Islam: A Primer

by John Sabini

An introduction to Islam, including its basic beliefs and laws, origins and spread, varieties, and relationship to Judaism and Christianity.

Genres: Religion

130 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Luke Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy read, and pretty well-done as an introduction. My main objection is that it is imbalanced - he wants to present Islam only as honorable. His liberal bias makes it impossible for him to deal honestly with the darker parts of Islam. Even to the point of minimizing the horrors of their chattel-slavery system and their views on women. And as a Christian it's very easy to notice his, often counterfactual, bias against European Christianity and its fruits.

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm about halfway through this book (have loaned it to someone else right now), and WOW - just goes to show that a lot of aspects of Islam are just as crazy and detrimental to humanity as Christianity and Judaism!

Sure, just like in Christianity and Judaism, according to this book, there's a lot of great and beneficial notions in Islam (but for the most part, the world would be better off without them all.)

AND, I love, how just like Christianity & Judaism, Islam comes from a guy saying something to this effect, "Uh, yeah - God talks to me and says these are the rules. Believe me!"

THEN, more guys say that first guy is telling the truth (like they'd know), and then others believe and start repeating it, then suddenly LOTS of people start believing this stuff for no logical reason. FUNNY PEOPLE ;-)

Yeah, this book seems to be a nice "Cliffs Notes" on Islam, or maybe like an "Islam for Dummies" might be.

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

short and concise but many concepts not covered by others