It is full of really interesting historical facts about Islam, including that Muhammad was from the very beginning involved in temporal politics and using violence in the shape of jihad to acheive temporal political goals. There could be no separation of church and state therefore.

One other fascinating fact in the book was that a key step in Muhammad’s development as his marriage to an independent business woman much his senior. The extraordinary nature of a woman operating successfully and independendtly in Arabia at that time is immediately obvious – equally the tragic fact the Islam took so little notice of this woman’s contribution in forming its attitude to women in society.

Ben Carter

Khomeini also rebuked the Islam-is-a-religion-of-peace crowd: “Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured by [the unbelievers]? Islam says: Kill them, put them to the sword and scatter [their armies]….Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for the Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of other [Qur’anic] psalms and Hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all this mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.”

Doug Swallow, Bang Na,Thailand

Yes I am aware of the Hindu-Muslim rivalry that exists in India, and the very real tensions there. And I am aware of the Hindu claims about Jesus being just one of many avatars. Christians of course disagree fundamentally. Jesus is not a mere guide like Buddha, but is God, and claims to be the sole and exclusive means of reconciliation with God. And Islam is a religion, albeit one which is also a political movement, which sees no separation between church and state.

I will need to write a whole article to point out the fundamental differences between the Hindu worldview and the biblical Christian worldview. But thanks for writing.

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

I thoroughly agree with you concerning both the Muslim and western secularist being unable to recognize the conflict with their outlook versus reality and fact. The sensory deprivation chamber (where a subject in swathed in soft material and shut up in darkness, so that he or she senses nothing, starts to hallucinate and if left long enough goes mad) is a picture of being cut off from the reality of God and the Truth. To witness this on a daily basis one only has to go into any western school and try to communicate with children using, as you say, common sense and reason.

It is no co-incidence that the two groups who are attempting to take away our freedom of speech and expression are the Muslims and homosexuals, both using human rights.

David Skinner, UK

My emphasis is on perspectives and a grasp of reality, not intelligence or learning. Those who live their lives entirely in a restricted insular environment, a cocoon if you wish, generally have little, or at best a tenuous, -usually warped-grasp of wordly realities. Common sense is also too often a casuality in these circumstances. No amount of intellectual prowess counters this. Coupled with life-long continuous brainwashing from birth these people are unable to recognize the conflict with their outlook versus reality and fact.

Academics, who are nursed from the cradle through school to university back to school (as teachers, administrators etc) or back to life-long university careers or in academe, are often a good example of this. Take the abortion and climate change debates. No matter how many facts, figures, graphs, scientific evidence and other information, anti-life proponents and climate warming alarmists remain in denial, refuse to face reality, close their minds to argument, reason and evidence and continue to promote their ideology mostly by lies and ad hominem attacks on their opposition.

The Islamic culture is a prominent example. The lives of Muslims today have changed little from their tribal ways. New ideas, scientific research, free exchange of information, liberty, encouragement to learn etc are all denied in such a climate. The world is assesed and judged from this point of view. It is akin to someone standing all their lives with their nose hard against an enormously high and wide wall, seeing nothing but tiny grains of sand, cement and rock.

Yes, they are shrewd, manipulative, quick to note and exploit any weakness but that does not equate to full or any understanding and appreciation. Simply ask any one of the Muslim clerics here in Australia about their knowledge and understanding of Christianity. One of their reasons for rejecting the divinity of Jesus, ie Son of God- second Person of the Holy Trinity, is their question and argument: “Why would God have sex with a woman? God does not need a concubine”. They don’t understand the Trinity and the work of the Holy Spirit. These are basic tenets and precepts of Christianity which are unknown to them. Many everyday Christians extend themselves to learn and understand Islam, either to some degree or extensively, but it is a rare occasion when a Muslim troubles himself to learn anything at all about Christianity.

Thus the Muslim clerics view the world entirely from their deep, narrow, dark enclaves of limited knowledge and understanding. Thus their belief that by converting his Holiness the Pope, the western world will capitulate to Islam.

John McMahon, Kolonga, Qld

David Skinner, UK

These Islamists are rather myopic and I’m sure that reality is not their strong point. I read once that a cleric from Iran was asked in an interview as to why Islamic women are not permitted to drive. He replied without hesitation: “Because it would look stupid”. Being rational is not a characteristic that Islam encourages. Their distorted logic and twisted reasoning is guided and formed by the rantings and ravings written by someone born in the 6th century AD. Have you seen or heard any humour from anyone of them?

John McMahon, Kolonga, Qld