Publisher's Synopsis
Were Osama bin Laden and his followers perverting Islam when they claimed to find sanction in the Qur'an for their attack against the United States? Does the explanation for the grim human rights record of Islamic countries lie in basic Muslim beliefs? Perhaps most importantly, can Islam create successful, secularized societies that will coexist peacefully with the liberal, multicultural world of the West? In this important study, Robert Spencer probes the Qur'an and other sacred documents, Islamic traditions, history, and present-day Middle Eastern conditions to find out why the world's fastest growing faith tends to arouse extremism. A student of the religion for the last twenty years, Spencer has written a captivating and carefully researched work that asks the hard questions about Islam and gives the hard answers.
