This month we’re going to focus upon books on Islam.  The first thing to do in this regard, however, is to go into the To The Point  Archives and read the Myth of Mecca article.  It explains how the religion of Islam was invented as a religious rationale to justify Arab imperialism.  At the end of that article, you’ll see a list of sources, all of which I strongly recommend as works of serious professional scholarship:

 • Al-Rawandi, I.M. Origins of Islam:  A Critical Look at the Sources.  Prometheus, 2000
 • Crone, P.M.  Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam.  Oxford, 1987.**
 • Newby, G.D. The Making of the Last Prophet:  A Reconstruction of the Earliest Biography of Mohammed.  Columbia, 1989.
 • Wansbrough, J. Quranic Studies:  Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation.  Oxford, 1977.**
 • Warraq, I. M. The Quest for the Historical Muhammad.  Prometheus, 2000.*

[A * denotes that it is currently available at Amazon — www.amazon.com — while ** means Amazon lists it as out of print but possibly available used.  All of the books below are in stock at Amazon.]

There are a number of “popular” books (written for the “intelligent layman” rather than the academic scholar) on Islam currently out now.  Here are three I can personally recommend to you:

 • What Went Wrong? by Bernard Lewis.  Oxford, 2002.  Lewis teaches at Princeton and is the premier historian of the Middle East.  There is nobody better in explaining the historical path of Islam from medieval triumph to contemporary failure.

 • Islam Unveiled by Robert Spencer.  Encounter, 2002.  A very readable critical analysis of basic Islamic tenets.  Highly useful are the repeated parallels between Islamic and Soviet ideology.

 • The Sword of the Prophet by Serge Trifkovic.  Regina Orthodox, 2002.  This is another critical analysis of Islamic history and morals, coupled with a discussion of Western appeasement of Islam.  One weakness is the author’s unrelieved vitriol towards the Turks.

Talking about vitriol, nothing can match Oriana Fallaci’s The Rage and the Pride (Rizzoli, 2002).  There is nothing calm and dispassionate here.  It is a total cri du coeur, cry of the heart., and it needs to be read by every member of Western Civilization.

Lastly, I’d like to suggest a work of world class scholarship, Islam and Dhimmitude by Bat Ye’or (Farleigh Dickinson, 2002).  Ye’or is the foremost expert on “dhimmitude,” second-class citizenship of Jews and Christians subjected to Islamic rule over the last 1400 years.  She uses her prodigious historical erudition to focus upon Western Europe’s acceptance of dhimmitude today in its relationship with Islam.  This is a work of major importance.