Sunday, April 29, 2007

Balancing the Prophet


Conservative British art and religion expert Karen Armstrong reviews recent books on Mohammed and heaps particular scorn on Robert Spencer's polemic against Islam. He gets mad. He has the typical Islamophobic supporters - Men with small green balls and someone jealous of the small ballers.
People would be offended by an account of Judaism that dwelled exclusively on Joshua’s massacres and never mentioned Rabbi Hillel’s Golden Rule, or a description of Christianity based on the bellicose Book of Revelation that failed to cite the Sermon on the Mount. But the widespread ignorance about Islam in the west makes many vulnerable to Spencer’s polemic; he is telling them what they are predisposed to hear. His book is a gift to extremists who can use it to ”prove” to those Muslims who have been alienated by events in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq that the west is incurably hostile to their faith.

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