Introduction to "Understanding Islam"

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Understanding ISLAM and the Muslim Mind
By ALI SINA

Understanding Islam is the title of my upcoming book, for which my agent is still looking for a publisher.

I must admit that I am quite surprised that despite so much interest in this site there has been so little interest in my book. I thought I would collect 5000 emails of people willing to buy the book in one or two days. It is now over two months and only one third of that number has signed up. I am baffled how to interpret this. If I am such a bad writer, why there is so much interest in this site and if the message of this site is so important that has attracted millions of visitors why there are so few signups?

A couple of friends suggested I should publish a few pages of the book as "teaser". So here I am publishing the Introduction and the Synopsis of the book. I hope this will generate more interest.

You can sign up for my book registry here. You will receive an email notice when the book is released.

Introduction

When the US invaded Afghanistan and subsequently Iraq , we were told that the problem with these countries is lack of democracy. That is why these states are rogue countries, harbour terrorism and threaten the peace of the world. The solution, therefore, seemed to be obvious. Remove the dictators, establish democracy, and the problem will go away.

In fact this was the idea forwarded by Natan Sharansky, a Soviet dissident turned Israeli cabinet minister. In his book The Case for Democracy, Sharansky made a distinction between “fear” and “free” societies and criticized those who argue that democracy is culturally contingent and therefore unsuited for Muslim societies. He wrote; the democracy that hates you is a better friend than the tyrant that loves you.

The American administration after 9/11 seems to have taken Sharansky’s advice to heart. The Taliban in Afghanistan were removed and Saddam Husseins’ tyranny in Iraq was toppled. In both these countries free elections were called. Also in Palestine there was a free election.

Yet there is no democracy in any one of these countries. In Afghanistan , girls can’t go to school and their teachers face death threats. Freedom of belief is inexistent and if someone leaves Islam, he could lose his life. Iraq is in a virtual state of civil war and in Palestine , a terrorist organization won the elections in a landslide. In none of these countries we have real democracy.

Was Sharansky wrong? Not really! There is nothing wrong in the concept of democracy. Democracy is better than dictatorship. No two democracies have ever gone to war against each other. It seems that for war to happen, at least one side must be dictatorial.

So, why democracy in these countries has not worked? The answer is one word: ISLAM.

Islam is the reason no true and long lasting democracy can be established in any Islamic country and it is also the reason why these countries are generally poor, underdeveloped and backward.

The truth is that democracy cannot be imposed from above. To build democracy, you need a foundation. The foundation of democracy is freedom. Freedom comes first.

In Islamic countries, people don’t have an understanding of freedom. They confuse freedom with anarchy. They are actually afraid of it. Freedom means freedom of thought, freedom of expression and freedom of action, as long as your freedom does not limit the freedom of others. But this freedom is frightening to Muslims.

It’s not their own freedom that is frightening to them. Muslims take full advantage of their freedom in the democratic countries, to promote their faith. In fact they want more and demand freedoms that are not available to others. What is frightening to them is the fact that in democracies their opponents will also be free. To Muslims this is a frightening scenario. This would allow the critics of Islam to express their disagreement with their religion freely and promote their own thesis that may be more attractive. This is intolerable to Muslim sensitivity.

Muslims can’t tolerate views opposing to theirs. This became clear in the case of the cartoon row. Millions of Muslims rioted, both in Islamic and Western countries, burned embassies, desecrated and destroyed churches and killed innocent people, because of a Danish newspaper had published a few cartoons depicting Muhammad, their prophet.

Before trying to bring democracy to Islamic countries, we must build its foundation. It means these societies should first become tolerant, respect human rights and ensure that all freedoms are safeguarded. Democracy is a mighty edifice. It can’t be built on moving sand. You need the foundation first. Democracy does not mean dictatorship of the majority. On the contrary, democracy is mainly for the protection of the rights of the minority. This concept is alien to Islam that treats the minority as second class citizen, forcing them to pay a penalty tax and be subdued to the Muslim majority.

What it takes to build this foundation? How can we make Muslims tolerate views contrary to theirs, respect the rights of people to dissent, to believe in other faiths or not to believe at all, including the right to leave Islam?

This is where the problem lies. The problem is that such thing can’t happen in Islamic countries because Islam does not allow it.

Islam does not allow Muslims to leave Islam. It does not allow people of other faiths to exercise their religions freely, let alone preach them freely. Islam does not recognize equal human rights for those who are not Muslims nor does it recognize equality for women. Islam does not allow freedom of thought let alone freedom of speech. That is why democracies in Islamic countries don’t work. As long as these countries remain Islamic, there simply can’t be any democracy. As long as they remain undemocratic, they will be a danger to themselves and to the world.

However, Muslims are in the West and their number is increasing, not just because they keep coming but also because they breed fast – nearly three times faster than the Westerners. While an Italian woman, on average gives birth to 1.2 children, a Muslim woman has four or five children. The same disparity exists in all European counties. You need 2.1 children per woman just to maintain the same level of the population. At this rate, in just a matter of few decades, Muslims will become a major force and even the majority in many European countries.

The problem is that Muslims are not going to blend. For that they have to give up their faith. This means that once they become the majority, they will not respect the human rights of others and will terminate all freedoms. The non Muslims in their own countries will be treated as second class citizens and even persecuted the way Hindus are persecuted in Afghanistan , Pakistan and Bangladesh and Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians and Baha’is are mistreated in Iran .

The Western world is placed between a rock and a hard place. There is little that we can do. Time is not on our side. With every minute that passes and with every baby that is born to a Muslim family in the West, the threat of Islam keeps growing and the life of democracy become shorter.

The danger of Islam overtaking the World through procreation is very real. Compared to this danger, Islamic terrorism is child play.

The British ethologist and science writer Richard Dawkins wrote: “The likelihood is that, in 100,000 years time, we shall either have reverted to wild barbarism, or else civilisation will have advanced beyond all recognition – into colonies in outer space, for instance.”

Which way will we be heading is going to be determined in this century. However, if we are destined to revert to wild barbarism, it won’t take us 100,000 years to get there. If humanity loses to Islam, we will revert to barbarism in 100 years. By the next century the world will be Islamic, beginning with Europe . And in a matter of a few centuries nothing will be left of our world and its civilisation. Everything will be obliterated. What we know today as civilization and culture will be called taqooti (satanic) and jaheliyah (ignorance) and will be destroyed. No trace of that will be left, just as little of the ancient civilizations of Persia and Egypt are left. If Islam is allowed to win, mankind will lose – a loss from which it may never recover.

This is not a hyperbole or a farfetched scenario. In fact if nothing is done soon, and I mean NOW, even yesterday, it is certain to happen. Humanity is on the course of self destruction, and this is not going to happen in thousands or hundreds of yeas but within a few short decades. As alarmist as it may sound, the world as we know it, is coming to its end. If you are not scared, you should be.

This is a critical moment in the history of mankind. Mistakes can be lethal. We can’t tackle our problems blindly. Now, more than ever, we need to know the facts and we must act with wisdom. Unfortunately we are doing everything wrong. The world is on fire and mankind is asleep.

In this book I have tried to shed light on one of the most complex and explosive dilemmas humanity has ever faced. I have tried to describe the nature of the beast and the way to harness it.

We need to know our enemy and have a roadmap to avoid the big catastrophe that is looming over our collective head. The problem is big and the answers are not easy. What is at stake is the very survival of mankind. The calamity that humanity is facing today can only be likened to the meteorite that hit the Earth 65 millions years ago. Life on Earth will continue but for humans it won’t be the same. If nothing is done soon, everything will be lost. Compared to the threat of Islam, Nazism and communism were picnic.

Why Muslims hate and distrust us? Why they think of us as enemy? What are their grievances? What they want? Is Islamic terrorism an aberration? Is there a peaceful Islam that needs to be rescued? Is there such thing as moderate Islam? Can the moderate Islam overcome the extremist Islam? Has the West been responsible in anyways for how Muslims feel? Are poverty, lack of education, lack of opportunities and dictatorship the causes of Islamic revolt? Or are these symptoms of a yet bigger and a more fundamental problem that has not been hitherto addressed? Will this nightmare end? Is this the beginning of the World War III? How can we fight it and what will happen if we lose? These are some of the questions I have tried to answer in this book.

The problem of Islam is not going to go away. In fact it is only going to worsen. No one is immune. It affects us all.

Ironically, the Islamic terrorism is not our real problem. Our real problem is the Islamic demographic explosion and the dwindling of the population in the civilized countries. Even if we win the war on terror, we will certainly lose the population war. We are on a course of disaster of a biblical proportion.

The problem is not Islamic extremism. The problem is Islam. Many modern writers have condemned Islamic extremism but have gingerly avoided criticising Islam itself. They claim that the terrorists have hijacked Islam and misinterpret its “peaceful message”. This book refutes this claim and shows that the root cause of Islamic violence is the Quran, the Hadith (traditions) and the Sunna (the examples set by Muhammad).

Islam must be defined by its most violent, extremist, reactionary, intolerant, anti-western and misogynistic elements, both Sunni and Shi’a. Sufism, the so called reformist and non violent version of Islam, is not really that much different from extremist Islam.

I also tried to explain why in a confrontation between extremist Islam and moderate Islam, extremism always wins. There can be no moderation in Islam. Moderate Islam is not Islam. Moderate Muslims can easily become extremists. Countries that have had long traditions of tolerance and moderation have become extremists overnight. It is hard to imagine that Arabs prior to Islam were among the most tolerant people of the world. Religious hostilities were inexistent.

Today, as we watch the religious intolerance in Pakistan , it is not easy to believe that only a few centuries ago the Pakistanis were tolerant Hindus. It is also hard to believe that the ancestors of the Iranians that today threaten the peace of the world and whose president says Israel must be wiped off the map and have taken human rights abuses to new abysses were the authors of the first charter of human rights ever written. Wherever Islam goes, tolerance gets out and terror sets in.

It is a mistake to count Islam as a religion and give it the same status as given to Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or Buddhism. Wolfgang Bruno who is writing a book on the movement of ex-Muslims wrote: “Westerners view Islam as a religion currently beset by many problems and aggressive groups, but still one that can offer comfort and moral guidance to millions of people. That is a fundamental mistake. Islam is not an addition to the American or European diversity rainbow. In fact, it wants to scrap the diversity rainbow and replace it with an Islamic cave.” I agree with Bruno. I trust by the time you finish reading this book, you’ll agree too.

SYNOPSIS

Understanding Islam is an honest look at Islam – free from prejudices and political correctness. It starts by analyzing the life of Muhammad the founder of Islam. Islam is the brainchild of Muhammad. To understand Islam, one must know its author. However, facts about Islam and its author are not easily available. Stating the truth about Muhammad and his religion is not politically correct. Thousands of books have been written by the apologists of Islam and yet none tells the truth. The truth about Muhammad can only be found in the early books of history written in the first three centuries of Islam. From there we learn that Muhammad was a marauding chieftain who rose to power through raids and robbery and who did not hesitate to commit assassination, rape, torture and even genocide in order to reach his goal.

The history of Islam is fraught with violence and bloodshed. The source of all this violence is the Quran and, the examples set by Muhammad. To know Islam and to understand Muslims, it’s important to learn the truth about its founder. The first chapter of this book is therefore about Muhammad. Who he was? How he came to power? What fired him?

Is Islam a religion? Does it fit into the definition of religion or is it an overgrown cult? Did Muhammad receive revelations or was he a mentally disturbed man who, like Hitler and other great megalomaniacs of history, suffered from narcissistic personality disorder? What drove him? Did he teach goodly manners or was he only interested to dominate and build his empire using religion as a pretext and people as disposable commodities?

Why Islam cannot be separated from politics? Why Muslims want to dominate the world? What kind of government Islam proposes? Would this government be fair and just? Islam does not recognize equality. Men and women are not equal; Muslims and non-Muslims are not equal; slaves and free people are not equal. How can such a doctrine of inequality be compatible with democracy? Islam is indeed a fascistic doctrine that glorifies the state, disdains reason, scorns art, promotes vigilantism, is misogynist, and practices censorship of thoughts. Islam is the only major religion that does not adhere to the concept of fairness and teaches its followers to do to non-Muslims what they themselves find objectionable if done to them. Islam is the only major religion that encourages its follower to lie and deceive others and regards this as “holy deception”. Islam is the only major religion that openly preaches hate and incites its follower to rouse against the non-believers, slay them, crucify them, chop their fingertips and be harsh with them.

Josef Goebbel, Hitler's minister for propaganda said: "If you tell a big enough lie, frequently enough, it becomes the truth." Muhammad based his entire religion on this philosophy. But because of his mental disorder he was the first to believe in his own big lies and acted so convincingly that left others spellbound and believers. This is an ability shared by all psychopaths and cult leaders.

After analyzing the cultic nature of Islam the book then discounts any possibility that it can be reformed. It explains how every attempt to reform Islam throughout its history has met with failure. The ills affecting the Islamic world are rooted in Islam itself. This tree will not bring forth sweet fruits by pruning. It has to be uprooted. The fruits of Islam are all poisonous. Muslims are dangerous to the degree that they practice Islam and follow the examples of Muhammad. Even the Westerners, once convert to Islam, become dangerous. Americans, plot terrorism against America; Jews start hating Israel and celebrate each time there is a suicide bombing in that country; and the British despise Britain and call it “the third most hated country of the world” (after Israel and America). They become terrorists and cheerfully, not only kill their own countrymen, but would not hesitate to kill their own non-Muslim parents.

By following a psychopath and emulating him, Muslims as a whole, have entered in Muhammad’s narcissistic bubble universe. They feel entitled to privileges without commensurate achievements. They are supremacists by virtue of their belief and demand submission and servitude from their non-Muslim hosts, even when they are still the minority.

In the West, they live a parasitic life, feeding off the welfare, adding to the index of crime, and breeding rapidly to take over their host countries in the name of Allah.

Thanks to this mindset and intransigent teachings of the Quran, Islam cannot be reformed. Any reformation of Islam is considered “innovation” and that is deemed to be a sin graver than heresy. All the doors of reformation in Islam were closed by Muhammad himself. No one can change a single verse of the Quran and this book is a manual of terror and a prescription for backwardness.

Muslims are trapped in a web of lies and shackled by fear. The fear of hell has paralysed their minds and as the result they are incapable of rational thoughts. They dismiss any doubt about Islam at once because the fear of hell and the fear of the “punishment in grave” have crippled their ability to think rationally. Islam is a doctrine of fear. It thrives with the fear that it instils in the minds of its followers and with the terror that it casts in the hearts of others.

Islam destroys the identity and the selfhood of its believers and in their lieu; it imposes itself on them as their new identity. That is why Muslims cling to Islam and defend it with their lives. For a Muslim, Islam is everything. Without it he is simply nothing. Muslims can’t get rid of Islam, until their selfhood is restored. Therefore fundamental changes must take place in the psyche of Muslims until they can find their lost identity and be able to wean themselves from Islam. But this won’t happen unless Islam is discredited completely so they start looking for their lost identity and recover their selfhood and humanity.

This book unmasks the unholy alliances between Islam and the extreme Left on one hand and the extreme Right on the other, and reveals how all these strangest bedfellows have formed an axis of evil, united only in their common hatred of democracy, America and Israel .

We must not however overlook the danger of a backlash. The inability of the politicians to deal with the threat of Islamofascism is making inevitable the rise of Eurofascism. If governments fail to protect people, people will rise to take the matter in their own hands. This could give rise to a bloody civil war in Europe and in Australia . Unless Islam is discredited and Muslims are weaned from it, that civil war is a cinch. The riots in France was only a prelude.

Finally, the book discusses how to deal with Muslim hooliganism, how to confront their bullying, their riots and their conniption fits and how to realistically repel their aggression with strength and yet with least violence.

This book does not provide all the answers to the problem of Islamic terrorism, but it removes the mist surrounding Islam and opens a window into the mind of the Muslims. We must know the nature of the beast we are dealing with, if we want to stay safe from it.

Islamic terrorism affects everyone. Although it appears to be senseless, it actually is not. It is methodic and doctrinal. This book, sheds light on Islam and the Muslim mind and helps one make sense out of the senseless. The book is prefaced by the celebrated scholar Ibn Warraq.

Some endorsements

1- A blisteringly honest, thoroughly documented, and piercingly insightful investigation of the root causes within Islam of the fanaticism and violence that today threatens the entire world. Should be required reading at the State Department and the White House. -- Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades (Regnery)

2- A powerful, no holds barred look at an ideology of hate and what must be done to eradicate it. This book pulls no punches. A must read for anyone seeking to understand Islamist terrorism" Professor Kim Ezra Shienbaum, Ph.D Dept. of Political Science, Rutgers University Camden, NJ. Chief Editor of Beyond Jihad.

3- With great courage, perspicacity, and trenchant wit, Ali Sina demolishes a host of politically correct myths about Islam, and its founder. One wishes policymaking elites would avail themselves of his insights which shatter the dangerous delusions of their own invented Islam. Andrew G. Bostom, MD, author of “The Legacy of Jihad”

4- Half a century ago Whittaker Chambers in his book “Witness”, warned us about the deadly danger of Communism. Now Ali Sina issues this clarion call regarding the threat of Islam. "Witness" could only have been written by one who knew Communism from within; the same can be said of Understanding Islam and the Muslim Mind that is written from a perspective of one who knew Islam intimately from within. Islam is more dangerous than communism because it is camouflaged as “religion”. Jacob Thomas, Consultant on Middle Eastern affairs / Columnist

5- A truly thought provoking and profound reading. Dr. Sina's unique perspective offers incredible insight and knowledge of the threats which face the civilized world. Jesse Petrilla, Founder & Chair of the United American Committee

6- I heartily recommend Ali Sina's book. It is not only enlightening at an urgent time in world history. It is also written by a man who has walked the walk. I know of no other writer on the topic who pens with such authority and reality. He is a superb expositor for he is a thorough researcher of Islam as a warring cult. J. Grant Swank, Jr., Columnist, Pastor, New Hope Church , Windham Maine

7- Ali Sina has become a key player in the Islamic Reformation; this work should educate and reach people with the power to change things for the better. His honest analysis cuts deep into contemporary and medieval Islam leaving his readers with important questions. This fermentation of introspective debate and critique is badly needed and long overdue. Chris Blackburn, Director of givethemlight.org- A Foundation for Democracy and Global Pluralism.

8- Ali Sina is one of the bravest thinkers of our time. Read this brilliant and piercing analysis if you want to understand why there is no such thing as a moderate Islam, and why failure to understand this could put us all at great risk. Wolfgang Bruno, writer, author of "Reformation Impossible"

9- The war against jihad can and must be won, in spite of the Western elite class that is instinctively prone to appeasement and betrayal. The first task is to analyze frankly the identity and character of the enemy and the nature of the threat. It is essential to discard the taboos and to discuss Islam without fear or guilt, or the shackles of mandated thinking. Ali Sina's new book makes an important contribution to that objective.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles,” says Sun Tzu. Thanks to this book we know the jihadist enemy a little better -- his core beliefs, his role models, his track-record, his mindset, his modus operandi, and his intentions. We also know his weaknesses, which are many, above all his inability to develop a prosperous economy or a functional, harmonious and good society.

The main problem remains with ourselves, however, with those among us who have the power to make policy and shape opinions, and who will reject and condemn Ali Sina's diagnosis. Our own elite class treats the jihadist mindset as a pathology that can and should be treated by treating causes external to Islam itself. The result is a plethora of proposed multiculturalist “cures” that are as likely to succeed in making us safe from terrorism as snake oil is likely to cure leukemia. Dr. S. Trifkovic, Foreign Affairs Editor CHRONICLES
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