The Myth of Islamic Tolerance

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The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims is a controversial collection of 63 essays, including 17 by Bat Ye'or, edited by writer Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch, and other Middle Eastern scholars and experts on Islam, including Ibn Warraq, Walid Phares, David Littman, Patrick Sookhdeo, and Mark Durie. "

• Robert Spencer argues that advocates of Islam have promulgated a myth of Islamic tolerance that can be dispelled by examining the persecution of the Zoroastrians in Iran; the Armenians in Turkey; the Buddhists and Hindus in India; and the Jews in Morocco, Cordoba, Granada, Marrakesh and Baghdad.
• Ibn Warraq discusses the difficulties encountered when attempting to have an honest examination of this topic.
• Bat Ye'or discusses Dhimmitude historically and in modern contexts.
• Middle Eastern scholars Walid Phares and Bat Ye'or discuss life under Islamic rule and the toll it has taken on Middle Eastern Christians such as the Lebanese Maronites, the Egyptian Copts; the Melkites; the Anglican, Protestant and Catholic southern Sudanese Africans; Christian Syrians; Iraqi Assyrians, and Jacobites; Iranian Persians, Armenian and Palestinian Christians.
• David Littman chronicles the advancement of Islamic intolerance at the United Nations.
• Patrick Sookhdeo and Mark Durie treat the rise of anti-Christian persecutions in Nigeria, Sudan, Pakistan and Indonesia in the 21st century.

The book has received mixed reviews.

[edit] Contents

The essays are grouped by the following topics.

• Foreword : The genesis of a myth
• Part 1 Islamic tolerance: myth and reality
• Part 2 Islamic law regarding non-Muslims
• Part 3 Islamic practice regarding non-Muslims
• Part 4 The myth and contemporary geopolitics
• Part 5 Human rights and human wrongs at the United Nations
• Part 6 The myth in contemporary academic and public discourse

[edit] Reviews

• Midwest Book Review said: "Original articles, primary source documents, and in-depth study contribute to The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims, a hard-hitting, critical assessment of Islamic teachings and practices regarding non-Muslim minorities, exploring a human rights issue which rarely receives in-depth press. The world's leading authorities on the issue of Islamic religion and social history appear under one cover, exposing the legal superstructure which has treated non-Muslims in Muslim societies as oppressed peoples, and showing how the effects of discriminatory attitudes continue to affect Muslim societies today. Expertly compiled and deftly edited by Robert Spencer, The Myth Of Islamic Tolerance is a powerful, hard-hitting probe."^{[citation needed]}

• Paul L. Williams praised the book: "A necessary corrective to the prevailing opinion fostered among academics by Karen Armstrong, Abou El Fadl, et al. that Islam is a religion of peace, justice, and tolerance. The work brings to light the total suppression of human rights in Islamic society, the true meaning of jihad (armed conflict against all nonbelievers), and the horrors of dhimmitude (life for Christians and Jews under Islamic law). It should be required reading for all those who seek a true understanding of the socioreligious basis for the rise of Osama bin Laden and his network of international Islamic terror."^{[citation needed]}

• Jeffrey Rubin in the Conservative Book Club writes that "anyone concerned about the dangers of politically motivated distortions of Islamic theology and history should not miss this explosive and enlightening volume," while Publishers Weekly criticizes the authors for repetition, failure to define their terms, and quoting the Qur'an out of context: "The resulting repetition and monotone provide little insight and a disconnected feel. This book would have been more persuasive and less alarmist if it had excluded half the essays." ISBN 1-59102-249-5 "

[edit] See also

• Islam and Judaism
• Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain