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82 of 94 people found the following review helpful:
Read this book calmly, without prejudice, 25 Jul 2006
I must confess to being shocked by what I read about the Prophet Mohammed in this book. In my naive innocence, I had imagined that he was rather a Christ-like figure and that Allah was similar to the God of the Christians and Jews. If this book is true, that is not the case. I'm sure apologists would seek to explain away the distasteful aspects (murder, rape, child brides) but I must confess I cannot see how.
This book is not without its own prejudice - it makes frequent reference to Christian culture and figures as a kind of yard-stick (describing Mohammed as "not a prophet in his own city", an unacknowledged reference to the similar statement about Jesus in the New Testament), which is a flaw. Nonetheless, although I read this book with an open-minded liberal-leaning mind set, I could not afterwards get rid of the unpleasant taste in my mouth left by what I learned about this fast-growing religion.
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92 of 106 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Study. Tells It Like It Really Is, 28 Feb 2006
This excellent book pulls no punches in showing that Islam is not just a religion but an entire way of life whose fundamental basis is allegedly far from peaceful and where breaches of Islamic/Sharia law are subject to severe punishment.Some readers may find this study to be contentious but the contents need to be read. The book cites how many politicans & religious leaders purportedly admonish everyone not to condemn Islam due to the actions and attitudes of a supposed few who allegedly belong to a tiny fanatical majority. While the book concurs that this approach should not be taken towards every Moslem, it also contends that to believe such about Islam itself is erroneous. The book investigates what allegedly causes Moslems to exhort martyrdom in order to annihilate the Jews and the West. Through a studied, sobering and well written approach, devoid of animousity, the writer shows that in fact the proponents of such are purportedly in fact following the precise instructions of Islam and are not the exceptions to the rule that many would describe them to be. The writer addresses a plethora of such issues including for example, "why, with their immense oil related wealth, not a single Moslem nation is included amongst the top 30 of the World's richest nations". Also "why in the last 20 years, have over two million people been killed in conflicts involving Moslem communities". The history of Islam is examined and is allegedly found to have been largely a 'religion of war', bent on Worldwide domination. Having been provided with the context surrounding these assertions the reader is left to draw his/her own opinions as to the veracity of such statements. An issue of immediate concern is also addressed. That being "how our own freedom of speech and tolerant regimes are being purportedly exploited to further modern day Islamic expansionism and terrorism". This is an excellent book which desperately needs to be read.
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91 of 106 people found the following review helpful:
Great intoduction to Islam, 7 Jul 2006
I do not particularly like any religion, but in today's world you have to "tolerate" religions - but, considering the intolerant nature of most religions, why should you tolerate intolerance? The result has been a misrepresentation of religions, whereby they are portrayed as peaceful, tolerant and humane. The only religion widely criticised is Christianity. With regards to Islam the only criticisms allowed are of extremists who, we are told, are not true to the faith and of Islam's mistreatment of women.
But, are terrorists abusing Islam? Ask your self, honestly, how much you know about Islam - do you know enough to condemn the misuse of Islam by terrorists? Additionally, compare your knowledge of Mohammed to Jesus - you probably know a lot more about Jesus' life than Mohammed's. This is absurd considering Mohammed's historical import and the fact that Islam is constantly in the news - you owe it to yourself to learn more about Islam, and this book is a good place to start.
It details Mohammed's life, and puts it in context, showing how he was a retrograde for the 7th century. Mohammed was a barbaric man, who created a barbaric religion in his image. Mohammed made-up revelations for political expediency, mistreated women, sexually mistreated children (a practice permissible in Islam) and advocated war and slaughter of non-believers. It details the tenants of the Islamic faith, backed up with quotes from the Koran. It covers complexities such as contradictions in the Koran (Muslims will tell you that the Koran contains no contradictions but this is plainly not true - Muslims are forbidden to question the Koran) and philosophical problems with Islam. It covers Islamic history and uses this to explain the present - Islam is a religion of war which has to be at war against non-Muslim peoples: today's terrorists have an accurate interpretation of a barbaric religion.
The book is quite pessimistic, even fatalistic, for what can be done to fight Islam? However, Trifkovic offers suggestions for western foreign policy and there is no need to be fatalistic. And at least Trifkovic is willing to tell the truth, I would rather know the truth about Islam than be blissfully ignorant of its threat to western society and values. Moreover, its true threat can only be countered if we know what the true threat is, which requires knowing the truth about Islam.
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75 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
Telling it is as it is., 27 Nov 2005
Many Islamist apologists continue to beguile western liberals with such sentiments as:- "Islam is a religion of peace." This author unveils incongruity of this statement from both an historical and textual perspective. This timely book allows western reader an unedited, uncensored look into Islam .. many of us will say whilst it is still possible to say and write such things. A must read!
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Objective and worth reading!, 17 Mar 2008
Serge Trifkovic a journalist contends Islam is not "a religion of peace" but one of "violence and cruelty." He analyzes Islamic theology and practice set forth by teachings of the prophet Muhammad and the Koran to demonstrate the historical roots of jihad and Islamic militancy.
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24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
The Truth, 16 Jan 2007
Great book about the origins of Islam and what it is really all about. At this critical hour we need to this truth about the enemy that we are all facing. Islam needs to be shown for what it is and this book has done a great job.
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122 of 153 people found the following review helpful:
a voice of reason from the subjugated Balkans, 11 Aug 2004
"Sword of the Prophet" is an important book. Trifkovic brings a vast breadth of knowledge to his task of assessing the impact of Islam on the world.His voice is an important one. A Serbian scholar, Trifkovic speaks for a collective national experience in which millions of his people were submerged in the Balkans under the centuries long invasions of the Ottoman Turks. Not only the Serbs, but the Greeks, the Albanians, the Bulgarians, and the Croatians suffered under the penetration of Islam into the southeast of Europe. Too often we overlook the voices of the peoples of the Balkans, but they have a long historical experience of encountering Islam. He also brings forth a good survey of the devastating impact that Islam had on India. Trifkovic is not only very successful at bringing forth history, but he also is good at confronting the theology of Islam. He shows that some of Mohammed's teachings were based on flawed translations of Jewish and Christian scriptures. Trifkovic also clarifies that there is a fundamental difference between Mohammed's influence in the beginning in Mecca, in which he found himself in the role of a prophet against an established order, and his later influence in Medina, in which he seized and abused power. Most of the problems that the world has undergone in its encounter with Islam are the results of the bad fruit of Mohammed's later role as warlord in Medina. There are some flaws in the book. Trifkovic dismisses the terrible atrocities that the Serbs inflicted in the 1990's against Bosnians (and Croatians) in one sentence. This is grossly unfair. Also, he does not give enough credit to the positive attributes of Islamic culture, especially the influence of the Sufis over many centuries. But I think his overall assessment is for the most part valid. The Sufis have had to act often through the form of secret societies precisely because they have had to fear the mob, or the rulers, if they became too brazen in their efforts to create a more humane face to Islam. As for my personal opinion about the battle of the three great monotheistic faiths, I can't understand how the revelations and teachings of one man can eclipse the combined body of dozens, if not hundreds of writers who were vehicles of God's revelations in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Bible has numerous authors. The fact that Mohammed is the intense and narrow focus of the Muslim's quest for God smacks of making One Man equal to God - - the worse of sins in Islam. Even Jesus was careful to thoroughly quote his predecessors, verse and line, to support his authority. There is no such thing in the Quran.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
trifkovic is a truth teller and his book an eye opener, 1 Jan 2008
It's a shame that those who criticize Srdja Trifkovic and The Sword of the Prophet are not able to refute Trifkovic's work itself. As a matter of fact, many of the reviewers who reviewed this book negatively state that Trifkovic is an Islam hater and, because he isn't Muslim or because he's not an admirer of the Arab culture and Islamic religion, his opinion should be disregarded. Nothing could be further from the truth. Who would you want to get valid information from? Someone who studied and formed a valid opinion based on fact and history? Or, someone born into Islam-- a religion that, according to the Koran, it is blasphemous to critique and question? It's not that Trifkovic disliked Islam and then decided to condemn it, it's that he learned about it, studied it, and drew these conclusions based on what he learned. And, he learned it from history, from Islamic scholars and from the Koran.
Trifkovic's book is one of the best on the subject. He sources all of his material abundantly. He is concise. He states opposing viewpoints and common beliefs and refutes them irrefutably. He cites the Koran and sources the place. This isn't opinion Trifkovic shares. These are facts that he enlightens his readers with. There really isn't too much room for debate, because he is only citing facts that have happened in history and the Koran itself. And, as you can guess, he's not an apologist by any means.
The common belief that Islam is a "religion of peace" is false. According to Islam, we are always in the "house of war", but strive to be in the "house of peace". What's the house of peace, you ask? Well, according to Islam, we will be in the "house of peace" when the whole world is Muslim. And, the whole world will be Muslim by committing Jihad. These are the facts of Islam. Like it or not. What is going on in Sudan? What was the Beslan school massacre about? The Southern Philippines and elsewhere? Believe it or bury your head in the sand like so many others do today.
I would also recommend Steven Emerson's American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us and David Pryce-Jones' Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs.
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174 of 234 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Study. Tells It Like It Really Is., 15 April 2003
This excellent book reveals Islam for what it really is. The writer pulls no punches in showing that Islam is not just a religion but an entire way of life whose fundamental basis is far from peaceful and where breaches of Islamic/Sharia law are subject to severe punishment.Many politicans & religious leaders admonish everyone not to condemn Islam due to the actions and attitudes of a supposed few who allegedly belong to a tiny fanatical majority. Whilst this approach should not be taken towards every Moslem, this book shows that to believe such about Islam itself is erroneous. The book investigates what causes Moslems to exhort martyrdom in order to annihilate the Jews and the West. Through a studied, sobering and well written approach, devoid of animousity, the writer shows that in fact the proponents of such are in fact following the precise instructions of Islam and are not the exceptions to the rule that many would describe them to be. The writer addresses a plethora of such issues including for example, "why, with their immense oil related wealth, not a single Moslem nation is included amongst the top 30 of the World's richest nations". Also "why in the last 20 years, have over two million people been killed in conflicts involving Moslem communities". The history of Islam is examined and is found to have been largely a 'religion of war', bent on Worldwide domination. An issue of immediate concern is also addressed. That being "how our own freedom of speech and tolerant regimes are being exploited to further modern day Islamic expansionism and terrorism". This is an excellent book which needs to be read.
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16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
A must read !, 14 Mar 2007
This book is a real eye opener. I don't think that I can add much more to previous reviewers, they are all accurate and worthwhile reviews.
A riveting and scary read. I recommend this book. Wholeheartedly.
P.S I am an athiest. Thank god.
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