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First, let me tell you what this book is not. Despite what it says, it is not Scriptural. Throughout the text, this book cites passages from the Holy Bible, the Qur’an, and the Hadiths. However, the passages are totally divorced from their contexts, a flaw commonly known as proof-texting, and interpreted with no respect to the author’s probable intention or the larger doctrinal context. Furthermore, the reliability of Scripture is neither established nor outright denied. When it suits the author, every word becomes crucial (even though he works from a translation, not original manuscripts), and at other times, he asserts that the text is corrupted or outright fabrication. In order for this book to represent a Scriptural endeavor, the author would have to treat Biblical Scripture as the inspired Word of God and interpret it according to its mode and context.
Another thing this book is not is a “quest for truth”. Such a book would have to assume that truth is an unknown at the beginning of the quest and then seek to discover it. This book assumes that truth is known - the revelation of the Prophet Muhammad as recorded in the Qur’an and Hadiths. There is no questing involved. Instead, the author’s apparent purpose is to exposed the alleged untruths and partial truths of Christianity. By the same token, this book is also not an academic comparison or debate between Islam and Christianity. It is too biased towards Islam. The assumption throughout is blatently that Islam is Truth and Christianity is what happened when people stopped paying attention and misinterpreted God’s message. Unfortunately, at times, the book is even sarcastic, mocking Christianity with an obvious lack of knowledge, such as the discussion of the name of God, during which the author accuses Christians and Jews of carelessness, invention, and deliberate deception and calls the Bible “a big mess” (pg. 63) or later when the deity and supreme sacrifice of Jesus Christ that are central doctrines of Christianity are labeled blasphemous lies.
So why, especially since I am a Christian, do I not rate this book only one star and move on? Because although this book is not a great many things that it seems to be from the title, it is still something of value. This book shows the world how reasonable Islam sees Christianity. When the crazies (on all sides) who give regular people a bad name are silenced or ignored and the rest of us are trying to get along, it becomes crucial to understand each other. A book like this lets Christians know how Islam believes it relates to the Christian Canon, and this helps build the foundation on which to converse and engage in friendly debate. Imagine for a moment a Christian and a Muslim discussing this book. One of the first chapters claims that the Bible is obviously deficient because most of Mary’s life is missing from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke and doesn’t feature in Mark or John at all. Imagine that the Muslim brings this up as an argument that the Bible is obviously incomplete and edited. Then the Christian can respond, “Wait a minute. It’s not there because that’s not the point. Mary’s life outside of giving birth to Jesus might be interesting for the history books, but these are Gospels - their purpose is to share Jesus’ message and ministry. The only reason two of the Gospels include Mary at all is to show the fulfillment of prophecy.” Then our hypothetical Muslim can talk about why she thinks the Qur’an included more biographical information about Mary, and the result is a calm and reasonable discussion about Islam and Christianity. In my opinion, the world could use a lot more such discussion, and that is why I think this book could be worth reading.
I’ve given this book two out of four stars, albeit with serious reservations. There is no getting around that this book is offensive to Christians. It will repeatedly accuse the Biblical writers of lying and blasphemy. It will casually dismiss core doctrines (like Christ’s crucifixion) with no legitimate evidence outside of Qur’anic passages. It may infuriate or frustrate readers. Despite all of this, I encourage curious minds to check it out, but bear in mind what it is and what it is not. Bite your tongue for now and ignore the abrasive phrasing (turn the other cheek). And if this piques your curiosity, there is a lot of literature about Christianity, Islam, and Judaism available just about everywhere, and I personally think it would be difficult to study these topics too much, given the world we live in today.
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