No, Buying 'The Koran for Dummies' Doesn't Mean You'll Get Islam Right

PRI ^ | August 27, 2014

[nickcarraway]

You might think that militant Islamists would have a firm grip on at least one thing: Islam. Think again.

(This story is based on a radio interview. Listen to the full interview.)

In 2013, 22-year-old Britons Yusuf Sarwar and Mohammed Ahmed were preparing to leave the UK and join extremist groups in Syria. But first, they bought some reading material from Amazon. One of those books was "The Koran for Dummies."

“Even though they may have ordered it, I don't think they read it,” says Sohaib Nazeer Sultan, who's the author of the book and Princeton University's first campus imam. “My book makes very clear that jihad that the Koran talks about would never allow for the brutality and the type of violent extremism that we find ISIS and other violent groups partaking in."

Sarwar and Ahmed did make it to Syria, but they were arrested in London after they returned in January. Now the pair are facing terrorism charges, to which they pled guilty last month.

Sohaib Nazeer Sultan, the author "The Koran for Dummies." Credit: Courtest of Sohaib Nazeer Sultan Sohaib Nazeer Sultan, the author "The Koran for Dummies."

As for the book, the idea for “The Koran for Dummies” came about in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Sultan had just graduated from college and was working as a reporter in Chicago on the religion beat.

“It was post-9/11 and there were a lot of articles and a lot pieces out there about Islam,” Sultan says. Wiley, the publisher of the Dummies series, approached Sultan to write a book that would help explain and contextualize Islam’s holy text.

“It was intended as an introductory book, mostly for non-Muslims," Sultan says, "but what I found very interesting is that a lot of Muslims, both young and old, found the book to be beneficial and still to this day write to me asking questions and engaging with it."

In the post-9/11 climate, one topic that Sultan felt duty-bound to address was extremism. It’s a topic he still regularly writes about. In a recent article for TIME, Sultan wrote that the Koran "warns its readers to not be swayed by charismatic figures who, in reality, only spread evil in the world."

Still, young people like Yusuf Sarwar and Mohammed Ahmed who ordered Sultan’s book are still heading to fight with extremists. What accounts for this disconnect?

“If you study how people are attracted to cults, you’ll find a lot of benefit in understanding how people are also attracted to violent extremism,” Sultan says.

It begins with vulnerable people, especially young people who are frustrated and disenchanted with the world they live in. Then, Sultan says, they're introduced to a charismatic figure who promises to enlist them in a cause greater than themselves.

“If we study why people join gangs or why people join cults, you know we’ll find a lot of similar reasons,” he explains.

Sultan is currently Princeton’s campus imam, but he has worked with young people at different universities for more than a decade. From his perspective, the way to prevent young people from glomming on to extremist ideology is to give them other opportunities to channel their idealism.

Koran_bookcover Credit: Courtesy of Wiley Publishing The Koran for Dummies.

“Young people have this incredible zeal for doing something really positive and powerful in the world,” Sultan says. “If we don’t give young people, wherever they exist, a positive and a healthy and a productive way of engaging with this zeal that they have, then are going to find really unhealthy and sometimes violent and extremist ways to do that.”

If Sultan could’ve recommended a chapter of his book for those two young men to read, he says it would be the first chapter, which sets up what the Koran is built upon.

“It was to teach people about who God is, and it was meant to give people right guidance in life,” Sultan says, “All of these extremist interpretations will be overcome if people understand the correct premise of the Koran, which was really to bring benefit to humanity.”

[ApplegateRanch]

“It was intended as an introductory book, mostly for non-Muslims,” Sultan says, “but what I found very interesting is that a lot of Muslims, both young and old, found the book to be beneficial and still to this day write to me asking questions and engaging with it.”

---

Yes, the book IS useful to Muslims, to help them keep the lies and deceptions straight, to effectively fool Koranically illiterate infidels into believing that the ROP is peaceful, and “extremists” are an aberration.

[CitizenUSA]

So... Jihad means the peaceful, non-violent conversion of unbelievers. It’s not about convert, pay Jizya (nonbeliever tax), or die. There are so called Christians who claim homosexual acts aren’t sinful, too. We call them heretics.

[CitizenUSA]

I completely agree. ISIS is a fundamentalist Islamic organization. Muslims who don’t follow the Koran are like Christians who don’t believe in Christ.

I have no doubt there are many Muslim heretics in the world. They may say they’re Muslim because they were raised that way, but if one were to question them on which Islamic tenets they follow, one would find they’re basically unbelievers. They are similar to Christians who believe Christianity evolves with the times and no longer believe fornication, divorce, or homosexuality are sinful.

[verga]

Two books by that title, one by Robert Spencer the other by Abdel Speaker. Which do you recommend?

[onedoug]

“My book makes very clear that jihad that the Koran talks about would never allow for the brutality and the type of violent extremism that we find ISIS and other violent groups partaking in."

Another taqiyya based islamist liar.

[jsanders2001]

> “My book makes very clear that jihad that the Koran talks about would never allow for the brutality and the type of violent extremism that we find ISIS and other violent groups partaking in.”

Another taqiyya based islamist liar.

Exactly.

[DJ Taylor]

THE COMPLETE INFIDEL’S GUIDE TO THE KORAN By Robert Spencer

An audio download of this book can be found at Tantor Audio
http://www.tantor.com/BookDetail.asp?Product=1505_InfidelsKoran

[Patton@Bastogne]

.


2014-08-31

2014 Christmas Gift List Suggestions for Your Family, Children and Friends ...

===================================================== Churchill -- The River War (Amazon link)
====================================================


The Arab Mind (Amazon link)
====================================================


Sharia Law for Non-Muslims (A Taste of Islam) (Amazon link)
====================================================


The Hadith -- The Sunna of Mohmammed (Amazon link)
====================================================


The Life of Mohammed (A Taste of Islam) (Amazon link)
====================================================


Factual Persuasion of Islamics (Amazon link)
====================================================


A Simple Koran: Readable and Understandable (Amazon link)
====================================================


The Political Traditions of Mohammed: The Hadith for the Unbelievers (Amazon link)
====================================================


Mohammed And the Unbelievers : A Political Life (Amazon link)
====================================================


The Islamic Doctrine of Women (A Taste of Islam) (Amazon link)
====================================================


The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) (Amazon link)
====================================================


The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran (Amazon link)
====================================================


The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion (Amazon link)
====================================================


Raising a Jihadi Generation: Understanding the Muslim Brotherhood Movement in America (Amazon link)
====================================================


They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It (Amazon link)
====================================================


Islam And Terrorism: What the Quran really teaches about Christianity, violence and the goals of the Islamic jihad (Amazon link)
====================================================


Christian Women Imprisioned in Iran
====================================================




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[353FMG]

>I have no doubt there are many Muslim heretics in the world.<

.
That is where your assumption could cause you your life.

A muzzie who ‘finds religion’ must go on a killing spree as per the Koran, a Christian who gives up on his religion just becomes a lax Christian but does not become a danger to his environment.

[ExCTCitizen]

The Koran is a book for Dummies...and terrorists...

[a fool in paradise]

In a recent article for TIME, Sultan wrote that the Koran "warns its readers to not be swayed by charismatic figures who, in reality, only spread evil in the world."

>> Too ironic a statement, for any sort of reply.