The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion Paperback – July 17, 2007

The Truth About Muhammad by Robert SpencerThis book is an incisive and provocative examination of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Whether you are a devout Muslim or a curious non-Muslim, this book is an essential read for anyone interested in understanding the origins and foundations of the Islamic faith.The book is divided into four parts, with each section exploring a different aspect of Muhammad's life. The first section covers his early life and the beginnings of his prophethood, while the second section delves into the formation of Islamic doctrine and the development of Muhammad's political and military strategies. The third section focuses on Muhammad's later years and his death, while the final section provides an analysis of his influence on Islam and the world today.Spencer's prose is clear and engaging, making complex historical events and religious concepts accessible to readers of all levels of familiarity with Islam. He draws from historical records, primary sources, and the Quran itself to build a comprehensive and well-researched portrait of Muhammad that is both critical and respectful.One of the book's strengths is its ability to contextualize Muhammad's actions and decisions within the historical and cultural context of seventh-century Arabia. Rather than painting Muhammad as a villain or a hero, Spencer presents him as a complex figure whose actions were shaped by a variety of factors, including political pressure, personal relationships, and cultural norms.Some may find parts of the book's analysis controversial, particularly Spencer's discussion of jihadist violence and the Islamic doctrine of abrogation. However, even those who may disagree with some of the book's conclusions will find it to be a thought-provoking and challenging read that sheds light on the complexities of Islam and its founder.Overall, "The Truth About Muhammad" is an important and timely book that offers a nuanced and scholarly account of one of the most influential religious figures in history. Its insights and scholarship will be valuable to anyone seeking to understand the historical, cultural, and religious context of Islam.

Robert Spencer has done it again, producing another highly readable but scholarly treatise on the most important issue of our time - the struggle of the West against Islamofacism. If you read this book you will know more about the actual Muhammad than almost everyone, past or present, has known or does know. This includes Muslims themselves. Spencer carves away the layers of myth that have accumulated around the persona of the self-proclaimed prophet, using the double-bladed scalpel of "history" and "reason". Spencer's goal is to find out what Muhammad "was really like."The idea persists in Western and Eastern minds that Muhammad was a man of peace who established a world-wide religion of peace. It is generally assumed that only in modern times has a small faction of religious radicals committed crimes in the name of Muhammad. The gentle Prophet himself, if he were alive, would certainly not approve of these deadly deeds committed in his name. But Spencer's research leads to the opposite conclusion: Muhammad was primarily a man of aggressive violence and irrationality. He was himself the prototype of the modern day Islamofascist Jihad terrorist.This conclusion is based on an exhaustive study of all the available Islamic texts. There exists an enormous body of "sacred" Islamic writing about the life and revelations of Muhammad. Spencer has spent years closely examining all these holy texts of Islam, using comparative analysis to arrive at the core beliefs about Muhammad, his life and works.First are the Suras of the Qur'an, piecemeal revelations that Muhammad (570-632 AD) claims to have received from the angel Gabriel over a twenty-three year prophetic career. The first of these are poetic ramblings bearing close resemblance to passages from the Old and New Testament, the Talmud, Zoroastrianism, and heretical Christian sects such as the Nestorians, Gnostics and Manicheans. All these sources were extant in Arabia at the time of Mohammad's life.Due to the fragmentary quality of the Suras early Muslims elaborated additional sources to provide context for the Qur'an: tafsir (commentary) and hadith (traditions about the Prophet). In the ninth century one of the most respected scholars collected over 300,000 ahadith (plural for hadith). He finally chose two thousand as authentic. His collection fills nine volumes. This is just one of six collections, some of even greater length.In addition to the above mass of information is the sira, which is the biography of Muhammad, the first of which did not appear until 150 years after his death. There arose in the eighth and ninth centuries a number of Muslim jurists and scholars who wrote contrary accounts of Muhammad's life and quarreled amongst themselves as to which account was authentic. On two matters they all agree: Muhammad was virulently anti-Jewish and anti-Christian.The last half of the Qur'an is filled with "ex post facto" revelations. For instance after Muhammad married his daughter-in-law he received a convenient revelation with Allah's approval. Then in his later years the prophet became increasingly engaged in wars of expansion; slaughtering and beheading people, gouging out their eyes with nails, cutting off their limbs, and capturing their wives and daughters as slaves. After each successful campaign he would receive a revelation with Allah's stamp of approval.By using only sources approved by Islamic law as authentic Spencer has invited a rebuttal by Muslim scholars on their own ground. No argument has come forward. There has not been, and will not be, such a rejoinder. Spencer has built an irrefutable description of the "real" Muhammad from within the Islamic canon.We are profoundly indebted to Robert Spencer. Writing as an individual, unaffiliated with any academic institution, he is able to tell the truth as he finds it in his researches. It tells you something about the followers of Muhammad that Spencer has to remain in hiding for fear of his life. And in his "acknowledgements" he is unable to mention by name the many people who have helped him in his undertaking. They too live under the death threat of the Islamofacists.There is a deep sickness lying at the heart of Islam, and it's source can be found in the darkness of Muhammad's own heart.