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Culture Clash: Islam's War on America
Why don’t the Muslim people throw out their dictators and demand human rights? Why is America feared and mistrusted in the Muslim world even when she tries to help? Why can’t the Muslim world accept some responsibility for its problems? Every day the news confirms the conflict between the Muslim world and the American way of life.
Dr. Mark Gabriel, former lecturer at Al-Azhar University, sheds light on this conflict, explaining the mysterious attitudes of the Muslim world and why they resist principles such as equality for women, freedom of speech, and other ideals that Americans see as secular, nonreligious, and good for all people. He explains at psychological and religious levels what causes suspicion, animosity, and aggression toward America and answers the What can America do right in the Muslim world today?
Dr. Mark Gabriel, former lecturer at Al-Azhar University, sheds light on this conflict, explaining the mysterious attitudes of the Muslim world and why they resist principles such as equality for women, freedom of speech, and other ideals that Americans see as secular, nonreligious, and good for all people. He explains at psychological and religious levels what causes suspicion, animosity, and aggression toward America and answers the What can America do right in the Muslim world today?
224 pages, Paperback
First published August 31, 2007
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About the author
Mark A. Gabriel
22 books34 followersDr. Mark Gabriel was born and raised in Egypt in an Islamic family. By the age of 12, Dr. Gabriel had the entire Quran memorized. He graduated from Al-Azhar University in Cairo and then became a professor of Islamic history at that university. He also served as the Imam (spiritual leader) of a mosque in Giza, where the pyramids are located.
In short, Dr. Gabriel was a highly prestigious figure in the Islamic world when one day he dared to question the authenticity of the Quran. That evening he was kidnapped by the Egyptian secret police and thrown in prison where he was tortured unmercifully for days due to questioning his religion. Miraculously, just as he was about to be executed, he was delivered from the prison by a relative with political connections.
During the next year while unemployed and living with his parents, Dr. Gabriel met a Christian pharmacist who gave him a Bible. That Bible led him to Jesus, and when he read the Sermon on the Mount, he decided to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior. When his father discovered that Mark had become a Christian, he tried to kill him. Running for his life, Dr. Gabriel fled to South Africa where assassins were sent to kill him. Finally he fled to the United States where he was granted religious asylum.
Today Dr. Mark Gabriel is a Christian evangelist. He is also spreading the truth about Islam. He is the author of several books, including a best-seller entitled Islam and Terrorism. He has been asked by powerful governments as an adviser. He also travels the world to speak in churches, conferences and teaching in bible schools on many different topics such as, the Christian perspective on Islam, how to reach Muslems for Christ, Middle East affairs, world religions, end of time according to Islam and Christianity and the role of women in Islam and Christianity.
http://www.drmarkgabriel.com/about.html
In short, Dr. Gabriel was a highly prestigious figure in the Islamic world when one day he dared to question the authenticity of the Quran. That evening he was kidnapped by the Egyptian secret police and thrown in prison where he was tortured unmercifully for days due to questioning his religion. Miraculously, just as he was about to be executed, he was delivered from the prison by a relative with political connections.
During the next year while unemployed and living with his parents, Dr. Gabriel met a Christian pharmacist who gave him a Bible. That Bible led him to Jesus, and when he read the Sermon on the Mount, he decided to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior. When his father discovered that Mark had become a Christian, he tried to kill him. Running for his life, Dr. Gabriel fled to South Africa where assassins were sent to kill him. Finally he fled to the United States where he was granted religious asylum.
Today Dr. Mark Gabriel is a Christian evangelist. He is also spreading the truth about Islam. He is the author of several books, including a best-seller entitled Islam and Terrorism. He has been asked by powerful governments as an adviser. He also travels the world to speak in churches, conferences and teaching in bible schools on many different topics such as, the Christian perspective on Islam, how to reach Muslems for Christ, Middle East affairs, world religions, end of time according to Islam and Christianity and the role of women in Islam and Christianity.
http://www.drmarkgabriel.com/about.html
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 23, 2019
Let's assume for a second that this guy's name is actually Mark Gabriel, here's a sliver provided by an unknown writer in cyber-space detailing the life Mark abandoned before finding JC: "In short, Dr. Gabriel was a highly prestigious figure in the world when one day he dared to question the authenticity of the Quran."
A "prestigious figure"? Like, he was well-renowned, respected, and admired in his community? OK, fine. He was an imam in Egypt, so the locals at the mosque probably really liked him...oh wait....he was a prestigious figure "in the world? That is some tough kofta to swallow, "Mark".
As for the book, I get what he's saying, but anecdotes and bias opinions drive the way he's saying it...and why not? It's his book, he can do what he wants. He just shouldn't present this subjective hogwash as anything except his opinion by reframing Qu'ranic verse to result in a nasty explication. Again, good for him. Tbh there's a lot of nasty stuff in that book--but how about explicating the Bible a little bit, Mark? I think you'll see that it too carries many outdated, cruel, patriarchal, and oppressive verses.
For example, remember when Mark rants about the passage in the Quran which talks about stoning adulteresses in Islamic countries? Well, I'd like him to explain this one from the Bible:
"But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you." (Deuteronomy 22: 20-21)
Another one of my favorites is when Mark elaborates on the cruelty of cutting off a robber's hands, another verse found in the Qu'ran. Let's talk about it another way, shall we? Specifically, biblically: "When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her." (Deuteronomy 25:11-12)
And the Qu'ran is barbaric because of it's views about orphans? Let's jump into the Bible a second: "A bitched shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord." (Deuteronomy 23:2).
And his insistence in the Qu'ran repeatedly making a women's period synonymous with female evil? Take this biblical gem: "When a woman has a discharge, if her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. Everything also on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean, and everything on which she sits shall be unclean." (Leviticus 15: 19-20)
Also, I know that this is a metaphor, but wtf: "She lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses." (Ezekiel 23:20)
Overall, I gave it a star because he methodically explained Islam as an ideology. I have a doctorate in Middle East Studies with a concentration in modern Islam and have given this topic a lot of thought--and he's right about the fact that it's super-ingrained in the culture of the Middle East. I know this firsthand; for a Persian girl like me, I don't know where Iranian culture ends and Muslim ideology begin. I don't consider myself Muslim, as I have never followed the tenets of Islam in any way...but it was in the house, in my parent's words, and probably in the water.
A "prestigious figure"? Like, he was well-renowned, respected, and admired in his community? OK, fine. He was an imam in Egypt, so the locals at the mosque probably really liked him...oh wait....he was a prestigious figure "in the world? That is some tough kofta to swallow, "Mark".
As for the book, I get what he's saying, but anecdotes and bias opinions drive the way he's saying it...and why not? It's his book, he can do what he wants. He just shouldn't present this subjective hogwash as anything except his opinion by reframing Qu'ranic verse to result in a nasty explication. Again, good for him. Tbh there's a lot of nasty stuff in that book--but how about explicating the Bible a little bit, Mark? I think you'll see that it too carries many outdated, cruel, patriarchal, and oppressive verses.
For example, remember when Mark rants about the passage in the Quran which talks about stoning adulteresses in Islamic countries? Well, I'd like him to explain this one from the Bible:
"But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you." (Deuteronomy 22: 20-21)
Another one of my favorites is when Mark elaborates on the cruelty of cutting off a robber's hands, another verse found in the Qu'ran. Let's talk about it another way, shall we? Specifically, biblically: "When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her." (Deuteronomy 25:11-12)
And the Qu'ran is barbaric because of it's views about orphans? Let's jump into the Bible a second: "A bitched shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord." (Deuteronomy 23:2).
And his insistence in the Qu'ran repeatedly making a women's period synonymous with female evil? Take this biblical gem: "When a woman has a discharge, if her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. Everything also on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean, and everything on which she sits shall be unclean." (Leviticus 15: 19-20)
Also, I know that this is a metaphor, but wtf: "She lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses." (Ezekiel 23:20)
Overall, I gave it a star because he methodically explained Islam as an ideology. I have a doctorate in Middle East Studies with a concentration in modern Islam and have given this topic a lot of thought--and he's right about the fact that it's super-ingrained in the culture of the Middle East. I know this firsthand; for a Persian girl like me, I don't know where Iranian culture ends and Muslim ideology begin. I don't consider myself Muslim, as I have never followed the tenets of Islam in any way...but it was in the house, in my parent's words, and probably in the water.
August 1, 2013
An interesting read. Gabriel was an Islamic imam and scholar at Egypt's al-Azhar before converting to Christianity. I most enjoyed his recollections of interacting with his fellow faithful as an imam and the advice he gave them. English is not his native language, so the work could have used tighter editing. Gabriel appears to contradict himself in a couple of places owing mainly to the awkwardness of his writing. In the Christianity vs. Islam genre, I found Christianity, Islam, and Atheism: The Struggle for the Soul of the Westto be the better read overall, but Gabriel's work has a more personal touch.
September 25, 2016
Revelation
Although I had read Gabriel's other books, I had not grasped the intricate relationship between the government and religion in Muslim ruled countries. In Iran for example, the claim to be ruled as a republic by the people is contradicted by the makeup of the representatives. In contrast to Gabriel's hope I see no way for Islam to change. I pray he is correct.
Although I had read Gabriel's other books, I had not grasped the intricate relationship between the government and religion in Muslim ruled countries. In Iran for example, the claim to be ruled as a republic by the people is contradicted by the makeup of the representatives. In contrast to Gabriel's hope I see no way for Islam to change. I pray he is correct.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews