Exposing the Real Islam

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)

Indonesia: Islam Film by Dutch MP 'Mistaken Interpretation' Says Expert
ADN KRONOS INTERNATIONAL: Jakarta - An Indonesian expert on the Koran has released a book attacking Fitna, the controversial film by Dutch MP Geert Wilders that challenges Islamic teaching.

Quraish Shibab released the book entitled "The verses of Fitna, a small part of Islamic culture in the middle of prejudice" on Sunday.

He said the Dutch film was based on a number of errors and a misinterpretation of Islamic teaching.

"The film of Geert Wilders, Fitna, is a collection of mistaken koranic interpretations."

In 90 pages, Quraish Shibab claims that Wilders has used quotes out of context to give weight to the film's argument that equates Islam and terrorism.

The book, distributed free of charge in several mosques in the capital and available on the Internet, adopts a calm tone and calls on Muslims "to respond to Fitna in a decisive way but avoiding any behaviour that is harmful to Islam or Muslims".

Indonesia, the country with the largest number of Muslims in the world, has recorded the greatest interest in the film Fitna, according to Google Trends, an online tool which monitors Internet traffic.

Fitna has received a moderate response in Indonesia where almost 90 percent of the country's 240 million people is Muslim.

There have been several protests in front of the Dutch embassy in Jakarta, and in one violent reaction to the film students damaged the Dutch consulate in Medan. [Source: Indonesia: Islam Film by Dutch MP 'Mistaken Interpretation' Says Expert] | May 5, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Putting a Positive Spin on Islam
REUTERS: BEIRUT, May 1 (Reuters Life!) - Islamic dogma is narrowing the space for debate in the Arab world, argues an Egyptian professor whose own life was overturned by persecution for free thinking.

Thirteen years after an Egyptian sharia court declared him an apostate from Islam, annulled his marriage and effectively forced him into exile, Nasr Abu Zayd looks back without rancour.

"I define myself as an ordinary Muslim who is able to think," he told Reuters during a recent visit to Beirut.

"Now when some people say 'you are an apostate' or something, I really laugh rather than try to defend myself."

Abu Zayd, a short, portly man whose eyes often gleam with humour beneath bushy eyebrows, said in early Islamic tradition different modes of thinking about the divine were acceptable.

Today, constant claims to a monopoly of Islamic truth by Arab rulers and opposition groups scrabbling for legitimacy have stifled discussion, in contrast to debate flourishing elsewhere in the Muslim world, notably in Iran and Turkey, he added.

"Religion has been used, politicised, not only by groups but also the official institutions in every Arab country," the 64-year-old professor of humanism and Islam at the University for Humanistics in Utrecht, The Netherlands, asserted.

"Nearly everything is theologised -- every issue society faces has to be solved by asking if Islam allows it. There is no distinction between the domain of religion and secular space."

He said ulema (Muslim scholars) were all too keen to deliver rulings on economic, social or even medical issues like organ transplants: "You'll hardly find any scholar who says, 'I'm very sorry, but this is not my business, go consult a doctor'." Dogma Cloys Debate in Arab World [Says] Islamic Scholar >>> By Alistair Lyon

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Fitna Still Causing Outrage in Pakistan
AFP: KARACHI — Thousands of Pakistani women rallied here Saturday to protest against Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed and a Dutch film said to insult Islam, witnesses said.

The women shouted "death to Denmark and death to Netherlands," as they marched about a kilometre (less than a mile) on a busy street.

Police said up to 4,000 women, mostly from an Islamic party, took part in the noisy demonstration, venting anger against the Internet release of a 15-minute film last month by far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders and publication of the Prophet caricatures.

In a resolution the rally urged the government to cease diplomatic ties with Denmark and the Netherlands and expel their envoys.

"We will defend the honour of our prophet and our religion at the cost of our lives," the fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami party said.

The Pakistan foreign ministry last month summoned the Dutch ambassador and lodged a "strong protest" over Wilders's film, which it said "deeply offended the sentiments of Muslims all over the world."

The cartoons originally appeared in a Danish newspaper in September 2005, sparking anger and protests across the Muslim world. Five people died in Pakistan in February 2006 during violent protests against the drawings.

At least 17 Danish dailies reprinted one of the cartoons in February, vowing to defend freedom of expression a day after police in Denmark foiled a plot to murder the cartoonist. [Source: Pakistani Islamic Women Protest 'Anti-Islam' Film, Cartoons]

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)