The Crescent Rising: A Christian Primer on Islam
Two billion people. Fourteen centuries. One faith most Christians still don't really understand.
From a cave on a mountain in sixth-century Arabia to the mosques of Detroit and London, The Crescent Rising tells the story of Islam the way a thoughtful Christian neighbor would tell it - honestly, fairly, and without flinching from the hard parts.
C.T. Paulsen walks the reader through the life of Muhammad, the writing of the Qur'an and the hadith, the great divide between Sunni and Shia, the rise of the Sufis, and the modern movements - Wahhabism, Salafism, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Iranian Revolution - that shape the headlines today. He explains the Five Pillars and Sharia in plain English. He maps where the world's Muslims actually live and what they actually believe. He examines, carefully and at length, how Muslims see Jews, Christians, and most importantly, Jesus.
This is not a tract, and it will not try to make you a Muslim. It is also not a polemic. The author is a Christian and says so plainly, but he refuses to caricature a faith practiced by nearly a quarter of humanity. He names what is admirable. He names what is concerning. He asks the hard questions both sides ought to ask, and he refuses the cheap answers from either direction.
If you have a Muslim co-worker, neighbor, or friend - if you want to understand the news, the world, and the largest non-Christian religion on earth - if you want a book you could hand to a Christian without embarrassment and a Muslim without insult - this is the place to start.
Tough but fair. Charitable but clear. Footnoted throughout, with a short bibliography for readers who want to dig deeper.
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