Mark Gabriel, Ph.D was born into a Muslim family in Egypt and was able to quote the entire Quran by the age of twelve. His childhood education was spent in Muslim schools, and he earned a doctorate degree in Islamic history and culture from Al-Azhar University, the most prestigious Islamic university in the world. As a product of his education and culture, he was a classic anti-Semite, but now his heart has completely changed. This book tells his story and explains the source of Muslim attitudes toward Jews.

Dr. Mark Gabriel memorized the Quran completely by age twelve and grew up totally immersed in Islamic culture in Cairo, Egypt. A former Islamic teacher and scholar, he graduated from the world-renowned Al-Azhar University in Egypt with both a masters and doctorate degree in Islamic study. Upon questioning his faith in Islam, Gabriel endured torture as well as personal and professional ostracism. He left Egypt and sought exile in South Africa where he was discipled in Christianity. Currently Dr. Gabriel lives in the United States under religious asylum.

The fifth edition of Islam: Beliefs and Teachings was published in June 1998. This edition saw a number of corrections and amendments to the text. It is one of the best-selling childrens' and adult books on Islam in the world (196,000 copies printed), giving a comprehensive introduction to the religion in an affordably priced and well-produced volume. It is ideal for young Muslims, new Muslims and non-Muslims who want an easy-to-read overview of the final revealed religion. Many schools and Islamic centers now use Islam: Beliefs and Teachings as a standard text.

You don’t have to be Muslim to understand Islam. This friendly guide introduces you to the origins and practices of Islam, including the Five Pillars and life-cycle rituals. You’ll discover the significance of Muhammad and the Qur’an and meet the various Islamic sects. You’ll also see how Islam has adapted over time and read about current developments in the Islamic world. [...] Whether you live or work alongside Muslims and want to relate to them better, or you simply want to gain a better understanding of the world’s second largest religion, Islam For Dummies can help you make sense of this religion and its appeal. From the Qur’an to Ramadan, this friendly guide introduces you to the origins, practices and beliefs of Islam [...more...]

Rushed to press--it contains references as recent as June 2002--for September 11 release, this exceptionally fluid argument against militant Islam omits too many articles (a and the ) but reports more Islamic savagery than Robert Spencer's Islam Unveiled [BKL S 1 02] and critiques Muslim theology more thoroughly than Timothy George's Is the Father of Jesus the God of Muhammad? [BKL Ag 02]. Its most important distinction is Trifkovic's insistencethat the "problem [for the West] is not prejudice about Islam, butfolly in the face of its violence and cruelty," manifested today insuch horrors as the ongoing slaughter of Sudanese Christians and theappalling anti-Semitism of the Islamic press and such Islamic legalauthorities as the mufti of Jerusalem. Like Roger Scruton in The West and the Rest [BKL Ag 02], Trifkovic doesn't endorse war againstIslam. Instead, the West must defend itself against Islamic aggression(e.g., by restricting immigration and reducing dependence onIslamic-controlled oil) and help non-Muslims oppressed in Islamicsocieties. Powerful stuff powerfully presented.

What is Islam, truly, when you peek behind the veil? Who can explain this culture with clarity and precision? Raised as Sunni Muslims by a leader in the Muslim faith, brothers Ergun and Emir Caner have lived the Muslim life. Now Christians and highly respected theology professors, the Caner brothers are in a unique position to present an unprecedented insider?s look at Islam. Unveiling Islam is a sympathetic yet uncompromising presentation of the entire scope of Islam--its practices, ethics, and beliefs, including the primary differences between Christianity and Islam. With a basic knowledge of Islam in place, the authors then present a practical strategy Christians can use to open a productive dialogue with Muslims.

Rauf, a Manhattan imam whose mosque is only 12 blocks from the World Trade Center site, argues that what keeps the Islamic world and America apart, and what fuels Islamic terrorism, is economics, politics, Muslim defensiveness—everything but religion. In fact, Rauf believes that America best represents Islam's true values. His major theme is the existence of an "Abrahamic ethic" which undergirds all the monotheistic religions and extols equality and justice. If Muslims, especially American Muslims, harness this Abrahamic ethic, Rauf promises Islam will once again contribute to the universal striving for a better society. In countering Bernard Lewis's What Went Wrong?, Rauf raises numerous valid points: the U.S. overthrow of democratic Islamic regimes in Iran and Indonesia; U.S. creation and sponsorship of Afghan mujahideen to fight the Soviet Union; the anti-Muslim bias of American media (a point echoed by Karen Armstrong in the foreword); the massive, debilitating effect colonization had on most of the Islamic world; and the "drawing [of] lines" in the Middle East and South Asia by European powers after WWI and WWII, dooming countries with wildly diverse populations to perpetual unrest. However, Rauf presents these points sporadically and less eloquently than some previous commentators. The book's strengths include a concise history of Islam as well as brief but valuable insights into the American Muslim community. The few references to his own personal story also resonate: "Like many immigrants from Muslim lands, I discovered my Islam in America."

Bernard Lewis is the West's greatest historian and interpreter of the Near East. Books such as The Middle East and The Arabs in History are required reading for anybody who hopes to understand the region and its people. Now Lewis offers What Went Wrong?, a concise and timely survey of how Islamic civilization fell from worldwide leadership in almost every frontier of human knowledge five or six centuries ago to a "poor, weak, and ignorant" backwater that is today dominated by "shabby tyrannies ... modern only in their apparatus of repression and terror."

Warraq, a former Muslim who now lives in Ohio, examines the major principles of the world's second largest religion, presenting a less than flattering picture of the faith and its followers. He analyzes factors that influenced the writing of the Koran, chronicles the rise of Islam, and criticizes the dark side of the faith with chapters on the Salman Rushdie affair, the oppression of women in Muslim society, the authoritarian nature of Islamic law, and the suppression of basic rights in many Muslim countries.