Ed's Book Review
Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time
by Karen Armstrong
In the introductory section of the book, the author expresses her alarm at anti-Islamic sentiments in the West in the wake of recent Islamist terrorist attacks. Armstrong’s stated purpose is to depict the “peaceful” side of Islam and Mohammed. This book is an historical narrative, but it is also a sales pitch of sorts. She openly scolds her fellow Westerners for jumping to conclusions about Islam. This book is apparently intended to set us straight.
First, the positive points: This book presents a clear chronology of Mohammed’s life and the early days of Islam. Many of these events (like the Battle of Badr) are quite apolitical and difficult for Westerners to glean from original sources. Karen Armstrong is a detailed historian, and her biography of Mohammed packs a lot of information into a short volume.
Now, the negative: Armstrong is so eager to sell the notion of Islam as a peaceful religion that she completely whitewashes major aspects of its history. Like many apologists for Islamist violence, Armstrong relies on the so-called Meccan verses of the Koran, which were written while Mohammed was still in Mecca, before the Muslims became a military force. These suras do indeed contain statements like “there is no compulsion in matters of religion.” And these are the only portions of the Koran that Armstrong wants the reader to know about.
But there is another Koran: the Koran of Medina. The Medina verses were written after the Hejira, when the Muslims were a rising military power in Arabia. The Medina suras contain many violent references to jihad, and forbid Muslims to have contact with Jews and Christians. These suras comprise about half of the Koran, so it was irresponsible for Armstrong to completely omit these references from her biography.
Moreover, Armstrong’s position that Mohammed was a prophet of peace makes her unable to connect her historical narrative to contemporary events. It would be reasonable to ask why there is so much violence against women and non-believers in the Muslim world if Islam and its prophet are so peaceful. These questions are quite relevant in light of recent headlines---and they are questions that Armstrong, in her efforts to present the politically correct version of Islam, completely evades.
