NEW YORK, NY -- Every once in a while someone does something that really pisses-off a whole population of people. Markus Aurelius' book, "Bleeding for Allah: Why Islam will Conquer the Free World. What Americans need to Know", seems to have done just that. Millions of Muslims around the world are incensed by this smallish book and have responded en masse by having it banned in countries all across Africa and Asia.
To see what the real deal was, I bought my own copy of "Bleeding for Allah" on Amazon.com and perused the paperback. At first glance, it doesn't seem to be significantly different than the host of other anti-Islamic texts that have recently flooded the bookstores. But it is the subtle differences between "Bleeding for Allah" and the other books that makes it so much more dangerous and insidious to the Muslims. To begin with, Aurelius was not an activist, politician, evangelist or recently enlightened ex-Muslim. He was an obscure scientist. Not a man with an agenda. In fact, it is clear that he initially read the Koran for intellectual insight and was so alarmed by its violence that he spent four years studying and writing about the subject.
Actually, it is Aurelius' objective, almost scientific-method approach to the subject of Islam and its prophet Muhammad that apparently makes Muslims so uneasy. Using a detailed analysis of the Koran, down to the very number of hateful words employed in it, the author paints a hard to refute picture. By applying countless social and historical references (many of them Islamic), the author re-creates Muhammad's pragmatic approach to his own earthly success 1,300 years ago. No punches are pulled on the details of the Prophet's application of large scale murder, sexual slavery and scriptural creativity.
The mountain of facts presented by the author in "Bleeding for Allah" clearly portrays Muhammad as a calculating and manipulative, albeit ingenious, fakir. This portrayal is a large element of the rage felt by Muslims against this book. However, the gruesome details that Aurelius employs in his graphic storytelling of the Muslim genocides waged against the Armenians, Bangladeshis and Sudanese pushes Muslims over the edge.
Here is an excerpt from Amapedia.com that accurately reflects the issue: "Bleeding" takes the reader on a seriously provocative, sometimes overly bloody journey through time. It is this difficult, yet accurate voyage that has Muslims incensed throughout the Middle East. A quick internet search shows the level of resentment that this book has generated in the Islamic world."
It can be seen why "Bleeding for Allah" is being so denigrated as to be labeled "The great book of lies". Muslims are viscerally desperate to defend their prophet and their own militant and imperialistic history. However, by banning the reading of any book, under penalty of prison or death, only illustrates how profoundly backward, intolerant and blind Islamists must truly be.
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