As I was just about to complete reading this book, I took a break to read today's New York Times. And one of the first articles I came across (July 17, 2012) was titled "Jihadists’ Fierce Justice Drives Thousands to Flee Mali", describing how Islamic extremists have taken control of Timbuktu in the African Country of Mali, and are imposing a strict form of religious justice on the population, prompting tens of thousands to flee.

The timing of this article coincided with my reading Mr. Wilders claim that rather being a religion of peace, history has shown that Islam is a militaristic ideology bent on forcing everyone to conform to the ancient teachings, or else. Mr. Wilders makes that point that Islam was born of the sword, and unlike Christianity, is not a religion of peace nor of the Golden Rule. His point is that the terrorists and extremists who took down the World Trade Towers in NY and commit other atrocities are not simply an extremely small minority within the religion (e.g., the few bad apples that all groups have), but rather are the likely outcome of this ideology, as the NY Times article might support. By his criticism of Islam, and stating it's an ideology of violence and hatred against outsiders, Mr. Wilders himself has been marked for death, as the book title states, for making these points about the non-peaceful side of Islam. He feels his points are proven by showing how his criticism, expressed "by the pen", provokes threats expressed "by the sword".

While we can still find some fringe Christian groups teaching or preaching the God hates homosexuals, or God hates all non-Jews, or it's acceptable "to kill the babies and children of Israels enemies, since they will grow up to harm us", or even find that God hates Obama, as the sermons of preacher Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church can tell you. However, while acknowledging that horrible atrocities have been committed by Christians in the past, those acts are certainly no longer condoned, and rarely practiced (other than by some fringe groups), and acts of hatred and killing, when committed, were contrary to the teachings of Jesus and the Scripture.

On the other hand, Mr. Wilders makes the point that acts such as these are accepted by selected teachings in the Koran. And that is the point the author makes, with countless examples, in this book. He leaves us with the caution that while we may want to live in an all inclusive, multi-cultural society, the teachings of Islam with the ultimate aim of becoming a world-wide religion makes this a dangerous ideology.

Unfortunately, there's no hatred like faith-based hatred. And while many examples of hatred exist outside of religion, such as the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda, or white vs. black societies such as in South Africa or the slave states of the United States, society was able to change and find peace within a generation of two once change was initiated. But change is hard, and takes courage and leadership of individuals. However, if hate of others is built into both the laws of governance, as well as the in the teachings of religion, as Mr. Wilders writes, change may be impossible. He points out that there has been little indication of change over the past thousand years in the beliefs and teachings of Islam, and therefore he considers overtures of peaceful co-existence in Europe by Muslim newcomers as the Trojan Horse in immigration policy.

Thus, Mr. Wilders book is not a hopeful book, but if by pointing out these issues, it sparks debate, reforms and understanding, perhaps it will have some lasting benefits.

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The author presents a very strong case against Islam and Islamization. He does exaggerate sometimes but it is something that could be excused considering terrible experience he had. ( )