Praise for
The COMPLETE INFIDELS GUIDE to the KORAN
Robert Spencer incarnates intellectual courage when, all over the world, governments, intellectuals, churches, universities and media crawl under a hegemonic Universal Caliphates New Order. His achievement in the battle for the survival of free speech and dignity of man will remain as a fundamental monument to the love of, and the self-sacrifice for, liberty. In our epoch of intellectual jihadism, this honest book is essential to understand the challenges of the 21st century.
Bat Yeor, author of Eurabia; The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam; and Islam and Dhimmitude
Tony Blair calls the Koran progressive [and] humanitarian but Robert Spencer has actually read the scripture and begs to differ. In an informed, sardonic antidote to the usual soft-peddling of the Koran, he concludes that its actual contents should alarm infidels and prompt them to defend their freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the legal equality of all people.
Daniel Pipes, director, Middle East Forum
For 1,400 years Muslim leadership spread misinformation and covered up what is in the Koran, even criminalizing exposing the truth or asking questions. The truth is too scary for many, both Muslims and non-Muslims. I thank Robert Spencer for bringing the truth of what is in the Koran to non-Muslims.
Nonie Darwish, ex-Muslim and author of Now They Call Me Infidel
This book is an incisive analysis of how Islamic jihadists read the Koran and understand it to be commanding them to wage war against non-Muslims. Military and intelligence analysts, as well as all Americans interested in protecting our freedoms, will find The Complete Infidels Guide to the Koran to be a valuable guide to the thought processes and core beliefs of Muslim terrorists.
Steven Emerson, author of American Jihad
Meticulous, comprehensive, indispensable. I read the Koran so you dont have to, Spencer writesbut even for those of us who have read the Koran, this is a richly illuminating work.
Bruce Bawer, author of Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom and While Europe Slept.
Governing officials and media spokesmen may ignore Spencers warnings, but they do so at their own risk, because Islamic jihadists are not ignoring whats in the Koran, and are working to destroy our freedoms in obedience to Koranic dictates. In illuminating for Westerners exactly what the Koran teaches, Spencer has performed a valuable service in the defense of Western civilization against the Islamic jihad.
Geert Wilders, Member of Parliament and Chairman of the Party for Freedom (PVV), the Netherlands
Unlike most of todays self-styled experts, Robert Spencer wont tell you that slay the idolaters wherever you find them really means love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. In The Complete Infidels Guide to the Koran, Spencer shows once again that he is Americas most informed, fearless, and compelling voice on modern jihadism, insisting that we come to grips with the words behind the ideology that fuels international terror.
Andrew C. McCarthy, senior fellow at the National Review Institute and author of Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad.
Copyright 2009 by Robert Spencer
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ISBN 978-1-59698-126-3
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Dedication
For Lorenzo, who knew
CONTENTS
I T IS THE MOST REVERED and reviled of books. It is the primary religious text of one of the worlds most prominent and influential religionsone that attracts a steady stream of converts in non-Muslim countries today.
For more than a billion Muslims, the Koran is the unadulterated, pure word of Allah, eternal and perfect, delivered through the angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad. In many Muslim countries, boys memorize large sections of it before they can even read.
The book is to be treated with the deepest reverence. Muslims consider it so holy that they are not to touch a Koran unless they are in a state of ritual purity; non-Muslims, according to Islamic law, are not supposed to touch it at all except under strictly defined circumstances.
This reverence for the Koran is even expressed by non-Muslims. Michael Potemra, deputy managing editor of National Review magazine, asserts, The Koran is one of the loveliest books ever written, a distillation of monotheism that is full of spiritual wisdom, and I never fail to profit from my reading of it.
So what exactly does the Koran say? The U.S.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) claims that the book reveals the true, peaceful nature of Islam and promotes interfaith harmony. As CAIRs Explore the Quran campaign urges, In todays climate of heightened religious sensitivities and apparent cultural clashes, now is the time for people of all faiths to better acquaint themselves with Islams sacred text, the Holy Quran. CAIR indicates that this campaign is a response to those who dare to claim that Islam has something to do with terrorism: