Alyssa L. reviewed Angels are Crying: Islam: An Analysis of Islam's True Original Message, and It's Lost Absence in the 50 Islamic Countries on + 6 more book reviews
A publicity company offered this book to me for review; I was encouraged by the claim that the book resulted from 14 years of research and accepted in hopes I'd find an enlightened new viewpoint.
Alas, the book proved a disappointment. As one who has studied and written on Islam for more than a decade, I was shocked to find this work so poorly sourced. The book contains absolutely no footnotes, and its references, not listed until the last page, include only two authors apart from Yusuf Ali Abdullah, the English translator of the Quran, namely Marshall G.S. Hodgson (three volumes) and Akbar Shah Najeebabadi (three volumes). I see no evidence of 14 years worth of research here.
To his credit, author Mohammad Rehman admirably begins his prologue by wholeheartedly dedicating his work to all those who have suffered, and continue to suffer, whether it be for their color, race, religion or caste. Here, he recognizes 6 million Jewish victims of Hilter's Holocaust, Israeli civilian victims of suicide bombings and the victims of 9/11.
Similarly, in Part IV Rehman reviews the history and current status of the world's Islamic nations, recognizing many (though not all) atrocities committed by Islam historically and in our own era. Of Turkey, he writes, without sugar coating, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were deported and exterminated in the Armenian genocide.
Of Afghanistan, he writes, after Arab Muslims imported Islam in the 7th century, the Ghaznavids mostly by force converted to Islam the remaining non-Muslim areas. In Albania, too, Islam was spread...by force, a major legacy of 5 centuries of Ottoman rule. In 7th century Algeria, a large number of locals were converted by force to Islam; Ottoman piracy captured and sold approximately one million Europeans...as slaves.
He recognizes brutal force, violence and slavery as common denominators in the historical spread of Islam.
Yet in Part I, Rehman includes a brief summary of the life of Mohammed, the founder of Islam, and the inaccurate contention that Mohammed did not believe in aggression. In Part III, Rehman reiterates this idea, claiming that after Mohammed's death in 632, his followers conquered, plundered, and spread Islam in the wrong manner. (p. 237)
This interpretation, at best, looks naïve. At worst, it lacks honesty. Jihad warfare is a fundamental tenet of the Quran, embedded there as a divine institution incumbent upon all Muslims, to advance Islam until the one truth faith controls the entire world. The Quran outlines Islamic laws requiring religious war in many chapters and verses, including for example, 2:214-215; 4:76-79; 8:39-42; 9:5-6 and 9:29.
Sura 9, verse 5 states: So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush.
Sura 9, verse 29 states: Fight those who do not believe in Allah... and those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.
Similarly, Sura 4, verses 76 through 79 call upon all Muslims to fight in the path of God and to exchange this present life for that which is to come. For warriors who die we will in the end give him a great reward.
Alas, Rehman's Part II citations and explanations of Islamic texts and theology look misleading, selective and incomplete. He omits many of the above citations. More on that shortly.
Strangely, however, Rehman believes the Quran alone is theologically sufficient for Muslims to follow; he says Muslims need no Hadith (sayings and deeds of Mohammed as confirmed by his companions), nor any other sacred text.
The vast majority of Islamic jurists, from the time of Mohammed through the Middle Ages to the present day, would disagree, but Rehman makes no reference to them. They include founders of all four major Sunni schools of IslamHanafi founder Abu Hanifa an-Numan (699-767), Maliki founder Malik ibn Anas (711-795), Shafi'i founder Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi'i (767-820) and Hanbali founder Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780-855). Many more besides consider Islam incomplete without the Hadith and indeed, the entire Sunna, including the Sira (biography of Mohammed), a life filled with bloody deeds and plunder.
In 627, for example, the Jewish Banu Qurayzah tribe in Yathrib (later renamed Medina) surrendered to Mohammed after a 25 day siege. He beheaded all males, numbering some 600 to 800, including boys still in puberty, forcibly converted and enslaved their wives and children and took their land and property as booty. You brothers of monkeys, has God disgraced you and brought His vengeance upon you? said Mohammed to his Jewish victims, according to his earliest Muslim biographer, Ibn Ishaq (d. 767-770).
Even if traditional Islamic jurists agreed with Rehman, however, the Quran itself belies his contention that Islam is all peace and light.
In Part II, Rehman provides selected contents of the Quran. He does present the first Quranic sura (chapter), otherwise known as Al-Fatiha, in its entirety.
Alas, he provides a muted translation, avoiding the true meaning of phrases that devout Muslims recite five times a day. Verse seven curses those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray, which Muslims commonly understand to mean Jews and Christians, the former being those who have evoked your anger and the latter being those who are astray. They pray not to be like these reviled non-Muslims, but only to follow Islam.
Innumerable Islamic jurists throughout the centuries confirm that meaning, including but not limited to ibn Hanbal (mentioned above), Alama Imad ud Din Ibn Kathir (14th century Sha'afi jurist), Moroccan Muslim cleric al-Maghili (d. 1505), and on and on and on.
Of the rest of the Quran, Rehman offers highly selective portionsexcluding many of the most offensive verses.
For example, from Sura 2, the author includes (also) mildly translated versions of verses 60 and 62, which seem to say that all believers have a place in heaven, including Jews and Christians. Alas, he omits verse 61, which curses the Jewish people, And they were covered with humiliation and poverty and returned with anger from Allah [upon them]. That was because they [repeatedly] disbelieved in the signs of Allah and killed the prophets without right. That was because they disobeyed and were [habitually] transgressing.
Modern Muslim clerics do not, themselves, spread the idea that only Muslims will attain Heaven in the afterlife. The Quran says as much and Islamic jurists throughout the ages have interpreted Sura 2, verse 61 accordingly.
Rehman also omits citations and analysis of Sura 4, verses 47, 55 and 60, all containing hatred for Jews and curses upon them. I could go on and on.
In fact there are so many omissions and errors in this book that it would be impossible to list them all. In other words, it is deeply, deeply flawed.
I give Rehman credit for admitting a long history of Islamic atrocities. He seems to genuinely want peace among faiths and nations, a laudable goal to which all mankind should aspire.
Rehman appears to say that everyone after Mohammed misinterpreted his book, however. Alas, if one reads the Quran, no wonder everyone after Mohammed interpreted it as they did, for the book is pretty exclusionary and bloody, and not at all kind to women.
Rather than claim that Islamic actors throughout history have wronged their faith, it would seem far more productive for Rehman to join courageous souls like Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Ibn Warraq, among others, and push for genuine reform from withinto recognize the bloodiness central to Islamic theology and cleanse it.
An excellent book on Islam would be Heretic by Ms. Hirsi Ali; Also read Legacy of Islamic Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims. I also highly recommend The Dhimmi by Bat Ye'or as well as her book The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude.
I am not allowed to answer private emails, unfortunately, but I hope that helps.
Alas, the book proved a disappointment. As one who has studied and written on Islam for more than a decade, I was shocked to find this work so poorly sourced. The book contains absolutely no footnotes, and its references, not listed until the last page, include only two authors apart from Yusuf Ali Abdullah, the English translator of the Quran, namely Marshall G.S. Hodgson (three volumes) and Akbar Shah Najeebabadi (three volumes). I see no evidence of 14 years worth of research here.
To his credit, author Mohammad Rehman admirably begins his prologue by wholeheartedly dedicating his work to all those who have suffered, and continue to suffer, whether it be for their color, race, religion or caste. Here, he recognizes 6 million Jewish victims of Hilter's Holocaust, Israeli civilian victims of suicide bombings and the victims of 9/11.
Similarly, in Part IV Rehman reviews the history and current status of the world's Islamic nations, recognizing many (though not all) atrocities committed by Islam historically and in our own era. Of Turkey, he writes, without sugar coating, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were deported and exterminated in the Armenian genocide.
Of Afghanistan, he writes, after Arab Muslims imported Islam in the 7th century, the Ghaznavids mostly by force converted to Islam the remaining non-Muslim areas. In Albania, too, Islam was spread...by force, a major legacy of 5 centuries of Ottoman rule. In 7th century Algeria, a large number of locals were converted by force to Islam; Ottoman piracy captured and sold approximately one million Europeans...as slaves.
He recognizes brutal force, violence and slavery as common denominators in the historical spread of Islam.
Yet in Part I, Rehman includes a brief summary of the life of Mohammed, the founder of Islam, and the inaccurate contention that Mohammed did not believe in aggression. In Part III, Rehman reiterates this idea, claiming that after Mohammed's death in 632, his followers conquered, plundered, and spread Islam in the wrong manner. (p. 237)
This interpretation, at best, looks naïve. At worst, it lacks honesty. Jihad warfare is a fundamental tenet of the Quran, embedded there as a divine institution incumbent upon all Muslims, to advance Islam until the one truth faith controls the entire world. The Quran outlines Islamic laws requiring religious war in many chapters and verses, including for example, 2:214-215; 4:76-79; 8:39-42; 9:5-6 and 9:29.
Sura 9, verse 5 states: So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush.
Sura 9, verse 29 states: Fight those who do not believe in Allah... and those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.
Similarly, Sura 4, verses 76 through 79 call upon all Muslims to fight in the path of God and to exchange this present life for that which is to come. For warriors who die we will in the end give him a great reward.
Alas, Rehman's Part II citations and explanations of Islamic texts and theology look misleading, selective and incomplete. He omits many of the above citations. More on that shortly.
Strangely, however, Rehman believes the Quran alone is theologically sufficient for Muslims to follow; he says Muslims need no Hadith (sayings and deeds of Mohammed as confirmed by his companions), nor any other sacred text.
The vast majority of Islamic jurists, from the time of Mohammed through the Middle Ages to the present day, would disagree, but Rehman makes no reference to them. They include founders of all four major Sunni schools of IslamHanafi founder Abu Hanifa an-Numan (699-767), Maliki founder Malik ibn Anas (711-795), Shafi'i founder Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi'i (767-820) and Hanbali founder Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780-855). Many more besides consider Islam incomplete without the Hadith and indeed, the entire Sunna, including the Sira (biography of Mohammed), a life filled with bloody deeds and plunder.
In 627, for example, the Jewish Banu Qurayzah tribe in Yathrib (later renamed Medina) surrendered to Mohammed after a 25 day siege. He beheaded all males, numbering some 600 to 800, including boys still in puberty, forcibly converted and enslaved their wives and children and took their land and property as booty. You brothers of monkeys, has God disgraced you and brought His vengeance upon you? said Mohammed to his Jewish victims, according to his earliest Muslim biographer, Ibn Ishaq (d. 767-770).
Even if traditional Islamic jurists agreed with Rehman, however, the Quran itself belies his contention that Islam is all peace and light.
In Part II, Rehman provides selected contents of the Quran. He does present the first Quranic sura (chapter), otherwise known as Al-Fatiha, in its entirety.
Alas, he provides a muted translation, avoiding the true meaning of phrases that devout Muslims recite five times a day. Verse seven curses those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray, which Muslims commonly understand to mean Jews and Christians, the former being those who have evoked your anger and the latter being those who are astray. They pray not to be like these reviled non-Muslims, but only to follow Islam.
Innumerable Islamic jurists throughout the centuries confirm that meaning, including but not limited to ibn Hanbal (mentioned above), Alama Imad ud Din Ibn Kathir (14th century Sha'afi jurist), Moroccan Muslim cleric al-Maghili (d. 1505), and on and on and on.
Of the rest of the Quran, Rehman offers highly selective portionsexcluding many of the most offensive verses.
For example, from Sura 2, the author includes (also) mildly translated versions of verses 60 and 62, which seem to say that all believers have a place in heaven, including Jews and Christians. Alas, he omits verse 61, which curses the Jewish people, And they were covered with humiliation and poverty and returned with anger from Allah [upon them]. That was because they [repeatedly] disbelieved in the signs of Allah and killed the prophets without right. That was because they disobeyed and were [habitually] transgressing.
Modern Muslim clerics do not, themselves, spread the idea that only Muslims will attain Heaven in the afterlife. The Quran says as much and Islamic jurists throughout the ages have interpreted Sura 2, verse 61 accordingly.
Rehman also omits citations and analysis of Sura 4, verses 47, 55 and 60, all containing hatred for Jews and curses upon them. I could go on and on.
In fact there are so many omissions and errors in this book that it would be impossible to list them all. In other words, it is deeply, deeply flawed.
I give Rehman credit for admitting a long history of Islamic atrocities. He seems to genuinely want peace among faiths and nations, a laudable goal to which all mankind should aspire.
Rehman appears to say that everyone after Mohammed misinterpreted his book, however. Alas, if one reads the Quran, no wonder everyone after Mohammed interpreted it as they did, for the book is pretty exclusionary and bloody, and not at all kind to women.
Rather than claim that Islamic actors throughout history have wronged their faith, it would seem far more productive for Rehman to join courageous souls like Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Ibn Warraq, among others, and push for genuine reform from withinto recognize the bloodiness central to Islamic theology and cleanse it.
An excellent book on Islam would be Heretic by Ms. Hirsi Ali; Also read Legacy of Islamic Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims. I also highly recommend The Dhimmi by Bat Ye'or as well as her book The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude.
I am not allowed to answer private emails, unfortunately, but I hope that helps.
