Books we recommend, available from Isaac Publishing:
Meeting the Ideological Challenge of Islamism
Islamist extremism is one of the most vital issues facing governments and populations today, as Islamist groups turn more violent, with increasing radicalized recruits. These leading scholar’s essays offer a detailed, compelling critique of the worldview, methodologies and motivations of violent Islamist groups, and of those pursuing a more gradualist approach. They present a significant contribution to the debate by showing how Islamist ideology may be confronted and effectively challenged.Editors
Patrick Sookhdeo; Anna BekeleContributors
Patrick Sookhdeo; Robert R. Reilly; J. Michael Waller; Anna Bekele; Stephen UlphBuy the book »
Unmasking Islamic State
Buy the book here From the inside cover:What drives Islamic State
The world has looked on in horror at the atrocities perpetrated by Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria and Iraq. The organization's name has become a byword for bloodshed, torture, rape, and criminality. Yet Western observers struggle to make sense of the savagery of these jihadists towards their opponents in enforcing their rule. In this timely new publication, Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo analyses Islamic State's role in the conflict across the Middle East, explaining its ideology, organisation structure and its global radicalization strategy. He scrutinizes key passages in IS publications and in Islamic texts, explaining how these motivate the jihadist forces, and offers an illuminating and important perspective on the nature and quality of life under IS rule. Dr. Sookhdeo sheds light on the process by which young Muslims in Western countries have become radicalized into enlisting as IS fighters encouraged to commit terrorist acts in their own countries. Dr. Sookhdeo is one of the best-placed experts to predict the future of Islamic State. He makes a compelling case for the encouragement of reform movements that can delegitimize the religious validity of extremism within the worldwide Muslim community.Buy the book »
Reforming Islam: Progressive Voices from the Arab Muslim World
Almuslih’s first book publication Reforming Islam: Progressive voices from the Arab Muslim world has been available since December 2014.
The essays collected in this volume are taken from this Almuslih website and are in-depth analyses that are unambiguously reformist in purpose, courageous in tone and cut to the heart of the problems besetting the Arab Muslim world. They focus on freedom of expression and progressive thinking, religious pluralism and diversity, and they challenge static elaborations of law that rely upon an uncritical acceptance of foundational sources held to be immutable in form or interpretation. Reforming Islam complements the Almuslih website and will serve as a reference source to help the reader, Muslim and non-Muslim, understand the full intensity of the debate taking place within Islam.
Reforming Islam aims to establish and legitimise the discussion of Islamist political agitation and militant violence as manifestations of a religiously-defined problem with modernity. It seeks to allow bold and counter-intuitive opinion to be heard amid the gathering tide of anti-democratic and xenophobic currents that seek to devalue the commonality of human values. To do this it presents the viewpoint of Arab Muslim intellectuals who stand at the epicentre of the problem and who, with their cultural bi-lingualism, present the most nuanced and at the same time the most radical solutions.
Reforming Islam's launch coincided with the Progressive Arab Voices on Islamic Reform conference at the National Press Club, Washington D.C. on December 2, 2014. This was an all-day event, lunch will be served at the conference.528pp, hardback
ISBN: 978-0-9909709-0-3
Christmas in the Koran
Ibn Warraq
BUY NOW! In his newest book, author Ibn Warraq focuses on the pioneering work in Syriac and Arabic linguistics of Christoph Luxenberg, a native speaker of Arabic who lives in the West and writes under a pseudonym. This anthology of scholarly yet accessible studies of the Koran makes a convincing case that Islam's holy book borrowed heavily from Christian texts in Syriac and other Near Eastern sources. Ibn Warraq supplies English translations of key articles by Luxenberg that originally appeared in German and have never before been available to an English readership. This is followed by commentary by other scholars on Luxenberg's work. Also included are articles by earlier specialists who anticipated the later insights of Luxenberg, and more recent scholarship inspired by his methodology. Erudite but accessible, this groundbreaking collection is must reading for anyone with an interest in the origins of the Koran and the early history of Islam.
Fighting the Ideological War: Winning Strategies from Communism to Islam
Katharine Gorka and Patrick Sookdheo
BUY NOW! Islamism is a growing and powerful ideology that tolerates no dissent or rivalry. Yet in recent decades the United States has responded only to the violence that Islamism has generated, not to the beliefs and ideas that drive it. As a result of this failure, Islamist numbers and confidence have grown, and Islamist regimes have taken power in the Middle East and North Africa. So the United States is less safe than it was before 9/11, as is everyone else outside the Islamist fold. Until the United States understands and confronts Islamist ideology, it will not be able to slow the Islamist revolution and its destructive effects. This collection of essays proposes an effective strategy for countering and defeating the beliefs that motivate Islamists. It examines those beliefs in detail, considers their strengths and weaknesses, and draws on the lessons of past ideological conflicts. Thus it provides invaluable equipment for the war of ideas in which we must now engage.
Why the West is Best: A Muslim Apostate's Defense of Liberal Democracy
Ibn Warraq
BUY NOW!
We, in the West in general, and the United States in particular, have witnessed over the last twenty years a slow erosion of our civilizational self-confidence. Under the influence of intellectuals and academics in Western universities, intellectuals such as Gore Vidal, Susan Sontag, Edward Said, and Noam Chomsky, and destructive intellectual fashions such as post-modernism, moral relativism, and mulitculturalism, the West has lost all self-confidence in its own values, and seems incapable and unwilling to defend those values. By contrast, resurgent Islam, in all its forms, is supremely confident, and is able to exploit the West's moral weakness and cultural confusion to demand ever more concessions from her. The growing political and demographic power of Muslim communities in the West, aided and abetted by Western apologists of Islam, not to mention a compliant, pro-Islamic USAdministration, has resulted in an ever-increasing demand for the implementation of Islamic law-the Sharia- into the fabric of Western law, and Western constitutions. There is an urgent need to examine why the Sharia is totally incompatible with Human Rights and the US Constitution. This book , the first of its kind, proposes to examine the Sharia and its potential and actual threat to democratic principles. This book defines and defends Western values, strengths and freedoms often taken for granted. This book also tackles the taboo subjects of racism in Asian culture, Arab slavery, and Islamic Imperialism. It begins with a homage to New York City, as a metaphor for all we hold dear in Western culture- pluralism, individualism, freedom of expression and thought, the complete freedom to pursue life, liberty and happiness unhampered by totalitarian regimes, and theocratic doctrines.
Faith, Power and Territory: A Handbook of British Islam
Patrick Sookhdeo
BUY NOW! Islam is a religion that seeks to be a political and territorial power. This book has been written to provide an easy-to-use resource to understand Islam inBritaintoday, the way in which it is developing, its influence on the country and whether assimilation is possible. It asks penetrating questions about the way that Muslim communities in theUKcould develop in the future, and how British authorities and institutions appear to be yielding to a process of Islamisation.
Freedom to Believe
Patrick Sookhdeo
BUY NOW! "Islam is a one-way street. Non-Muslims can convert to Islam, but freedom to convert from Islam is denied to Muslims. All schools of Islamic Law specify the death penalty for an adult male Muslim who chooses to leave Islam. The law can also impose other penalties on apostates. Change is only possible if the apostasy law is repealed. This book focuses on:- the Muslim teaching on apostasy from Islamic sources
- the debate amongst Muslims about the apostasy law
- the treatment of converts from Islam
Global Jihad
Patrick Sookhdeo
BUY NOW! What is the driving force behind Islamic terrorism. Dr. P. Sookhdeo takes an in-depth look at the teachings of Islam past and present, drawing on a wide range of sources including many Muslim writers. He examines aspects of Islam which could motivate violence in its followers. This is an invaluable resource for decision-makers in politics, security, intelligence and the military but will also be of great interest to any reader who seeks to understand Islamic violence in the world today.
Islam in our Midst
Patrick Sookhdeo
BUY NOW! The challenge of Islam to America’s Christian identity and the stark differences between Muslim and Western worldviews are exposed in this penetrating study by Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, a renowned expert on Islam. By exposing the plans of certain Muslim groups to Islamize the United States, he invites you to consider how deep their influence runs in contemporary American society. As Muslims become increasingly assertive and Islamism grows, the call is for Christian and secular leaders to respond.
Tainted Legacy
Yusufu Turaki
BUY NOW! In recent years violent attacks by Muslims in Nigeria have left thousands of Christians dead. The origins of the current crisis are traced to the historical impact of Islam on Northern Nigeria. The author explores the significance of Islamic colonialism and slavery in West Africa and how their malign influence was entrenched by the British colonial administration. He explains how their history has bequeathed a tainted legacy of discrimination and cruelty to the Christians of Northern Nigeria.
Understanding Islamist Terrorism
Patrick Sookhdeo
BUY NOW! This work examines the well-defined classic interpretation of the Islamic doctrine of war which was followed in the early days of Islam and to which modern Islamist terrorism looks for its justification. It explains the ideology, logic and beliefs that drive individuals like Osama bin Laden, and examines the roots and nature of Islamic jihad. It demonstrates the consequences for the West if modern Islam returns to its chilling early doctrines.
Understanding Shari`a Finance
Patrick Sookhdeo
BUY NOW! This book explains how the last twenty years has witnessed the rise of a distinctively Islamic financial system which has developed into a major player on the world economic stage. Muslim scholars, clerics and financial organisations have generated a wide range of alternative economic products initially in the Muslim world and now more recently in the West. This is developing into an increasingly lucrative market. This book draws out the implications for global finance and politics.
Islamism and the Future of the Christians of the Middle East
Habib C. Malik
BUY NOW! Christianity may have “won the world,” in the sense of being the most widespread religion in history with the largest number of adherents, but it is steadily losing ground in and around its birthplace. Although Christians of the East are leaving their homelands in record numbers, the powers of the West have shown little interest in their fate. In this essay by the noted Lebanese scholar Habib Malik—himself a child of Christian Lebanon—Malik offers a sobering account of the ordeal of Christian Arabs of the Middle East in this era of Islamist radicalism. Malik explains why the number of native Christians in the Middle East—now between ten and twelve million—continues to dwindle, one of the most prominent reasons being the rise of Islamic extremism, or Islamism, in both its Sunni and its Shiite varieties. Despite weaving a bleak tapestry, he offers hopeful suggestions on how to achieve a healthy pluralism between Muslims and Christians in the region.
Mastermind: The Many Faces of the 9/11 Architect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
Richard Miniter
BUY NOW! The bestselling author of Shadow War and Losing Bin Laden exposes the sinister Al Qaeda mastermind behind 9/11. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks, has carried out many of the biggest terrorist plots of the past twenty years, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Millennium Plots, and the beheading of Daniel Pearl. As the world awaits his trial, bestselling author and investigative journalist Richard Miniter brings to life his shocking true story. Based on more than one hundred interviews with government officials, generals, diplomats and spies-from the United States, Europe, the Arab world, and Afghanistan-and on the ground reporting from Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Guantánamo Bay, Miniter reveals never-before-reported Al Qaeda plots and surprising new details about the 9/11 attacks. He also shows how Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was radicalized inAmericaand takes us inside terrorist safe houses, CIA war rooms, and the cages of Guantánamo Bay. While thoroughly reported and strongly sourced, this is a pounding narrative that reads like a thriller.
Virgins? What Virgins?: And Other Essays
Ibn Warraq
BUY NOW! In this wide-ranging collection of insightful, controversial, and often-witty essays, the renowned author of Why I Am Not a Muslim has created a representative selection of his best work on the Koran and various problems posed by the interaction of Islam with the West. The title of the collection comes from an article that originally appeared in the London Guardian on recent textual studies of the Koran. This research suggests that, contrary to a longstanding Muslim belief about the afterlife, a harem of beautiful virgins may not be waiting for the faithful male departed in heaven. For the many readers of his books who have wondered about his background, the author begins with a charming personal sketch about his upbringing in England and his unabashed Anglophilia. A section on Koranic criticism includes excerpts from two of his books, What the Koran Really Says and Which Koran? No stranger to controversy and polemics, the author devotes two sections to articles that consider the totalitarian nature of contemporary political Islam and explore the potential for an Islamic Reformation comparable to the Protestant Reformation in the West. The concluding section is composed of Ibn Warraq's journalism, including a critique of reputed Muslim reformer Tariq Ramadan, a defense of Western culture ("Why the West Is Best"), an article about the Danish cartoons that provoked widespread Muslim outrage, and even a commentary on heavy metal music in a Muslim setting. This thoughtful, engaging collection on diverse topics will interest both longtime readers of Ibn Warraq and those new to his work.