The book serves as a good overview for what a typical pious mainstream Muslim actually believes and how they approach questions about their faith. I began reading this book with a pretty good working understanding of the Islamic faith, but no experience reading Islamic apologetics. The writing was clear and the content was interesting, with little fat to trim. If you’re interested in getting a reasonably thorough Islam 201, give this a chance.

This book is a collection of e-mail exchanges between the author (Ahmed Rashad) and random internet correspondents who had questions about Islam. They fall into 3 categories: trolls sending hate mail, people who know very little and are interested in potentially converting, and people who know a bit but want clarification on specific issues.

Regarding the way that the e-mail exchanges sometimes cut off without really resolving, the author wrote, “Sometimes people disengage and stop responding. You may have noticed a few times in this book that a conversation would end abruptly. While this is not satisfying, it is unfortunately the nature of email. Nobody is obligated to reply, and for this reason every reply is precious. Likewise, remember that ‚in real life,‛ nobody is obligated to return your greeting or your salutation of peace; therefore, everyone who does respond to you — whether neighbor or classmate or coworker — is likewise precious.”

I respect that the author doesn't whitewash Islam or try to make it politically correct. He presents homosexuality as an unambiguous abomination, defends the practice of old men marrying girls who are "adults" by virtue of having had a single period (and also says any boy who has had a single orgasm is also ready to marry if he is capable of providing for a wife and child).

Some of the e-mails, especially the correspondents interested in converting, weren't particularly interesting. The first one of those correspondents asked a few superficial questions and then immediately converted to Islam. It was not very illuminating.

The author advises a new convert that he does not need any books other than the Quar'an itself to study, which surprised me. I thought that some collection of hadiths would be advised and was surprised that it wasn't.

It was interesting to see someone justify all of the many and varied social prohibitions against contact between women and men simply by quoting a prohibition against adultery. From my cultural perspective it doesn't seem like a natural leap of logic, but obviously it is to this author.

It was disappointing that the author denied that Saudi Arabia has a problem with racism (it does), or simply ignored some of the questions that get a wide variety of answers within Christianity (like masturbation).

I appreciated the author's refutation of some awful practices around sexual assault and treatment of women and children, but I was frustrated that he didn't notice the contradiction between his overall message that the Quar'an is perfect and the fact that it doesn't contain teachings against these terrible acts.

Unfortunately, his understanding of modern Judaism and Christianity is not so great. He writes things like " Stoning is the divinely prescribed punishment for the sin and crime of adultery in ALL three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam." Also, he thinks that Methodist women wear head coverings for some reason.

There were a lot of parallels to fundamentalist Evangelical Christianity that I was already aware of (emphasis on reading the religious texts, rules, ritualistic prayer, sexual purity for women, etc.) but there were also quite a few that surprised me. Firstly, the idea that anyone who reads the religious texts with an open heart will be converted. I’ve heard this exact argument from a variety of Christian missionaries, Mormons, and now from a Muslim. The idea that people ignorant of the true religion due to no fault of their own will be judged based on their deeds and their heart. This allows for the eventual salvation of the righteous unbelievers and also anyone who lived before the religion was formed or who lived in a place where the religion had not spread. The sentiment that, "Unrestrained individual freedom leads to an immoral and fragmented society that is prone to injustices."

Here are some passages from the book that stood out to me:

"If a person wants to sin in the privacy of their own home, Islam says they are free to do so. No Muslim can violate his right to privacy; God will judge them on the Last Day. However, Islam teaches that blatant and brazen violations of public morality should be censured. It is by upholding this public morality that Islam intends to reform and uplift society."

This is an interesting perspective, because I always thought the practice of allowing activities like drinking alcohol, gambling, and prostitution in private homes was simply hypocrisy. I didn't know that there were Muslims who believed that it was an important principle for the governing of society to explicitly allow private immorality while punishing public immorality.

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In the Islamic narrative, God made man out of clay, angels out of light, and Jinn out of fire. "Iblis [Satan] is not an angel or a fallen angel... Satan was from the Jinn" … "So the first source of evil is Satan and all the evil, wicked Jinn that follow him; they spend their days and nights whispering suggestions into the hearts of Adam's progeny. The other source of evil is the selfish inclination of the soul of the person itself. The satanic forces are defeated by constant remembrance, repentance, and prayer. The selfish forces are defeated by worship, discipline, obeying God's commands, and living the Prophetic lifestyle."

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The author presents the following model of free will and judgment: God grants all humans free will, but after a person makes a choice God either blesses their choice if it is good or withholds his blessing if it is unpleasing. Eventually, when "sinning and defiance and arrogance become
that person’s way of life of that God makes his Decree", and permanently withholds His Grace from them. From then on, that person is cut off from God.

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"The Prophet said: 'A man should not see the private parts of another man, and a woman should not see the private parts of another woman'"

That was a shocking rule to me! I didn't realize Islam had an outright prohibition against men seeing each other naked. Obviously this can’t apply to people providing health care, right?

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A succinct Islamic response to The Problem of Pain:

"We believe that any and all suffering is part of God's test for us on this Earth, as well as an admonishment for our sins and transgressions. It is this cycle of good times and bad times by which God tests the sincerity of His servants, to see if we will be thankful during the good times and steadfastly patient during the bad times."

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. ( )

Loved this book! The format is new and innovative, and the content is very informative. Instead of a question/answer straight out format, it's a series of written conversations between two people. It doesn't read as contrived or scripted and gave me new insight into the Muslim faith. ( )

Ahmed Lotfy Rashed compiled one to one Q&A email treads triggered from WhyIslam.org from 2009 to 2011 for What Would a Muslim Say? Conversations, Questions, and Answers About Islam. Be aware that the book title suggests a black-and-white Q&A approach and Rashed uses this route frequently. Think of the comparable WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) books and merchandise, popular in the U.S. two decades ago, as if for every question there's a simple answer. In cases, the author gets confronted with objections, terrorist attacks with an Islamic motive I see attempts to escape. Suddenly, good and bad Muslims appear. Who's to distinguish? Of course, you always count yourself to be on the good side. While attacks aren't denied, readers are warned that condemnations from mainstream Islamic groups aren't recorded or published in the (Western) media.

According to the author, there's no compulsion of religion in Islam, only the ultimate fate of Muslims and other believers is different. There's no persecution of Christians or other minorities, headscarves are worn voluntarily, Muslims seek no converts, and Sharia is never practiced in isolation. Well, it requires a giant leap of faith and bypassing many facts on the ground, not only in the past 1,500 years but also in the contemporary world. The real roots and meaning of distinction between state and religion are neglected. The answers lead to many more questions like the mixture of politics and religion e.g. Syria, Saudi-Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Taliban, IS(IS), and Turkey, the reasons for the huge number of refugees fleeing to Europe. And what about the mixture of local cultures and religion. Belgian journalist Jan Leyers showed the many faces of Islam when he traveled through eight countries for the tv series Allah in Europa. The text of Qur'an may be fixed and unaltered, interpretations for daily life are more fluid,

There's no mention of the house of Islam, only a single reference to an Islamic state, and the consequences for non-Muslims. Jesus Christ in the Bible is very different from Isa in Qur'an, the God Christians and Muslims adore is not the same. The revelation of God as loving Father of his Son, the principles on sin, redemption, the unique role of Jesus Christ as the only way to the Father and the one to which all people will ultimately bow down (speaking of true Islam, surrender), is radically different from the simplified, and sometimes distorted versions of Jewish and Christian tenets presented in this Q&A. As the author himself recognizes, email is not an effective mean here. People can quit conversations at any point. Large parts of answers are repeated throughout the book, giving the impression of a copy-and-paste approach of instant answers, instead of an authentic two-way conversation digging into a specific question. I rather would have seen a more natural flow with in-depth research or reference. A book gives more room than a compilation of emails. ( )