Sir Walter Scott's Crusades and Other Fantasies

Sir Walter Scott's Crusades and Other Fantasies
Author: Ibn Warraq
Publisher: World Encounter Institute/New English Review Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2013-09
Genre: Islam
ISBN: 9780988477858

Ibn Warraq makes an invaluable corrective contribution to our understanding of literature and its impact on popular conceptions of history. Warraq takes for his study the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott and makes a facinating comparison between the novels (and Scott's sources) and what is known from the Arab sources and biographers of Saladin and the Crusades. Then he discusses the work of many other scholars of this period so the reader comes away with a well-rounded view, not only of the Crusades, but the scholarship of the period as well. Beyond that, Warraq discusses antisemitism and the Jewish plight during the Medieval era, (as well as their oppressed status under Islamic rule) on through to the early Christian Zionist movement in literature focusing especially on the work of George Eliot and Charlotte Elizabeth. Warraq ends by discussing the primary importance of freedom of expression and how that is threatened in the modern world. He holds up the South Park Affair as a prime example of the West's tendency of to fold before Islam "like some third rate poker player who throws in the cards at the first aggressive bluff when he is in fact holding the winning hand." Ibn Warraq is the rare scholar who still believes in objective truth and that that truth may be found (or at least approximated) by a thorough and dispassionate examination of the evidence. His is the calm voice of reason in a world carried away by hyperbole. Read him and be wiser.

Islam as Imagined in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century English Literature

Islam as Imagined in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century English Literature
Author: Clinton Bennett
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2022-11-29
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1000787842

Since medieval times, English literature has often demonized Muslims. The term ‘Islamophobia’ is recent, but the phenomenon is old. This survey of literature focusing on the modern period up to 1914 identifies negative ideas about Islam in novels and plays. Some works are iconic, some more obscure. However, the book highlights writers who challenged stereotypes and tended to see Muslims as equally capable of virtue and vice as Christians and others. The book deals with the role of the imagination in depicting others and how this serves authors’ agendas. The conclusion brings the book’s thesis into dialogue with the debate in the USA today between supporters of multiculturalism and its critics. Anyone interested in how stereotypes are formed, perpetuated and can be challenged will profit from this book. It is aimed at a non-specialist readership.

Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism

Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism
Author: John Zmirak
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2016-09-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1621576086

A book to challenge the status quo, spark a debate, and get people talking about the issues and questions we face as a country!

Getting Jesus Right: How Muslims Get Jesus and Islam Wrong

Getting Jesus Right: How Muslims Get Jesus and Islam Wrong
Author: James A Beverley
Publisher: Castle Quay Books
Total Pages:
Release: 2015-06-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 192735546X

IS IT POSSIBLE THAT MUSLIMS ARE WRONG ABOUT JESUS AND VARIOUS TENETS OF ISLAM? Is the famous Muslim writer Reza Aslan mistaken in his portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth and apologetic for Islam? Professor James Beverley and Professor Craig Evans take an in-depth look at subjects at the core of the Muslim-Christian divide: the reliability of the New Testament Gospels and the Qur’an, and what we can really know about Jesus and the prophet Muhammad. Importantly, they also examine the implications of traditional Islamic faith on the status of women, jihad and terrorism.

THE PROMISED LAND OF ISRAEL

THE PROMISED LAND OF ISRAEL
Author: Solomon Pournia
Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
Total Pages: 729
Release: 2023-06-12
Genre: History
ISBN:

What would you say if the Holy Quran turned out to contain components consistent with Zionism? What if the Quran in its very philological content blesses and encourages the Jews to live in the land of Israel? What if billions of Muslims were to be made aware of the clearly "pro-Zionist" verses in the Quran and were to alter their worldview to welcome the Jews in their ancestral homeland? One of them is Sura Al-Ma'ida 5:21, which has a striking significance as a powerful command from Allah, as interpreted by the renowned Muslim exegetes, including Al-Tabari. On the other hand, the examining of the status of al-Aqsa Mosque being the third-holiest site in the Muslim world, as well as the status of the city of Jerusalem from Muslims' and Jews' viewpoint, would reveal fully new perspectives. Ever since 1937, there have been multiple attempts to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict to no avail. The hidden religious aspect of the conflict has been generally neglected by the parties. Accordingly, the Muslim world is often subjected to provocation by zealous clerics and politicians who implement anti-Jewish propaganda, including the misinterpretation of the Quranic verses. This book will tackle on the very sensitive topics alluded above and should serve as an eye-opener for Muslim politicians, traditional clerics, Muslims in general and the interested Westerners.. The welldocumented accuracy and authenticity of the quoted facts render them beyond malicious interpretation.

Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present

Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present
Author: Michael B. Oren
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 1178
Release: 2008-02-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0393341526

“Will shape our thinking about America and the Middle East for years.”—Christopher Dickey, Newsweek Power, Faith, and Fantasytells the remarkable story of America's 230-year relationship with the Middle East. Drawing on a vast range of government documents, personal correspondence, and the memoirs of merchants, missionaries, and travelers, Michael B. Oren narrates the unknown story of how the United States has interacted with this vibrant and turbulent region.

Ridley Scott

Ridley Scott
Author: Vincent LoBrutto
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2019-05-17
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0813177111

A study of the iconic and influential film director’s life and work, from the author of Stanley Kubrick: A Biography. With celebrated works such as Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, and Gladiator, Ridley Scott has secured his place in Hollywood. This legendary director and filmmaker has had an undeniable influence on art and the culture of filmmaking, but is also a respected media businessman. In Ridley Scott: A Biography, Vincent LoBrutto delves into Ridley Scott’s oeuvre in a way that allows readers to understand the yin and yang of his exceptional career, offering a unique crosscut between the biographical facts of Scott’s personal life—his birth and early days in northeast England, his life in New York City—and his career in Hollywood as a director and producer of television commercials, TV series, miniseries, and feature films. Every film is presented, analyzed, and probed for a greater understanding of the visionary, his personality, and his thought process, for a deeper perception of his astounding work and accomplishments. The voices of cast and crew who have worked with Ridley Scott, as well as the words of the man himself, are woven throughout this book for a fully realized, critical biography, revealing the depth of the artist and his achievements.

Walter Scott and Contemporary Theory

Walter Scott and Contemporary Theory
Author: Evan Gottlieb
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2013-02-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1441128743

A bestselling author in his own time and long after, Sir Walter Scott was not only a writer of thrilling tales of romance and adventure but also an insightful historical thinker and literary craftsman. Over the last two decades, scholars have come to see him as an important figure in Romantic-period literature, Scottish literature and the development of the historical novel. Walter Scott and Contemporary Theory builds on this renewed appreciation of Scott's importance by viewing his most significant novels - from Waverley and Rob Royto Ivanhoe,Redgauntlet, and beyond - through the lens of contemporary critical theory. By juxtaposing pairings of Scott's early and later novels with major contemporary theoretical concepts and the work of such thinkers as Alain Badiou, Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida and Slavoj Žižek, this book uses theory to illuminate the complexities of Scott's fictions, while simultaneously using Scott's fictions to explain and explore the state of contemporary theory.

Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe
Author: Walter Scott
Publisher: Classics Illustrated
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-11-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781906814557

Sir Walter Scott's tale of adventure during the times of Robin Hood. Classics Illustrated tells this wonderful tale in colorful comic strip form, offering an excellent introduction for younger readers. This edition also includes a biography if Sir Walter Scott and study questions, which can be used both in the classroom or at home to further engage the reader in the story. The Classics Illustrated comic book series began life in 1941 with its first issue, Alexandre Dumas' "The Three Musketeers", and has since included over 200 classic tales released around the world. This new edition is specifically tailored to engage and educate young readers with some of the greatest works ever written, while still thrilling older readers who have loving memories of this series of old. Each book contains dedicated theme discussions and study questions to further develop the reader's understanding and enjoyment of the work at hand.