The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades)

Infobox_Book
name = The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades)


author = Robert Spencer
cover_artist =
publisher = Regnery Publishing
release_date = 2006
media_type = Paperback
pages =
size_weight =
isbn =

"The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades)" is a book by best-selling author Robert Spencer, the director of "Jihad Watch".

Content

The book discusses what it perceives to be the militant and oppressive nature of Islam and provides a historical perspective of the Crusades arguing that they were a late response of European civilization to centuries of relentless invasion and occupation which had begun at the turn of the 8th century in the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Sicily and France. It purports to debunk what it describes as the historically incorrect myths propagated by revisionist historians. The author attributes the civilizational clash between Islam and the West in the 21st century to a continuation of a 14 century long jihad began at the inception of Islam and discusses the difficulties of treating this topic in a world paralyzed by political correctness and revisionism.

Public reception in the United States

The book has spent 15 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list page, although it stayed in the "Also Selling" section for most of the time, and made it to the list proper only once. [cite web|url=http://www.regnery.com/bestsellers.html|title=Regnery Best Sellers|accessdate=2007-01-14 ] [cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/books/bestseller/1016bestpapernonfiction.html?ei=5070&en=3fae97e459ab5340&ex=1171256400&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1171095871-CkU3JOY/WwdVnC/O4tOngw|title=Paperback Nonfiction|accessdate=2007-02-10|date=2005-10-16|publisher=The New York Times]

* Karen Armstrong criticizes the book saying:

Like any book written in hatred, his new work is a depressing read. Spencer makes no attempt to explain the historical, political, economic and spiritual circumstances of 7th-century Arabia, without which it is impossible to understand the complexities of Muhammad’s life. Consequently he makes basic and bad mistakes of fact. Even more damaging, he deliberately manipulates the evidence. [ [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/4a05a4a4-f134-11db-838b-000b5df10621.html] ]

* Andrew C. McCarthy wrote in National Review Online:

This is not a book for the faint of heart. Nonetheless, it is well done and extremely important [...] In this highly accessible, well-researched, quick-paced read, Robert Spencer dares to bring that critical thought to the equation. [cite web|url=http://www.nationalreview.com/mccarthy/mccarthy200604280624.asp|title=Not for the Faint of Heart|author=Andrew C. McCarthy|work=National Review Online|date=April 26, 2006|accessdate=2007-01-13]

* Tom G. Palmer, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, criticises the book:

Not only is PIG-IC not a reliable guide, but it is an endorsement of the interpretation of Islam by the Radical Political Islamists (RPI). Indeed, were the radicals to search around for a recruiter from among the infidels, they could not have done better than Robert Spencer, who eagerly and brashly endorses their every claim and violent act as true to Islam and as an expression of true Muslim identity [...] Spencer’s book has one and only one effect. It doesn’t illuminate. It doesn’t explain. But it does enthusiastically endorse the interpretation of Islam offered by al-Qaeda. Robert Spencer is a one-man recruiting machine for Radical Political Islam. [cite web|url=http://www.tomgpalmer.com/archives/041174.php|title=The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law|author=Tom G. Palmer|month=November | year=2006|accessdate=2007-01-13]

*Steven Stalinsky of the Middle East Quarterly says about the book:

In providing readers an exposé of Islam that "won't be taught in school" or "heard on the evening news," Spencer paints the religion in a broadly negative light [...] He offers "a few modest proposals," excluding the role Muslim reformists/moderates must play for he worries that their theological foundations are weak. Still, the war on terror can finally be won only if allies within the Muslim world are supported; these reformists and moderates can create an environment in which it is possible to challenge the ideology of hate that fuels the very jihad that Spencer identifies. [cite web|url=http://www.meforum.org/article/1789|title=The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades)|author=Steven Stalinsky|date=Fall 2007|accessdate=2007-12-05]

References

External links

* [http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2005/08/islam_without_camouflage.html Islam without camouflage , book review of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam by Andrew G. Bostrom]
* [http://www.nationalreview.com/mccarthy/mccarthy200604280624.asp Not for the Faint of Heart, book review of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam by Andrew C. McCarthy]