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Cien preguntas sobre el islam: una entrevista a Samir Khalil Samir
The terrorist attack on the Twin Towers, the Afghan conflict, waves of migration and the presence of twelve million Muslims in the European Union: these are just a few of the things that have helped contribute to a growing interest in Islam, its culture, and its followers. They awaken old and new questions about a religious, cultural, and political reality that 1,200,000,000 people consider themselves a part of.
This book is the result of a series of extended interviews between an internationally acclaim expert on Islam and two journalists who have dedicated themselves for many years to studying key themes of Islam and analyzing the coexistence between people of different faiths and cultures.
How was Islam born? What does the Koran represent for Muslims? What relationship has developed between Islam and violence, between Islamic culture and the West? How can a real integration of Islam take place in European societies? What are the conditions for a constructive encounter between Christians and Muslims?
Samir Khalil Samir-one of the world's leading experts on Islam-responds to these questions in an in-depth interview that can help one learn and judge for oneself, without prejudice or naivete. This is a contribution in the spirit of the realism needed in order to build adequate ways of living with those who have become our new neighbors.
This book is the result of a series of extended interviews between an internationally acclaim expert on Islam and two journalists who have dedicated themselves for many years to studying key themes of Islam and analyzing the coexistence between people of different faiths and cultures.
How was Islam born? What does the Koran represent for Muslims? What relationship has developed between Islam and violence, between Islamic culture and the West? How can a real integration of Islam take place in European societies? What are the conditions for a constructive encounter between Christians and Muslims?
Samir Khalil Samir-one of the world's leading experts on Islam-responds to these questions in an in-depth interview that can help one learn and judge for oneself, without prejudice or naivete. This is a contribution in the spirit of the realism needed in order to build adequate ways of living with those who have become our new neighbors.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
21 people are currently reading
156 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 16, 2020
Very informative book. Enlightened me in areas I was not aware of. I'm glad I read it.
February 13, 2012
Any book that attempts to talk about "Islam in general" is going to be fraught with authorial bias. The refreshing aspect of "111 Questions on Islam" is that Samir Khalil Samir doesn't hide his own bias. Samir is an Egyptian Jesuit, one who has studied Islam both academically and personally for most of his life, and the book feels like his honest answers to the questions asked of him about the religion and its practitioners. Samir has wisdom to share on this subject. Many people may be pleased with some of his responses and displeased with others....I thought that one strength of the book is that no one will be pleased with the entire thing. It does not feel like it was written to fulfill an agenda. Personally, I got the most out of the history section (especially the history of the Qur'an), the sections that dealt with the nature of interpretation of the Qur'an, and the sections that talked about how Islam differed from Christianity in basic approach. I don't know enough about Islam yet to state that I disagree with such a scholar on any particulars of the religion, but I had the most issue with Samir's words not when he was discussing Islam directly, but when he gave his opinion of the appropriate Christian or Western responses to certain actions by Muslims. In my mind Samir was more pessimistic than a Christian should be regarding what may or may not happen, and relied too much on the politics of power in his search for solutions to conflict.
Considering the diversity of the Islamic world today and the diversity of people writing about it, no one book is going to be sufficient to give an introduction to the religion and its relationship to the West. However, I think that this book would be a great component of such an introduction as just one of several reads.
Considering the diversity of the Islamic world today and the diversity of people writing about it, no one book is going to be sufficient to give an introduction to the religion and its relationship to the West. However, I think that this book would be a great component of such an introduction as just one of several reads.
December 31, 2023
This was a very interesting read. I highly recommend this to anyone who is curious about Islam. If there are any women who are considering marrying a Muslim man I BEG you to read this book to understand what you’re getting into, especially if there’s ever a chance you could find yourself living under sharia law.
This book felt balanced, it gave the approach of a liberal and a radical Islam, because both approaches are authentic readings of the Quran and the Hadith traditions (there is a lot of ambiguity in Islam because there is no longer a central leader since the fall of the last Caliphate). Further, the author is an Egyptian Jesuit who is an expert on Islam; Egypt has the largest population of Muslims, so the author has a unique (and incredibly valuable) perspective being that he is an Arab-Christian. The book is riddled with direct quotations from the Quran, making it easy to reference to read for yourself. Occasionally the author gives the most uncharitable interpretation of a passage, but the same interpretation is given by radicals such as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, so they are not unfair, even if they’re not the most charitable.
I never understood why Muslims were not lumped into the category of “Judeo-Christian values”, but now I do. I don’t mean to be rude to any Muslims, but this book was rather shocking. Men having four wives, the testimony of one man being equal to that of two women, men being able to divorce their wives for whatever reason whenever (yet wives never being able to divorce, even when divorce is defined as an abomination in the Quran), and so much more regarding the treatment of women was shocking.
To be fair, some of the criticisms regarding Islam’s encounter with modernity could have been levied against Christians about a century or two ago, so that was a small weak point of the authors argument.
This author did not mince words and was not politically correct, which I appreciated because we could get to the facts. There is hope for us to coexist peacefully and fruitfully, but there is a lot of work to be done. Islam has a horrible understanding of Christianity, the most shocking being the fact that the Quran says Christ was never crucified and that He didn’t claim to be God. Christians have a lot in common with Islam, but to look past the scores upon scores of differences would be putting our heads in the sand. We might share some things in common, but Islam is diametrically opposed to Christianity on so many incredibly important fronts, most particularly regarding Jesus Christ.
This is a good book to help think about cultures clashing from a high level view and with low level examples as well.
Another important point is the relation Muslims have to the Quran. For a Muslim, The Quran is literally God’s words on a page. God is the sole author. Meaning there is no way to take into account the context in which author was writing, their prejudices, etc. etc. Compare to the Christian view, where the scriptural authors were in fact true authors. God spoke through the authors in their given context and place in history. The Scriptures are still God-breathed, but the small distinction is of massive importance.
Again, I didn’t mean to be rude to any Muslims. I don’t think many western Muslims hold to many, if any, radical views. I’m not trying to be an alarmist by any means. You shouldn’t be nervous about your next door neighbor who is a Muslim or anything like that. But if you’re traveling to a Muslim country that has sharia law as its juridical law, I would educate yourself on some of the basics, ESPECIALLY if you’re a woman.
This book felt balanced, it gave the approach of a liberal and a radical Islam, because both approaches are authentic readings of the Quran and the Hadith traditions (there is a lot of ambiguity in Islam because there is no longer a central leader since the fall of the last Caliphate). Further, the author is an Egyptian Jesuit who is an expert on Islam; Egypt has the largest population of Muslims, so the author has a unique (and incredibly valuable) perspective being that he is an Arab-Christian. The book is riddled with direct quotations from the Quran, making it easy to reference to read for yourself. Occasionally the author gives the most uncharitable interpretation of a passage, but the same interpretation is given by radicals such as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, so they are not unfair, even if they’re not the most charitable.
I never understood why Muslims were not lumped into the category of “Judeo-Christian values”, but now I do. I don’t mean to be rude to any Muslims, but this book was rather shocking. Men having four wives, the testimony of one man being equal to that of two women, men being able to divorce their wives for whatever reason whenever (yet wives never being able to divorce, even when divorce is defined as an abomination in the Quran), and so much more regarding the treatment of women was shocking.
To be fair, some of the criticisms regarding Islam’s encounter with modernity could have been levied against Christians about a century or two ago, so that was a small weak point of the authors argument.
This author did not mince words and was not politically correct, which I appreciated because we could get to the facts. There is hope for us to coexist peacefully and fruitfully, but there is a lot of work to be done. Islam has a horrible understanding of Christianity, the most shocking being the fact that the Quran says Christ was never crucified and that He didn’t claim to be God. Christians have a lot in common with Islam, but to look past the scores upon scores of differences would be putting our heads in the sand. We might share some things in common, but Islam is diametrically opposed to Christianity on so many incredibly important fronts, most particularly regarding Jesus Christ.
This is a good book to help think about cultures clashing from a high level view and with low level examples as well.
Another important point is the relation Muslims have to the Quran. For a Muslim, The Quran is literally God’s words on a page. God is the sole author. Meaning there is no way to take into account the context in which author was writing, their prejudices, etc. etc. Compare to the Christian view, where the scriptural authors were in fact true authors. God spoke through the authors in their given context and place in history. The Scriptures are still God-breathed, but the small distinction is of massive importance.
Again, I didn’t mean to be rude to any Muslims. I don’t think many western Muslims hold to many, if any, radical views. I’m not trying to be an alarmist by any means. You shouldn’t be nervous about your next door neighbor who is a Muslim or anything like that. But if you’re traveling to a Muslim country that has sharia law as its juridical law, I would educate yourself on some of the basics, ESPECIALLY if you’re a woman.
April 14, 2022
The question and answer format makes for an easy, enjoyable read. I couldn't put it down, and read most of it during a 6 hour car drive. The questions come from a pair of journalists, one Muslim and one non-Muslim, and the answers come from an Egyptian-Italian Arab-Christian Jesuit Catholic priest whose expertise and nuanced approach make this a very valuable contribution to anyone's interfaith-dialogue or history of religion or geopolitics library shelf. Highly recommended.
January 10, 2014
The book has Samir Khalil Samir an Egyptian Jesuit priest and Islamic scholar answer question by Italian reporters, Giorgio Paolucci and Camille Eid. Samir Khalil Samir graduated from an Islamic school. He took the same classes that Muslims take. He does not accuse or degrade them; he explains their faith/religion as a Catholic that studied with them.
July 1, 2018
An essential and handy reader to understanding the rudimentary elements of Islam and the differences as well as the similarities to Roman Catholicism. Father Samir S.J. is perhaps the preeminent scholar of our times on the theologies of these two faiths and he neatly brings it all together in a slim, highly readable book
September 21, 2018
Great primer on Islam, in general, and especially for Western Christians. Fr Samir seems very learned and as impartial as is possible with such a divisive subject. As a scholar of Islam and an Arab Christian, he seems to be in a good position to answer these 111 well-formulated questions. He states facts, and sometimes offers his opinion, which seems pretty balanced and reasonable.
June 4, 2017
Excelente libro. Muy ilustrativo.
De manera práctica se explica en el libro aspectos importantes del Islam. Toma como punto de comparación creencias de cristianismo para contrastarlas con el Islam.
De manera práctica se explica en el libro aspectos importantes del Islam. Toma como punto de comparación creencias de cristianismo para contrastarlas con el Islam.
November 25, 2017
Um livro cativante, escrito por alguém conhecedor do assunto: tanto do ponto de vista acadêmico quanto experiência de vida.
O livro, por vezes, é provocador, indicando que os cristãos precisam ter a coragem de ser luz do mundo e sal nas terra.
O livro, por vezes, é provocador, indicando que os cristãos precisam ter a coragem de ser luz do mundo e sal nas terra.
December 23, 2018
Essential reading for every Westerner -- not only people with interest in Islam. Everyone with any interest in survival should read this book.
August 8, 2024
3.25/5
December 3, 2015
39# A book that takes place in your hometown (I'm a citizen of the world!) - Cien preguntas sobre el islam
Este desafio tive de contorná-lo um pouco (não há exactamente muitos livros cuja ação decorra no Algarve, de facto o único que me posso lembrar é Uma Aventura!). No entanto, a ação de Cem perguntas sobre o islam decorre no mundo inteiro, desde o perdido Algarve donde vim à grande Madrid onde moro agora.
Apesar de já ter passado uns anos desde a sua publicação em 2004, este livro está mais atual que nunca, afinal o Islam não muda, não mudou em mil anos, não vai mudar em dez. Este é um livro sobre história e sobre cultura, mais do que um livro sobre religião. As perguntas são pertinentes, e as respostas esclarecedoras, fáceis, ajudar-nos a melhor compreender uma realidade complexa e, sobretudo, diferente. Como árabe cristão, o especialista que responde pode ser um pouco tendencioso, embora haja que admitir que todas as suas posições são fundamentadas e lógicas. Seria interessante uma parte dois desta entrevista, que abordasse as mais recentes evoluções do EI, não obstante, para quem se encontrava praticamente às escuras sobre a história islâmica e o seu impacto nos costumes e atitudes atuais, este livro veio colocar um pouco de luz sobre o assunto. Há vezes que a história explica tudo, há vezes que as contradições são demasiadas e o caminho escolhido é responsabilidade de quem o trilhou. Não acho que o Islamismo seja uma religião fácil ou simples, é certamente cheia de contradições que, comparativamente ao catolicismo, tem um impacto muito maior no atual panorama mundial. Não é um livro alarmista, mas seguramente não é um livro tranquilizador. São sobretudo factos, e há que conhecer os factos para poder julgar.
Este desafio tive de contorná-lo um pouco (não há exactamente muitos livros cuja ação decorra no Algarve, de facto o único que me posso lembrar é Uma Aventura!). No entanto, a ação de Cem perguntas sobre o islam decorre no mundo inteiro, desde o perdido Algarve donde vim à grande Madrid onde moro agora.
Apesar de já ter passado uns anos desde a sua publicação em 2004, este livro está mais atual que nunca, afinal o Islam não muda, não mudou em mil anos, não vai mudar em dez. Este é um livro sobre história e sobre cultura, mais do que um livro sobre religião. As perguntas são pertinentes, e as respostas esclarecedoras, fáceis, ajudar-nos a melhor compreender uma realidade complexa e, sobretudo, diferente. Como árabe cristão, o especialista que responde pode ser um pouco tendencioso, embora haja que admitir que todas as suas posições são fundamentadas e lógicas. Seria interessante uma parte dois desta entrevista, que abordasse as mais recentes evoluções do EI, não obstante, para quem se encontrava praticamente às escuras sobre a história islâmica e o seu impacto nos costumes e atitudes atuais, este livro veio colocar um pouco de luz sobre o assunto. Há vezes que a história explica tudo, há vezes que as contradições são demasiadas e o caminho escolhido é responsabilidade de quem o trilhou. Não acho que o Islamismo seja uma religião fácil ou simples, é certamente cheia de contradições que, comparativamente ao catolicismo, tem um impacto muito maior no atual panorama mundial. Não é um livro alarmista, mas seguramente não é um livro tranquilizador. São sobretudo factos, e há que conhecer os factos para poder julgar.
June 7, 2016
What should the free world do about Islam? We champion pluralism, but Islam is doggedly recalcitrant to notions like secularism and tolerance. What happens when an inflexible force collides with our ideals of flexibility? Samir gives some surprising answers.
The 111 Questions are timely. Can Islam be reformed? How do we reckon with its attitude toward women? How does it compare to Christianity. Good reading, but I'm not encouraged. Islam is the conundrum of our time. Easy answers are in short supply.
Notes:
Says "Allah" should be accepted as a benign, generic word for god. Not necessarily the god of Islam. p. 10
It's impossible to know what Muhammad actually said. He wouldn't allow anything to be written down as he received the revelations. They had to be memorized in the moment, and there was dispute over which recollections were correct. p. 16
Islam means peace? Muhammad was clearly a man of war. p. 29
So-called Law of Abrogation is unhelpful because there is no consensus which surahs are abrogated. p. 33
Samir says the answer to Islamic discrimination against women is education. It's a tacit admission that Islam is the problem. Muslims are educated. Just in their own precepts.
The author says it's not about religious rights but human rights. Where does he think human rights come from? Page 68
Cites economic/immigration struggles as bolstering islamicism (p. 77)
Immigration: Accepting the house built for you. Not demanding a new house be built (p. 78)
samir acknowledges that the quran misunderstands Christianity. P. 101
Shades of Christ's divinity in the Qu'ran, p. 104.
The 111 Questions are timely. Can Islam be reformed? How do we reckon with its attitude toward women? How does it compare to Christianity. Good reading, but I'm not encouraged. Islam is the conundrum of our time. Easy answers are in short supply.
Notes:
Says "Allah" should be accepted as a benign, generic word for god. Not necessarily the god of Islam. p. 10
It's impossible to know what Muhammad actually said. He wouldn't allow anything to be written down as he received the revelations. They had to be memorized in the moment, and there was dispute over which recollections were correct. p. 16
Islam means peace? Muhammad was clearly a man of war. p. 29
So-called Law of Abrogation is unhelpful because there is no consensus which surahs are abrogated. p. 33
Samir says the answer to Islamic discrimination against women is education. It's a tacit admission that Islam is the problem. Muslims are educated. Just in their own precepts.
The author says it's not about religious rights but human rights. Where does he think human rights come from? Page 68
Cites economic/immigration struggles as bolstering islamicism (p. 77)
Immigration: Accepting the house built for you. Not demanding a new house be built (p. 78)
samir acknowledges that the quran misunderstands Christianity. P. 101
Shades of Christ's divinity in the Qu'ran, p. 104.
October 28, 2013
This is the perfect book for someone who wishes to learn the basics of the Muslim faith. Samir examines in an easy to understand question and answer format the fundamentals of Islam, with the ultimate goal of seeing whether a peaceful coexistence between the Islamic and Christian faiths is attainable without either faith compromising their basic tenets. The short answer is "no". The longer answer, as Samir explains, is based on the understanding of Islam as being an integrated social, political, cultural and religious ideology.
This is a very interesting and informative book. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in furthering their understanding of the current issues involved in the immigration and integration of Islam in Western societies.
This is a very interesting and informative book. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in furthering their understanding of the current issues involved in the immigration and integration of Islam in Western societies.
November 30, 2022
Buen libro para comprender el origen y la evolucion del islam. Hace tambien interesantes consideraciones sobre como facilitar el encuentro entre cristianos y musulmanes y como integrar a la creciente poblacion musulmana que reside en los paises europeos.
September 27, 2014
A reliable introduction to islam via the questions every non-muslim has.
Want to read
September 21, 2018FOR ME TO HAVE MORE UNDERSTANDING ABOUT ISLAM AND CHRISTIANS (CATHOLICS)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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