The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion (2006) is a controversial book by Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch.
In the book the author proposes to present an account of what Muhammad said and did from the writings of the early biographers of Muhammad such as Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi, Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari as well as the Qur'an and the hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim. In the examination of the early sources, Spencer gives his view on the events of Muhammad's life which are invoked by contemporary Islamic clerics, governments, advocates and Yusuf al-Qaradawi today as a standard for their behaviour.
The book aims to draw a connection between Muhammad's legacy and modern day practices like child marriages and divorce laws, punishments such as stoning for adultery and amputation for theft, execution for apostasy as well as the jihad and dhimmi doctrines adopted towards non-Muslims, as found in some parts of the Muslim world.
The book was on the New York Times Best Seller list for the week ending October 14, 2006.
Response
Karen Armstrong criticizes the book as follows:
Like any book written in hatred, his new work is a depressing read. Spencer makes no attempt to explain the historical, political, economic and spiritual circumstances of 7th-century Arabia, without which it is impossible to understand the complexities of Muhammad’s life. Consequently he makes basic and bad mistakes of fact. Even more damaging, he deliberately manipulates the evidence. When discussing Muhammad’s war with Mecca, Spencer never cites the Quran’s condemnation of all warfare as an â€awesome evilâ€, its prohibition of aggression or its insistence that only self-defence justifies armed conflict. He ignores the Koranic emphasis on the primacy of forgiveness and peaceful negotiation: the second the enemy asks for peace, Muslims must lay down their arms and accept any terms offered, however disadvantageous. There is no mention of Muhammad’s non-violent campaign that ended the conflict. 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 â€prove†to those Muslims who have been alienated by events in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq that the west is incurably hostile to their faith.
To this Spencer replied:
The government of Pakistan confiscated all copies of the book and banned it on 20 December 2006 citing "objectionable material" as the cause. Spencer responded that the book does not assert anything that is not readily verifiable in the sources he provides.
See also
- Criticism of Muhammad
References and notes
External links
- Preview this book in Google Books
Videos
- C-SPAN Video presentation at the Herigage foundation: Lecture on The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion
- Video: Robert Spencer talks Islam with Laura Ingraham on O’Reilly
Audio
- Robert Spencer discusses "The Truth about Muhammad" on Shire Network News (Part 1)
- Robert Spencer discusses "The Truth about Muhammad" on Shire Network News (Part 2)
