Middle East Forum Translations of this item: German Italian Recently, Cathy Lynn Grossman of USA Today wrote an article about Muslim zakat, wherein I was referenced as a "critic of Islam." She then followed up with another article titled "Critic questions the aims and ends of Islamic charity," dedicated to examining my views on zakat. While I appreciate Ms. Grossman's … [Read more...]

Jihad Watch I recently taped and am watching a documentary, "The Crusades: Crescent and the Cross," on the History Channel. While it is more or less historically accurate—names, dates, figures—it suffers from two weaknesses, weaknesses that often take center stage whenever Islam is discussed in the West: 1) biases and apologetics on behalf of Islam, coupled with outright … [Read more...]

An Account by Fr. Zakaria Botros Danish; Indonesian  Part 1 Father Zakaria Botros recently ran a show dedicated to discussing the question of morality and how it is—or should be—one of the hallmarks of "prophethood." At the start, he posed the focal question of the show: "Was Muhammad the prophet a moral man—the most upright man, worthy of being emulated by the world?" He … [Read more...]

Jihad Watch Recently reading through Professor Carl Brockelmann's History of the Islamic Peoples (1948), I was struck by a particular passage that, inasmuch as it is objective and thoroughly grounded in Islamic law and Muslim practice, if asserted now by any scholar of whatever caliber would surely only earn the label "Islamophobe." Brockelmann, of course, was one of the most … [Read more...]

Many are now aware that the Koran—that is, Allah's word—permits, not just polygamy, but forced concubinage (sex with captive women), according to Koran 4:3: "Marry such women as seem good to you, two and three and four; but if you fear that you will not do justice, then only one, or what your right hands possess [captive women taken in war]." There is, however, an interesting, … [Read more...]