Inside Islam: A Guide for Catholics: 100 Questions and Answers

by Daniel Ali, Robert Spencer, Dina Nayeri

Book Overview

Islam. For some, the word is frightening; for others, mysterious. For all, it is a religious force that cannot be ignored. Now here’s a question-and-answer book on Islam written specifically for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965922855
• ISBN13: 9780965922852
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Ascension Press
• Length: 179 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

A Must Read for Understanding the basis of Islam

I originally got this out of my local library and read it. It is so full of useful information that I am now buying it to use reread with my highlighter. Everyone needs to read a book like this if not simply just to understand the basics of Islam and where and how the ideology came about. Written from a Catholic perspective should not put off Protestants as all the history goes back to the early Church. It is truly enlightening and scary at the same time. Spoiler alert! Conclusion: Islam is fundamentally not compatible with democracy. That is all there is to it.

Truth about Islam-The religion of War and Hate

All Catholics need to read this book. There was no peace on Mohammed. He was a butcher and a false prophet, nothing more than a warrior king. The only "prophet" not dealing directly with God. The angel in the cave was most likely Lucifer the great deceiver, not Gabriel. Islam will only lead you to the prophet himself who is in the seventh level of hell being tormented forever separated from the true God who is pure love. Jesus stated, "no one comes to the father but through me."

Excellent overview

When this book came home from the local Catholic bookshop, I thought "not another islamic apologetic!". As someone that had read the Koran with a critical eye over 20 years ago, I failed to understand not only how islam can spread with such disastrous consequences in nations that are, on the whole, so accepting of difference (both western and eastern), but also why so many appear unwilling to look at islam with the critical mind it deserves. We have a long and positive habit of developing critical attitudes to various sectarian approaches, and this along with all traditions, especially with a large following, deserves to be carefully and broadly assessed. This book, in many ways, simply shows a fundamental aspect of islam that our western style of thinking partially blinds us to: not consistency, but obedience; not clarity, but obedience; not truth-seeking, but obedience. A book I would highly recommend to all, Catholics and other Christians as well as non-Christians... and muslims silently questioning the content of their own tradition.

Great insight into Islam

I have heard so many arguments from Arab Muslims about how non-Arabic speaking authors are incapable of fully comprehending Islam. On the other hand, all the non-Arabic speaking converts to Islam do so because of deep conviction and understanding of the faith! I am a Christian Arab and I identify with most of what is written in this book. We always hear about the need for Christians to reach out to Muslims but never the other way around. Those who criticize the Crusades ignore the bloody history of the Muslim expansion. As we say in the Middle East "A camel never sees its own hump" Highly recommended book.

Eye-opening -- a profoundly important book

After Sept. 11, Robert Spencer's book, "Islam Unveiled," became very popular. As a Catholic, I was hesitant to read a book that I feared would take Koranic passages out of context and then present them as proof of Islam's falsity (precisely because this is what many people do to Christianity). A friend lent me this book, however, and assured me that it wasn't agenda-driven or unreasonable. I noticed that the co-author, Daniel Ali, is a former Muslim, so I decided to give it a shot and I'm so glad that I did. (I learned more about Islam from this book than I did from my religious studies class!)Given Islam's rising popularity and rapid expansion into Western society, we cannot afford to ignore Islam's claim to be God's final revelation. Despite our best intentions of tolerance among all religions, we cannot be closed-minded to the possibility that a religion might proclaim untruth -- or even injustice. "Inside Islam," which contrasts Islam's claims with those of Christianity, is a must-read for all Christians, and Catholics in particular.Utilizing a highly readable question-and-answer format, the authors draw from a huge base of knowledge of Islamic theology, scholarship and tradition to demonstrate that Islam cannot be what it claims to be. Extensive endnotes provide the reader with the opportunity to cross-examine sources.You will read how Mohammad's exposure to Christian heresies distorted his view of Christianity and how these misinterpretations have been incorporated into the Koran -- and how they still inform Muslim views of Christians as idolators to this day. (Mohammad, for example, apparently thought that the Trinity was a union of God, Mary, and Jesus -- and that God had sexual relations with Mary in order to conceive a son. Mohammad understandably saw this crude idea as unworthy of a perfect God.)You will read how fundamentalist Muslims can appeal to the Koran and the Hadith to support their ideas about the inferiority of women, the inferiority of Christians and Jews (who are called "apes and swine" in the Koran), and the imperative to fight unbelievers.You will learn how the conceptions of God, humanity, salvation, and the afterlife radically differ in Islam and Christianity. (I thought these theological contrasts were alone worth the entire price of the book!) You will read about the Koran's curious "abrogation theory" which attempts to reconcile contradictions in the Koran by insisting that Allah can change his mind about morality and truth."Inside Islam" is a profoundly important book. I would recommend it to Catholics, Christians, and even Muslims. To avoid it, assuming that Islam is a "religion of peace" since it is a religion at all, would be myopic. This book's only agenda is the pursuit of truth. Give it a shot -- you'll be surprised by what you find.

Excellent Primer on Islam and the Church

Spencer and Ali have assembled an informative, well-written and easily accessible guide to understanding how Islam compares to Catholicism. Organized in a question-and-answer format, the text is broken into digestible sections that allow readers to read or re-read areas of particular interest. It is the only guide of its kind to be released in decades and deserves a wide readership.Discerning readers should ignore the smear campaign being conducted by Islamic apologists against this book.