Review of 'Quest' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I really enjoyed this book and was following well until I got to the chapter on Isalm. The author attempts to justify, over and over and over again, the violence of Mohammad and early Muslims in their political conquests. He uses statements such as "since his message wasn't well received, or because the culture believed in polytheism which could be dangerous for them, the prophet had no choice but to resort to violence." Every single conquest or act of violence is indicated to be caused by an innocent Mohammad and those darn Jews or Pagans who just refused to convert for him! He claims that, since politics is considered Sacred and inseparable from the faith to its followers, they must resort to political force and theocracy to practice their faith. It's quite disturbing. I understand that the author probably wants to counteract some of the opinions which exist about Muslims …
I really enjoyed this book and was following well until I got to the chapter on Isalm. The author attempts to justify, over and over and over again, the violence of Mohammad and early Muslims in their political conquests. He uses statements such as "since his message wasn't well received, or because the culture believed in polytheism which could be dangerous for them, the prophet had no choice but to resort to violence." Every single conquest or act of violence is indicated to be caused by an innocent Mohammad and those darn Jews or Pagans who just refused to convert for him! He claims that, since politics is considered Sacred and inseparable from the faith to its followers, they must resort to political force and theocracy to practice their faith. It's quite disturbing. I understand that the author probably wants to counteract some of the opinions which exist about Muslims and a connection between their faith and terrorism, but he goes WAY too far in the other direction.
The only other criticism I have (aside from a lot of repetitive statements), is that the author seems reluctant to distinguish Christianity from the other faith's much (namely Sikhism and Islam), even in really important/apparent areas.
With all of that, I will say I think the first several chapters are worth reading. I learned a lot about those faiths that I hadn't known before, and makes some truly insightful connections between Christ and these other religions. If the book ended halfway through I'd definitely have given it four stars.