Coming August 7 from Bombardier Books is my latest, and I believe my best and most important book: The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS. You can pre-order it now here.
This book provides, for the first time in the English language, a general overview of jihad activity from the time that the concept of jihad was first invented (and arguably even before that) to the present day – from Arabia to North Africa and Persia, from Spain to India, from Tel Aviv to New York City.
The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS traces the 1,400-year war of Islamic jihadis against the rest of the world, detailing the jihad against Europe, including the 700-year struggle to conquer Constantinople; the jihad in Spain, where non-Muslims fought for another 700 years to get the jihadi invaders out of the country; and the jihad against India, where Muslim warriors and conquerors wrought unparalleled and unfathomable devastation in the name of their religion.
Told in great part in the words of contemporary chroniclers themselves, both Muslim and non-Muslim, The History of Jihad shows that jihad warfare has been a constant of Islam from its very beginnings, and present-day jihad terrorism proceeds along exactly the same ideological and theological foundations as did the great Islamic warrior states and jihad commanders of the past.
The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS is the first one-volume history of jihad in the English language, and the first book to tell the whole truth about Islam’s bloody history in an age when Islamic jihadis are more assertive in Western countries than they have been for centuries.
"Robert Spencer is one of my heroes. He has once again produced an invaluable and much-needed book. Want to read the truth about Islam? Read this book. It depicts the terrible fate of the hundreds of millions of men, women, and children who, from the 7th century until today, were massacred or enslaved by Islam. It is a fate that awaits us all if we are not vigilant." (Geert Wilders, member of Parliament in the Netherlands and leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV))
"From the first Arab-Islamic empire of the mid-seventh century to the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the story of Islam has been the story of the rise and fall of universal empires and, no less importantly, of never quiescent imperialist dreams. In this tour de force, Robert Spencer narrates the transformation of the concept of jihad, 'exertion in the path of Allah,' from a rallying cry fro the prophet Muhammad's followers into a supreme religious duty and the primary vehicle for the expansion of Islam throughout the ages. A must-read for anyone seeking to understand the roots of the Manichean struggle between East and West and the nature of the threat confronted by the West today." (Efraim Karsh, author of Islamic Imperialism: A History)
"For those who still think -- and, alas, there remain many -- that Islamic terrorism has emerged only in the last forty years or so, Robert Spencer’s carefully researched work on Jihad from the beginning of Muhammad’s political and prophetical career to the acts of terrorism of September, 11, 2001, will be a salutary shock. It will not be at all easy to refute Spencer’s account, which shatters many myths. Robert Spencer’s work is essential reading for all of us, for all those who want to defend our values from the relentless jihad that has not ceased for fourteen centuries." (Ibn Warraq, author of The Origins of the Koran and The Quest for the Historical Muhammad)
"Spencer argues, in brief, 'There has always been, with virtually no interruption, jihad.' Painstakingly, he documents in this important study how aggressive war on behalf of Islam has, for fourteen centuries and still now, befouled Muslim life. He hopes his study will awaken potential victims of jihad, but will they—will we—listen to his warning? Much hangs in the balance." (Daniel Pipes, president, Middle East Forum and author of Slave Soldiers and Islam: The Genesis of a Military System)
"Robert Spencer, one of our foremost analysts of Islamic jihad, has now written a historical survey of the doctrine and practice of Islamic sanctified violence. With crystal clarity and rigorous argument, he relentlessly marshals the facts that put the lie to the sophistries of apologists and the delusions of Western appeasers. To fight the enemy we must know the enemy, and Robert Spencer's page-turner is the place to start." (Bruce Thornton, Research Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution and Professor of Classics ad Humanities at the California State University)
"The most important book you will read about the fifteen-hundred-year war that Islamic jihadists have waged on us. Spencer's brilliant book is also the only book you can read on this history, since appeasers of Islamic bigotry and bloodthirstiness have worked so diligently to suppress it." (David Horowitz, founding president of the David Horowitz Freedom Center and author of Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey)
"Jihad is not mere terrorism. Ironic as it may seem, that is Western wishful thinking. From its inception, as Robert Spencer incontestably illustrates, jihad has been the outward, aggressive expression of a conquest ideology. The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS is as relentless in relating unvarnished truth as is the phenomenon it tracks in seeking domination—and never being satisfied with less, however long it takes. Those who care to preserve Western rationalism, civil liberties, and free societies must confront this history, and its implications, with eyes opened." (Andrew C. McCarthy, bestselling author, former federal prosecutor, and National Review contributing editor)
"In a time of cowardice and deliberate falsehood, the courageous and scholarly exposure of the greatest challenges and dangers of our time by Robert Spencer is priceless." (Bat Ye'or, author of The Dhimmi and The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam)
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