-'No culture on earth ever questioned the morality of slavery until relatively recent times – and then it was Christians who did the questioning.' [p.93]

[CR: ½ million white Americans died eradicating slavery in the US; the British lost about 5000 Royal Navy Sailors and spent literally billions of pounds, to stop the sea-borne trafficking of black slaves....and what did the Arabs and Muslims do?]

-'Nor was there a Muslim abolitionist movement, no Clarkson, Wilberforce, or Garrison. When the slave trade ended, it was ended not through Muslim efforts but through British military force...Slavery is still practiced openly in two Muslim countries, Sudan and Mauritania.' [p.97]

-'...primary source of slaves in the Islamic world has been non-Muslims....who had been captured during jihad warfare.' [p.95]

[CR: About 20 million blacks were shipped into the Arab-Muslim heartlands as slaves and an equal number of Whites were taken as well. Another fact you won't hear on CNN, NBC, BBC or CBC].

Islamic humiliation of the Saturday and Sunday peoples:

-'In 1004, the Fatimid caliph Abut Ali al-Mansur al-Hakim ordered churches destroyed and church property seized. Over the next ten years thirty thousand churches were destroyed. Untold numbers of Christians converted to Islam simply to save their lives. In 1009, al-Hakim commanded that the Church of the Holy Sepulche, which marked the traditional site of Christ's burial in Jerusalem, be destroyed....he also ordered Christians to wear heavy crosses around their necks...' [p.100]

-'In 1148, Muslim commander Nur ed-Din [a Kurd actually] ordered the killing of every Christian in Aleppo. In 1268, when the jihad forces of the Mamluk sultan Baybars took Antioch from the Crusaders, Baybars wrote a letter to the Crusader leader in the Holy Land, laughing at him, '...you would have seen your Muslim enemy trampling on the place where you celebrate Mass, cutting the throats of monks, priests, and deacons upon the altars, bringing sudden death to the patriarchs and slavery to the royal princes.' [p.101]

-'[numbers killed in the Spanish Inquisition] closer to 3,200. As this covers a period of several hundred years, even the high number hardly amounts to genocidal proportions...' [p.106]

[CR; As compared to the 300 million or so non-Muslims murdered by Muslims acrossed the world since 620 AD.]

-'The history of Jews who lived under Muslim rule is a more or less unbroken record of theologically sanctioned humiliation and wretchedness....the Qur'an mandates that both Jews and Christians must 'feel themselves subdued.'' [p.130]

-Even Maria Rosa Menocal, in her romantic and fantastic hagiography of Muslim Spain...acknowledges the second class status to which Jews and Christians were relegated there. 'In return for this freedom of religious conscience.....were required to pay a special tax – no Muslims paid taxes – and to observe a number of restrictive regulations...' [p.132]

Myths of Islamic achievement:
-'...but it is nevertheless a historical fact that modern science took its presuppositions from Christianity and that Islam gave modern science no impetus at all.' [p.154]

-Professor Jaki observes, 'the improvements brought by Muslim scientists to the Greek scientific corpus were never substantial.' [p.155]

-'And, as Rodney Start points out, 'Islamic scholars achieved significant progress only in terms of specific knowledge, such as certain aspects of astronomy and medicine, which did not require any general theoretical basis. And as time passed, even this sort of progress ceased.'' [p.159]

-'In fact, Muslims have never accepted any alternative to Islamic law except when it has been imposed by force [which is true even in secular Turkey, where the army keeps a lid on political Islam].' [p.175]

[CR: I have written elsewhere about the myth of Arab-Muslim inventiveness and achievement. According to Muslim propaganda they even invented manned flight in 872 AD – a mere 1030 years before the Wright brothers. Those clever Muslims.]

These are just some examples of what could be taken from Spencer's compendium against Islam. He does not suggest [nor do most people critical of Islam] that Muslims are inferior, violent or fascist. But he points out correctly, that Islam is an ideology, not a faith. There is no golden rule, no separation of church and state, and that the Islamic hierarchy and leadership, starting with Mohammed, are covered in blood, war, and murder, and profoundly imbued with anti-Semiticism and supremacism as well as outright racism. This is in the Koran. This is in the Hadiths. This is in the political ideology called Islam.

As Spencer makes clear, Islam is not a religion. It is a vehicle and a program of war and supremacism. Christianity, even given its many flaws and epochs of violence, is the opposite.

Instead of watching insipid Al Gore powerpoint slides on the eco-marxist cult, it might be more prudent to have educational systems teaching Spencer's ideas.

Robert Spencer. Religion of Peace: Why Christianity is and Islam isn't. Regnery Publishing. 210 pages.