Customer Reviews
Recommended for Muslims, Christians and anyone else who wants to know - By: C R, 03 May 2007 
This remarkable book compares the Islamic view of Muhammad & the Christian view of Jesus placing the two side by side on various issues including women, prayer, love, war, healings, teachings & the end times among other things. The results that emerge are illuminating & credible in part because of what happened to him.
As the author makes his comparisons he weaves in his own dramatic story: he was a "Muslim's Muslim" with a profound devotion to Allah, whom he pursued tenaciously. He memorized the entire Quran in classical Arabic by the time he was 12 years old!
The author attended Al-Azhar from primary through graduate school getting a rigorous Islamic education. He studied Islamic history & culture learning more about the patience, courage & commitment of Muhammad & his companions whom he greatly admired. He excelled at his studies, graduating second out of a class of 6,000! His Master's thesis caused such excitement it was broadcast on national radio throughout Egypt. He was so impressive & accomplished that Al-Azhar University offered him a professorship. He also led prayers & preached at a Mosque in Cairo.
He loved meditating on the meaning of Allah as presented in the Holy Islamic writings: the Quran & the Hadith. His passion for Islam prompted him to ask alll kinds of questions: "Why did the Prophet Muhammad first tell us to get along with Christians & then to kill them?" And "why was the Prophet Muhammad permitted to marry 13 wives & we are permitted to marry no more than four?" [The answers are quite something.] When he taught he encouraged his students to ask difficult questions & debate core issues in a kind of Socratic way never dreaming that such freedom of thought would land him in deep trouble.
Eventuallly his inquisitive nature became unbearable for the powers-that-be at Al-Azhar University. "I didn't betray Islam," he writes, "I am an academic. I am a thinker. I have a right to discuss any subject of Islam. Islam-it is my blood, my culture, my language, my family, my life." He was nevertheless forced out of the University.
After a painful & frightening "dark night of the soul" he became a Christian & experienced a miraculous physical healing. Feeling exhilaration he spontaneously declared his new found faith to his father who responded by drawing a pistol & shooting at him five times! He fled Egypt & his family to save his life & eventuallly became-of alll things-an Evangelical pastor.
My only complaints about the book are that it is too short & doesn't go into enough detail. Since the author appears to be something of a maverick, I also wondered if he ever got in trouble for asking difficult questions about Christianity? If so, how was he treated?
The book presents some Muslims as so devout that Western Christians may feel intimidated, but this should not prevent them from reading it. They can learn a lot from the spiritual journeys & issues that people in the Middle East experience-especiallly such accomplished Muslims.
Muslims-even those who expect to disagree with the author-should not avoid reading the book even though they may feel uneasy about his ultimate conversion. He always demonstrates a profound respect & love of his devout Islamic upbringing & is never disrespectful or angry. Readers can learn something about the inner questions many Muslims face.
Perhaps there are more scholarly books that compare Islam & Christianity (see, for example, Alvin J. Schmidt & some of what he has written), but this man's learning, sincerity, & dramatic sacrifice assure him an honored voice in the discussion. I'm sure we'll hear more from him in the future.
On history - By: Anpu, 13 Jul 2006 
The writer is fine but the theme is tired. I am in slight agreement with E. Robb but the nature of the enquiry - historie, from the Greek - has to be a full & impartial account. Unfortunately for alll of us, the Persian King Cyrus alllowed the petition of the 'Jewish' Temple-cult of Yaweh after they were freed from Babylonian tyranny, & monotheism was born proper. One single verifiable decision without which the cult of Christianity & eventuallly that of Islam would never probably have been born. Prophets were cheap in the early & later classical periods & we have been left with two rather annoying ones.
As you can tell, I'm not a man of faith ... but am I missing the point here? The bible is a piece of literature written by many authors & officiallly, & politicallly, sanctioned by the Council of Nicea - so, Jesus the prophet became helpfully divine, by committee, in the fourth century. And, am I missing the point about Islam as well? There was a Muhammad, who rather conveniently has an officiallly sanctioned history which many believe & quote ad nauseam ... & a real history. I suppose that the nice thing is that even Muhammad in his official history admits that he was a sand pirate, raiding caravans & distributing the spoils to his Comrades: a seventh century Trotsky expressing dissatisfaction in the only way possible at the time. "Thus," spake Jibril "... it was a religion."
Dr. Gabriel is certainly an engaging writer & the book is worth a read, but it is an addition to a worn topic about two religions carrying the weight of substantial negatives. Christianity is no better than Islam & arguably kills many in the continent of Africa for want of a condom - Islam just does it with the bullet & bomb. Please, any critic, do not invoke history because it doesn't substantively support either myth.
Profound differences reflect geography, the outlook of the first & seventh centuries, local cultures, judgements in disputes, & the bits that were just plain inconvenient in the Torah, Gnostic texts & New Testament when creating new cults. Surprising similarities? Why surprising? It takes a lot of effort to write whole mythologies, so why not piggy-back off others.
