2006 book by Robert Spencer
The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion
is a biography by American
anti-Muslim
[1]
author
Robert Spencer
about the Islamic prophet
Muhammad
. Written from a
critical perspective
towards its subject, this book examines the life of Muhammad in ten chapters based on the sources provided by his
early biographers
, together with the
Quran
and the
hadith
, while also challenging their historical authenticity.
The book was released on 15 September 2006 by
Regnery Publishing
and entered
The New York Times
Best Seller list
for a week. The critical reception of the book was generally unfavorable, with Spencer being criticized for his selective use of sources, subjective interpretation and anachronistic reading of the historical context. Positive reviews were given mostly by Christian and conservative publications, with
Human Events
including it in its listing of "Top 10 Conservative Books of 2006".
Synopsis
[
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]
A work of American author and
counter-jihadist
Robert Spencer
, the book is a biography of
Muhammad
, who founded Islam (an
Abrahamic religion
that originated in the 7th-century Arabic Peninsula), where he is regarded as the
last prophet
sent by
God
. A
highly critical
work both towards Muhammad and Islam, it consists of ten chapters and begins with a chronology of Muhammad's life and the glossary of names and places related to it. In the first chapter, Spencer writes of the reasons behind writing this book. He writes that the book does not comprehensively detail Muhammad's life but providing insights into an outline of his career.
Chapter two presents Spencer's assessment of the earliest sources for Muhammad. He starts with the
Quran
, the religious text of Islam; he notes that it contains little details about Muhammad, and often the stories are told indirectly or incompletely. Next, he goes on to write about the
hadiths
, a record of the words and actions Muhammad transmitted through chains of narrators. Although presents great details about his life, Spencer observes that it is nearly impossible to know which parts of it that are true or not. The
prophetic biography
, the traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad comes the last in Spencer's investigation.
Spencer's biography of Muhammad starts in chapter three. He begins with describing Muhammad's tribe, the
Quraysh
, the situation of the
pre-Islamic Arabia
, and the
religions
that were predominantly practiced there, with the Quraysh's was paganism. Spencer writes of Muhammad's early life, including his birth traditionally believed to be taking place in
Mecca
on April 20, 570. Spencer then describes the pivotal role of Muhammad's later-wife
Khadija bint Khuwaylid
, who would be the first one to convert to Islam; this took place after he reportedly received
his first visitation
by the archangel
Gabriel
in the cave of
Jabal al-Nour
.
Chapter four contains Spencer's theories that Muhammad borrowed teachings from other religions, mainly Christianity and Judaism. His arguments are based on, what he believed to be, the similarities between Islam and these religions, including their monotheistic
conceptions of God
and listing of prophetic figures. Spencer starts looking at the Quran; he notes many of its narratives resemble the
Bible
's, such as its human
origin myth
of
Adam and Eve
. Spencer also compares the accounts presented in the Quran with those in the
apocrypha
and other non-canonical works, including the
Talmud
and the
Syriac Infancy Gospel
. Other religions he assumes to have been influencing Islam include the Persian Zoroastrianism and the Indian Hinduism.
Chapter five details Muhammad's early preachings of Islam; Muhammad was met with objections from his own tribe, including his uncle
Ab? Lahab
. Spencer talks about the incident of the
Satanic Verses
, in which Muhammad had allegedly mistaken the words of
Satan
to be those of God, and Muhammad's miraculous journey referred to as the
Isra and Mi'raj
. The next four chapters focuses on the
military career of Muhammad
. In chapter six, the
Hijrah
(his journey from Mecca to
Medina
) and his covenant with Christians and Jews are discussed. In the seventh chapter, Spencer examines the details of several wars that had Muhammad participating in, including the
Battles of Badr
and
Uhud
. The eighth chapter discusses points such as the
Battle of the Trench
, the
Battle of Khaybar
and the
Treaty of Hudaybiyya
, and the
Conquest of Mecca
, the
Battle of Hunayn
, the
Expedition of Tabuk
and the
death of Muhammad
in the next chapter.
Spencer dedicates the book's final chapter to Muhammad's "legacy". He accuses him of having motivated
terrorism
,
pedophilia
,
misogyny
, inhuman punishments (which includes stoning for adulterers and amputation for thievers) and
religious intolerance
.
Release
[
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]
Through the conservative
Regnery Publishing
,
The Truth About Muhammad
was published on hardcover on September 15, 2006,
[2]
and paperback on July 17, 2007.
[3]
Blackstone Audio
provided its audiobook version on 26 October 2006.
[4]
The book has also been available on
Amazon Kindle
, narrated by James Adams.
[5]
The book appeared in
The New York Times
Best Seller list
on 29 October 2006.
[6]
Due to containing "objectionable materials", it was eventually banned in Pakistan.
[7]
Shahid Ahmed, the counselor of community affairs of the
Embassy of Pakistan, Washington, D.C.
, deemed it "very, very damaging?let me tell you".
[8]
In response, Spencer bemoaned that the entirety of the book was based on the traditional Islamic sources and found it "interesting that they would say the book contains 'objectionable materials' ... It manifests a certain cultural insecurity that, instead of having a fruitful dialogue or debate about what's in the book, the Pakistani government just bans and confiscates it."
[8]
Critical reception
[
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Popular
[
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]
The Truth About Muhammad
received a mixed reception in the popular media. British author of
comparative religion
Karen Armstrong
gave a scathing review, calling it "a depressing read".
[9]
Armstrong found Spencer unable to understand Muhammad in the cultural, economic, historical, political and spiritual circumstances of 7th-century Arabian Peninsula, leading him to making "basic and bad mistakes of fact".
[9]
She noted that the author cherry-picked his sources, for instance, including only Quranic passages that are hostile to Christian and Jews but omitting the others that insist on Islam's tolerance with them.
[9]
She wrote that non-Muslims' ignorance of Islam would be really helpful for Spencer to achieve his anti-Islamic aim, mockingly describing his book as a gift for extremists of the same views "to 'prove' to those Muslims who have been alienated by events in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq that the west is incurably hostile to their faith".
[9]
"If you want to spend a depressing afternoon, try flipping through Robert Spencer's
The Truth About Muhammad
. It's not a long read, but when you're through you'll have an idea of the monumental task awaiting the West."
?William Tucker of
The American Spectator
[10]
Ben Maldonado of
The Stanford Daily
called his book one-sided and criticised his poor, repetitive writing style.
[11]
While presenting itself as a biography of Muhammad, Maldonado felt nothing biographical in this book since, he believed, it is more a chronicle of "the more negative and controversial aspects" of its subject and provides nothing beneficial to the historiography of Islam.
[11]
In his 2008 book
Nabi Kita Dihina Saudara!
(
The Prophet is Mocked by our Friends!
), Indonesian author Muhammad Nurhidayat suggested Spencer to learn from the works of objective scholars, including Armstrong,
John Esposito
,
William Muir
and
W. Montgomery Watt
, before writing his own book.
[12]
Christian and conservative publications welcomed the book.
Andrew C. McCarthy
of the
National Review
wrote: "Robert Spencer graphically illustrates the depth of our folly in thinking?or, rather, blithely assuming?otherwise. An alarming book, and a necessary one."
[13]
Paul Bower of the
New Oxford Review
praised Spencer's painstaking research of traditional Islamic biographies of Muhammad and on their contradictory nature.
[14]
Bower continued that, in spite of its critical tones, he regarded the book undoubtfully as "an essential resource, a reliable and duly documented account of who Muhammad really was, and a challenge to those who would assume that his actions and his life are perfectly just within the framework of Western society".
[14]
Srđa Trifkovi?
found the book brief yet readable
[15]
while
Elizabeth Kantor
deemed it an important contribution to understanding Muhammad.
[16]
Human Events
included the book in their "Top 10 Conservative Books of 2006" listing.
[17]
David Thompson of
The Guardian
labelled
The Truth About Muhammad
"a detailed and timely riposte to common misconceptions, outlining the mismatch between belief and historical reality and documenting the ways in which Muhammad's own deeds and purported revelations are used verbatim to mandate intolerance, xenophobia and homicidal 'martyrdom'".
[18]
Thompson added that Spencer "identifies the problem upon which current tensions hinge. A tradition of hagiography and censorship within the Islamic world has created a woefully inadequate picture of this most problematic of religious figures."
[18]
Scholarly
[
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Scholars were almost unanimously critical towards the book. Deepika Bains and Aziza Ahmed of the
Asian American Law Journal
condemned Spencer for his failure to have an objective stance; for instance, he used the negatively connoted
mujehedins
and
jihadists
to refer to Muslims.
[19]
The reviewers also noted many statements by Spencer that were not founded on provable evidence but his personal opinion, such as claiming that investigations for a historic Muhammad would not get a significant audience in Islamic world.
[19]
Bains and Ahmed wrote a pervasive theme of the book is all Muslims are "violent jihadists", and that he relied on his selective interpretation of the Quran and Islamic history.
[19]
They concluded that, with all the book's lack of analysis and historical context, "
The Truth About Muhammad
accomplishes Spencer's goal of vilifying Muslims and misinforming readers about Islam ... However, Robert Spencer exercises his right to free speech free from responsibility, choosing instead to inspire hatred and encourage intolerance."
[19]
Tariq Aziz, Muhammad Shahbaz Manj and Saima Shahbaz Manj, reviewing for
Al-Qamar
, wrote that Spencer relied too much on his subjective opinion in the book and "has produced a work that not only denigrates the Prophet Muhammad, he even denigrates Islam as a religion of peace, holiness, tolerance and kindness."
[20]
University of Cape Town
professor of religious studies Abdulkader Tayob argued that while the book presents itself as a biography of Muhammad, it however "intends to say something more specifically about Muslims".
[21]
Tayob cited Spencer as having provided "a sophisticated example of a general trend: turning to the Prophet to create an impression of the Islamic threat."
[21]
Author of
interfaith dialogue
Craig Considine
cited the book as one of the many popular examples in the 21st century in which Muhammad has been misportrayed as a cruel figure, pedophile and one who discriminates against religious minorities like Jews and Christians.
[22]
Joseph S. Spoerl of the
Middle East Quarterly
wrote a more positive review; he commented that the biography "deserves a wide audience" but opined that its title is sensationalistic and noted a number of chronological mistakes, such as dating the Expedition of Tabuk to 631.
[23]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Multiple sources:
- Ernst, Carl W.
, ed. (2013).
Islamophobia in America: The Anatomy of Intolerance
.
Palgrave Macmillan
. pp. 4, 125?126, 163.
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10.1057/9781137290076
.
ISBN
978-1-137-32188-6
. Retrieved
20 February
2022
– via
Google Books
.
Anti-Muslim activists like Terry Jones, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, the Bible Believers, and the Westboro Baptist Church are drawn to Dearborn because they see it as an abomination, as a dangerous exception to the American norm. In fact, Dearborn is proof that an alternative American reality, one in which Islam is normal and Muslims enjoy political support, is possible and will become increasingly common in future.
- Mariuma, Yarden (2014).
"Taqiyya as Polemic, Law and Knowledge: Following an Islamic Legal Term through the Worlds of Islamic Scholars, Ethnographers, Polemicists and Military Men"
(PDF)
.
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.
104
(1?2).
Hartford International University
: 89.
doi
:
10.1111/muwo.12047
.
ISSN
1478-1913
. Retrieved
20 February
2022
.
A concept whose meaning has varied significantly among Islamic sects, scholars, countries, and political regimes, it nevertheless is one of the key terms used by recent anti-Muslim polemicists such as Robert Spencer or Daniel Pipes, and has been used by US Prosecutors to explain terrorist behavior.
- Beirich, Heidi (2013).
"Hate Across the Waters: The Role of American Extremists in Fostering an International White Consciousness"
. In
Wodak, Ruth
;
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;
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(eds.).
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.
Bloomsbury
. pp. 90?92.
doi
:
10.5040/9781472544940.ch-006
. Retrieved
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2019
.
But the primary sources for the anti-Muslim propaganda that had helped give voice to Breivik's manifesto were American. The anti-Muslim author Robert Spencer, who runs the Jihad Watch website, was cited by Breivik 64 times in his manifesto and excerpted extensively. 'About Islam I recommend essentially everything written by Robert Spencer', Breivik wrote, adding that Spencer should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (Lenz 2011).
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"The Language of Islamophobia in Internet Articles"
.
Intellectual Discourse
.
16
(1).
International Islamic University Malaysia
: 76
. Retrieved
20 February
2022
.
Robert Spencer, a prolific Islamophobic writer, has gravely offended Muslims by describing the Holy Qur'?n as the jihadists
Mein Kampf
, the book which embodies Hitler's fascist philosophy.
- Guimond, Amy Melissa (20 May 2017).
"Islamophobia and the Talking Heads"
.
Converting to Islam
.
Palgrave Macmillan
. p. 61.
doi
:
10.1007/978-3-319-54250-8_3
.
ISBN
978-3-319-54250-8
. Retrieved
21 February
2022
.
Robert Spencer, a well-known Islamophobe, published five anti-Muslim books in the years following September 11 and, in the 7 years after the launch of his Islamophobic website, was earning an annual salary of $140,000.00 off of the profiteering of Islamophobic sentiments through his instant bestsellers.
- Cole, Darnell; Ahmadi, Shafiqa; Sanchez, Mabel E. (1 November 2020).
"Examining Muslim Student Experiences With Campus Insensitivity, Coercion, and Negative Interworldview Engagement"
.
Journal of College and Character
.
21
(4).
Routledge
: 302.
doi
:
10.1080/2194587X.2020.1822880
.
ISSN
2194-587X
.
S2CID
227249730
. Retrieved
21 February
2022
.
Campus-supported events like the anti-Muslim speaker Robert Spencer, invited by the Stanford College Republicans, have also been linked to increases in discrimination and harassment aimed at Muslim students. Spencer is the director of the Muslim-bashing website Jihad Watch and the co-founder of Stop Islamization of America and the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which are both classified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
- Bail, Christopher (21 December 2014).
Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream
.
Princeton University Press
.
ISBN
9780691173634
. Retrieved
21 February
2022
.
Anti-Muslim bloggers Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller founded SIOA to protest the construction of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, as the next section of this chapter describes. Yet even before this high-profile controversy, Spencer and Geller received modest notoriety for their anti-Muslim views.
- Shane, Scott (3 August 2011).
"To Fight Radical Islam, U.S. Wants Muslim Allies"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
21 April
2019
.
- Noble, Jason.
"Iowa's congressional delegation responds to Trump immigration order"
.
Des Moines Register
. Retrieved
12 July
2019
.
- Isaacs, Arnold (9 August 2018).
"American Islamophobia's Fake Facts"
.
Salon
. Retrieved
8 August
2021
.
- ^
Spencer, Robert B.
(15 September 2006).
The Truth About Muhammad
.
Regnery Publishing
.
ISBN
978-15-96980-28-0
.
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Spencer, Robert B. (15 September 2006).
The Truth About Muhammad
. Regnery Publishing.
ISBN
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.
- ^
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The Truth About Muhammad
.
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.
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B000K2Q6TC
.
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The Truth About Muhammad
. Regnery Publishing.
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.
- ^
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.
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on 2 April 2015
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
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Human Events
. Vol. 63, no. 2. p. 36.
- ^
a
b
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- ^
a
b
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.
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.
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
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.
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.
Archived
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. Retrieved
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.
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.
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.
Archived
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
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Nabi Kita Dihina Saudara!
[
The Prophet is Mocked by Our Friends!
] (in Indonesian). Mihrab. pp. 41?47.
ISBN
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.
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.
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.
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"
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External links
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