An unpolished Christian argument against Islam.
A work of Christian apology argues against the validity of Islam.
There are many religions in the world. Can they all be real? “There are a lot of contradicting teachings given by religions,” writes Daniel early in his debut book, “each presenting itself as the law given by God and the standard by which He shall judge mankind on the Day of Judgment, while other religions even contradict whether there will be a judgment at all or whether there is God at all.” The author was born into a Roman Catholic family in Kenya, though after entering a military college in Nairobi, he felt compelled to convert to Islam in order to be like the majority of his classmates. The doctrines of Islam did not sit right with him, however, and he ended up going the other way, eventually becoming a born-again Protestant. In this book, Daniel tells his story and shares the research he did while making his decision. He outlines the contradictions between Christianity and Islam, highlighting inconsistencies or controversies within Islamic theology and history while promoting the authority of Christian teachings. He also delves into the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism (the latter, in his view, being a truer reflection of the Bible), and offers brief sections on the comparative authenticity of other major religions (including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism). Daniel’s prose is even-tempered but rather awkward in its syntax and phrasing: “I noticed clearly that the life of the first Christians is much similar to the way of the life of the born-again Christians and is very different from the Catholic way of life.” In his ambitious book, the author clearly expresses respect for all people and faith traditions. His critiques are polite and don’t seem to come from a place of intolerance. He does, however, come to the conclusion that Islam (and some other religions) is a trick played by Satan on humanity. Daniel is an amateur scholar, and this does not read like a rigorous work on comparative religion. Those interested in a more balanced take on the similarities and differences between Islam and Christianity should look elsewhere.
An unpolished Christian argument against Islam.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2018
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 338
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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