The Bible and the Qur'an

In short, this is a very helpful book for someone trying to understand how the Muslim thinks and acts. Since Islam has no "pope" per se, and is rather left to individual interpretations of the Qur'an, it is obvious that strange sects with political ambitions would develop. Some of these sects are rather radical and zealous within their particular interpretation of the Qur'an and use that self-ordained interpretation at times the basis for terrorism. That being said, the majority of Muslims who adhere to the traditional teachings of the Qur'an and ancient traditional sects are very peace loving people. No one can deny that among this peace loving majority that the Spirit of God is present.

The previous reviewer faulted this book because, already being well versed on the subject, he did not learn anything new. I don't think this would be a flaw, unless the book was advertised as being a complete, encyclopedic treatment of the topic. But it was not. Clearly, this was an introductory book, and I think it's fair to evaluate it on that basis. A high school math text shouldn't be faulted if it failed to contain a good description of Pontryagin's Maximum Principle. The author succeeded in pointing out the considerable areas where Islam and Christianity share common ground, and he also was not shy about calling attention to areas where there are radical and irreconsilable differences. This is an illuminating work from one who has lived in the Islamic world and knows what he is talking about. Why not five stars? Whether it is Jomier's syntactical idiosyncrasies or a sloppy translation, some of the prose turns out a little strange to the ear.