 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com Why are some Muslims intolerant, violent and supremacist? Why do they bully? What spurs them to riot and murder over the silliest things? To understand Muslims, one must understand their prophet. This psychobiography seeks to unveil the mystery of the prophet of Islam. Historians tell us Muhammad used to withdraw to a cave, spending days wrapped in his thoughts. He heard bells ringing and had ghostly visions. He thought he was demon possessed, until his wife reassured him he had become a prophet. Convinced of his status, he was intolerant of those who rejected him, assassinated those who criticized him, raided, looted, and massacred entire populations. He reduced thousands to slavery, raped, and allowed his men to rape female captives. All of this, he did with a clear conscience and a sense of entitlement. He was magnanimous toward those who admired him, but vengeful toward those who did not. He believed he was the most perfect human creation and the universe's raison d'être. Muhammad was no ordinary man. This book ventures beyond the stories. Focusing on the "why" rather than the "what," it unravels the mystique of one of the most enigmatic and influential men in history. Islam is Muhammadanism. Muslims worship and emulate Muhammad. Only by understanding him can one know what makes them tick. Understanding Muhammad begins with a brief history of his life. Muhammad had a loveless childhood. He then passed to the care of relatives who took pity on him and spoiled him. As the result he developed narcissistic personality disorder, a trait that made him a megalomaniac bereft of conscience. Muhammad believed in his own cause. Even when he lied, he felt entitled and justified to do so. Thanks to another mental illness, namely temporal lobe epilepsy, the prophet of Islam had vivid hallucinations he interpreted as mystical and divine intimations. He also suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder, causing his fixations on numbers, rituals and stringent rules. In the addition, he suffered from acromegaly, a disease caused by excessive production of a growth hormone resulting in large bones and odd facial features. The combination of his psychological disorders and his unusual physiognomy made him a phenomenon that set him apart from ordinary people. His uneducated followers interpreted his differences as signs of his prophethood. Like devotees of all cults, they rose to champion his cause with dedication. By defying death and butchering others they made Islam the world's second largest religion, now the biggest threat to world peace. The author argues that Islam is incompatible with democracy and human rights, and the only way to avert the clash between barbarity and civilization, and a world disaster, is to expose its fallacy and demystify it. "Muslims must be weaned from Islam for humanity to live in peace," says Ali Sina. Average Customer Rating:  
Ali Sinaa's book on Mohammed
| Customer Rating: | | Great book. Well written. A must read for every Muslim who feels or thinks that Islam is the means to achieving all ends. |
A psychobiography of the author
| Customer Rating: | This is not a biography at all but rather an attempt at character assassination. In fact, the author admits to doing exactly that on his website and elsewhere.
It is bad history and even worse psychology by a man who can claim to be neither a historian or a psychologist. Instead, Ali Sina is a disaffected Muslim who is no doubt working out a painful upbringing at the hands of puritanical parents, cruel Islamic clergyman, or perhaps a child molesting mullah in this book where, whatever the thorn in his side may be, he has focused all his rage into painting the ugliest portrait of the prophet Muhammad that can ever be conceived.
No doubt there is much in Islam that is disturbing to our modern sensibilities, its violent origins, it's imperious and supercilious tone, its lack of imagination and cloistered thinking, but Muhammad himself could not have been the demon that Ali Sina portrays. We know from our own study of history that whenever a leader is hated and feared by his own people he invariably sows the seeds of his own destruction, if not in his own life then soon afterwards. History is littered with the histories of men like this. Saddam Hussein and Joseph Stalin easily come to mind.
Muhammad on the other hand did not witness any insurrections or attempts on his life at the hands of his own followers. Not even after his death did anyone attempt to assassinate his memory or desecrate his grave. Instead Muhammad's example spawned an empire that ruled over the Middle East for 1000 years and witnessed a revival of culture and learning the likes of which was not seen in the West until the Age of Enlightenment.
Moreover, many Western, Christian authors have written glowingly about Muhammad--Karen Armstrong even claims to have had a religious experience while writing her book about him.
I don't know what the truth about Muhammad's life is but common sense tells me that Mr. Sina's book comes nowhere close to it. He believes that his agenda will liberate Muslims. In fact, he is much more likely to lend credence to the grumblings of right wing nuts like Rush Limbaugh who want to stoke fear and hatred. People who "love" this book are either like Mr. Sina, disaffected Muslims who have been hurt by other Muslims, or they are Westerners and Christians who would like to rationalize their racism and xenophobia with spurious scholarship. |
Very deciptive and inacurate
| Customer Rating: | First of all this is not the only piece of literature that Ali Sina wrote which is full of contradictions and inaccurate facts. One just has to see his other articles and "conspiracy theory" about Barack Obama too know Ali Sina likes to tell half truths and then twist them.
For example sometimes he gives true citations from Islamic literature but fail to give the whole story behind it. He also quotes only the passages that serve his idea instead of giving a unbiased version of the whole verses.
He also uses "weak Hadiths" which are saying of the Prophet that are not accepted by Muslims or are seen as weak souces for their religion.
Here is some ensights about the Qur'an Ali Sina would not have written in his book to show his views in an unbiased and objective way:
This list of verses from the Qur'an show Islam in another way which contradicts Ali Sina:
2:256: "There is no compulsion in religion, for the right way is clearly from the wrong way. Whoever therefore rejects the forces of evil and believes in God, he has taken hold of a support most unfailing, which shall never give way, for God is All Hearing and Knowing."
88:21,22; also see 24:54: "And so, (O Prophet!) exhort them your task is only to exhort; you cannot compel them to believe."
60:8: "Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loveth those who are just."
There are more verses that show aspects of peace in Islam but i will let it at that.
As an intellectual person i believe terrorists who persecute innocent people because of their faith are not representing Islam as a whole - their use of Islam as a scapegoat, does not make Islam what they portray it to be.
Please seek knowledge before speaking about something you might not comprehend. Also seek knowledge about things from their original source which are in this case Scholars of Islam.
thanks :)
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Very well researched item
| Customer Rating: | | This is a good book to read especially for muslims, to understand the mind of the founder of islam |
PC be darned
| Customer Rating: | I highly recommend this book to everyone who is still confused as to the true nature of Islam, its doctrine and those who are seeking answers to the five "Ws". What, why, who, where and when. These are key elements in understanding and fully analyzing any problem set. And in particular Islamic terrorism! We have been and will continue to be the principle recipients/targets of Islamic venom and violence not because of our "freedoms", "excesses" etc. but because we stood up to this global plight and faced it head on.
Mr. Sina outlines the reason behind this mind set, explores its roots, the psyche of Islam's founder and the reasons for the intolerance of its adherents. And why it is next to impossible to engage them in any serious debate or civil explorations into the nature of Mohammad.
Having read the Koran, Ahadeeth, sunat Al Rassol and several books on Islam (in Arabic), I can state with complete confidence that "Understand Mohammad" is singularly all encompassing, concise, accurate and very enlightening. For the first time, we have a window into the nature of Mohammad, his short comings, vindictive personality and all the elements that made him the man that he was in one book. This book is Very powerful and an easy read. It gives you the information with historicly and relevant examples that explain an otherwise contorted and convoluted doctrine in simple terms.
If you had time to read only one short book on Islam, Islamic terrorism, the Nature of Mohammad, history of Islamic intolerance and straight talk unhindered by Political Correctness, this is the book for you.
Two thumbs up for Mr. Ali Sina's courage and sincerity. Every Infidel needs to read this book. Trust me; I know this doctrine as well as any Imam. The truths within this book although shocking, are never the less a must if we are to have any unencumbered debate as to the nature of this most serious threat to ever face this nation and the world. I am not exaggerating. This nation has never faced a more cunning, deceitful or more determined enemy ever in its history. Political correctness has no place here. We need facts, straight talk about the true nature of the enemy and not some misguided exercise in apologetic guilt riddled self examination. We are not the guilty party here for regardless of what we may have done in the past, short of converting to Islam we would have been facing Islam's wrath sooner or later. Al Qaida only sped the process along after 9/11.
Educate yourselves, know the truth, know thy enemy and know thy selves. The truth shall set us all free.
American Imam.
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