On the reading front, I just finished Don Richardson’s latest book entitled: The Secrets of the Koran (pictured below). If you are not familiar with Don Richardson, he is a pretty well-known and well-respected missionary who has written a few books you may have heard the titles to or actually read, e.g. Peace Child, Eternity in Their Hearts, etc.

Although I’d heard a lot about Don Richardson because of his interest in finding "messianic keys" in the folklore, myths, and customs of various cultures, I’d never actually read any of his books…until now! With all that reputation in the back of my mind, I was a bit astounded by his book. It was not what I expected.

Before I say anything else about this book, I just want to admit [disclaimer] that I know very little about Islam and even less about its self-proclaimed founding prophet Mohammed. So I’m pretty ignorant about the whole Muslim world. In fact, that’s exactly why I wanted to read this book. And I learned quite a bit about Islam through Richardson’s research and critical analysis of this world religion. So that gives you little background on me and one of the positive things regarding what I read. Now for the negative…

The fairly disturbing thing about this book, and I want to be careful how I say this since Don Richardson is my brother in Christ, is that I am fairly certain that he wrote the entire book…while in a hidden underground bomb shelter located somewhere in Montana!

Sorry. I’m being a bit facetious, but Richardson seems to really believe that Islam has a global agenda for world domination. Why would I say such a thing? Am I exaggerating? Here’s the title to chapter 11: "Islam’s Plan for World Domination". You tell me!

Now, I know that Richardson makes some very valid arguments about the type of commands that are present in the Koran regarding jihad (holy war), the mercenary nature of Islam’s founder Mohammed, and the militant agenda of what the media likes to call "radical Muslims". I know these are all true realities and we should be concerned. But some of Richardsons arguments in the book seemed a bit far-fetched to me and his tone throughout the book was hyper-paranoid, cynical, defensive, adversarial, petty, and (I thought) often disrespectful to Muslims.

If you know me, you obviously know that I don’t believe in the tenets of Islam or in the so-called "god" (Allah) represented in the little that I do know about this religion. I also am very saddened by many of the civil and human rights issues that seem to be violated in places where Islam reigns supreme. But even having feelings of this nature and realizing the dangers inherit in this belief system, it was hard for me to align myself with many of Richardson’s views especially regarding how we reach them with "truth".

In fact, there were moments in this book where he seemed outright crazed to me. As an example, here is one of the strategies that Richardson believes that Muslims are using in their attempt to take over the world: Muslims Are Infiltrating Christian Colleges and Churches Expressly to Seduce Christian Women. I kid you not. That’s another section heading from the book almost verbatim… I could tell you the details of this and other strategies, but that would ruin the suspense wouldn’t it? You should check this book out for yourself and decide if I’m just being naive.

I could be wrong. I’m not saying that I am an expert on this issue, but what really made me question Richardson’s thesis and position was that in the chapter,"What Should We Do?" which I thought would center on practical steps to addressing this threat of Islam, Richardson omitted something I find important– God.

Instead of suggesting that we, as Christians, need to pray and ask God for wisdom regarding the doom that Islam is supposedly propagating, instead of suggesting that we go to scripture for answers, instead of exploring the option of (let’s say) praying for Muslims, befriending Muslims, reaching out in mission to Muslims, instead of simply stating that we need to find ways to point Muslims to the truth regarding who Christ was and is, Richardsons remedy was that we need to defend western civilization, address the media with intelligence, and basically debunk the Koran as heretical fiction.

That’s what disappointed me the most about this book. It seemed so locked in modernity with its apologetic debate tactics. The thinking goes: if we can only convince Muslims that their holy book isn’t, then they will believe us and become Christians (or maybe atheists which is still a lot better than Muslims, right?) If we drive home the truth and prevent them from infiltrating our country through immigration, then we can turn the tide.

I just wish there was something hopeful in this book, some new idea or awareness of how we can reach Muslims with the love and forgiveness that God offers each of us. Instead, I felt like, I just got a new form of the tired old colonialism. The book itself seemed to be nothing but a repetitious rant at times (which is ironic because that is one of the things that Richardson criticizes about the Koran.)

The end of the book got especially ridiculous when Don Richardson went into this tangent about how the media purposefully uses "camera angles and shots" in television interviews in order to discredit Christians who share the stage with Muslims! You think I’m kidding. Here’s the excerpt I’m referring to:

The intrusively up-close shot made the minister’s [Christian’s] face appear huge and quivery, even foreshortened, which looks unnatural. The minister’s appearance, unflattering as almost anyone’s would be at such close range, was deliberately distorted by a cameraman or perhaps by a program controller to distract viewers from what he was saying to the audience. I have never known a television camera to come in that close to a Muslim interviewee. A close-up camera shot is a sure sign that someone in or behind a program despises whoever is unfortunate enough to be in front of the lens. (pg. 248)

Yes, indeed. A close-up always points to a deep-seeded hatred. Everyone knows that.

Good grief. Maybe the real conspiracy here was that some nefarious Muslim posed as Don Richardson’s editor for this book and actually allowed him to put this type of stuff in print. He was trying to make a sane Christian missionary look like a rabid lunatic. As I’ve implied above, maybe I just read the book all wrong! But it really seemed like something was awry throughout. I’m focusing on the extreme examples, but the book just wasn’t that helpful and seemed designed to illicit fear and paranoia among Christians–which will go a very short way in breaching the gap between them and their Muslim neighbors.

I decided I couldn’t end my Islam reading on that strangely sour note, so I picked up a book from another Christian perspective. The book I chose is Miriam Adeney’s Daughters of Islam, and so far it seems a lot more hopeful and a lot more sane. On Mother’s Day, you’ve got to give it to the woman!