Suggested Reading on Islam

Setting aside certain basic similarities shared by Christianity and Islam, there is a veritable spate of books on the market which will give you a vivid idea of the contrasts that exist when these religions are put into practice. Talented writers are sharing their thoughts in biography and fiction. These are just a few of them:

Now They Call Me Infidel – Nonie Darwish
(Her book is a call for peace and a challenge to Islam to change its message in the mosque to one of “love and peace”. A book entirely suitable to be a text book for High School and College level. Another courageous woman intent on speaking out after 9/11)

Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America. Brigitte Gabriel
(One of our best and brightest citizens who is fearless in her attempt to wake us up to the challenge of Islam. Check out her website www.americancongressfortruth.com Join her by subscribing. She has just announced her remarkable opportunity, this September 11, 2007, to speak to Congressmen on Capital Hill.)

Terrorist Hunter – Anonymous
(Now it is known that the author is Rita Katz. This keen American was born in Iraq of Jewish parents. Read how she became a spy in her new country by entering mosques and attending conventions, disguised as a Muslim woman. Read and be amazed at what her sleuthing revealed here in America)

Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up In The Shadow of Saddam by Zainab Salbi
(This is a life story which will haunt you with its details of what it was like to grow up in an atmosphere of “fear”, because your family had been singled out to be personal friends of Saddam Hussein. Zainab’s father was chosen to be his private pilot)

Stolen Lives: My Family’s Twenty Year Struggle in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir
(Unbelievable story of an entire family, in Morocco, jailed in terrible conditions for almost 20 years after their husband and father had been caught attempting a coup against the king. Malika was 19 when she and her mother and five brothers and sisters were banished to a lifetime in jail.)

Fiction allows you to experience life in Afghanistan with the dreaded Taliban:

The Bookkeeper of Kabul – by Asne Seierstad
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Reading any or all of these books is guaranteed to raise your level of understanding of what it is like to be a Muslim in a Muslim country. It will allow you to empathize with the plight of women, in particular.