An Abridged Koran: The Reconstructed Historical Koran (The Islamic Trilogy)

At least in modern times, the primary mode of jihad has been not open warfare, but infiltration. In this, the most fundamental thing jihadists have had is their favor has been the difficulty in assessing what Muhammadanism (aka (misleadlingly) Islam) is really about. For whatever reason, Muslims do not present the Koran in the chronological order that it was originally written. In this volume, Bill Warner not only presents it chronologically, but removes repetitive sections, and puts the verses in the context of the Muhammadan scriptures recounting the life and "traditions" of Muhammad.Warner also simplifies these these contextual sections, and provides precise citations to the original text. On occasion, I did check with one source, Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah, which is accessible online.) In one instance, (at 172) I found that Warner had included a negative characterization that, while it may in fact have been factually accurate, was not in the original source. (at Ibn Ishaq; margin note I764). This is the only clear misstatement I happened to find; in the context of the scope of Warner's work, not a great fault, but still a fault. Through his email, I advised Warner of it; he thanked me and said he would edit it.This book (and its shorter and longer editions) represents a massive undertaking that, based on authoritative Muhammadan sources, makes this religion/ideology/strategy for subversion widely accessible to the Western public. It is a potentially historic contribution. If we make use of it.

In 1964 a paperbound volume was published by the government of Communist China that shook the world: "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung" (original transliteration from the Chinese of the Chairman's name), a/k/a "The Little Red Book." This book laid out the doctrinal threads of Chinese Communism.The Center for the Study of Political Islam's (CSPI) new English version of the Koran does the same for political Islam, also called "Islamism" - "Islamicism" - "Islamic fundamentalism" - "Islamofascism" - "Radical Islam" by post-9/11 pundits, theoretically so as to contradistinguish it from putative plain old "Islam." Whether there is any distinction between Islam per se and "political Islam" is, in the last analysis, for the theologians to decide. But, in any event, you can get a great leap forward on your political-Islam learning curve by reading all 216 pages of this brilliant little red paperback book.According to "An Abridged Koran: Readable and Understandable" (at p. ix), Volume 4 in CSPI's incredible ten-volume series, the Koran is so difficult for your average Western reader because it is organized like a mystery novel from which one has torn out the book's spine, then has the book rebound, not topically, not chronologically, and not logically, but soley according to the length of each chapter! In contrast to all other English versions of the Koran, this book presents VERBATEM quotations from the Koran, in easily readable "newspaper"/middlebrow English, WHICH ARE ORGANIZED topically, chronologically and logically by the CSPI scholar-editors. The only reason this edition is termed "abriged" is that the Koran's many redundant ayas (verses) are excised. For instance, there are over thirty versions of the story of Moses and the Pharaoh. (N.B. If you are a theological purist and want an unabridged version of the Koran, order CSPI's Volume 3, "A Simple Koran: Readable and Understandable" -- 408 pages in length -- which contains every word of the original classic Koran.)This book comes with a terrific 6-page overview providing all-important context, and a 6-page commentary at the end that is a theological and philosophical tour de force in both depth and in breadth. There is also a helpful one-page bibliography to help the inquiring layman.*WESTERNER-INFIDELS!*>Read this groundbreaking Little Red Book, the very best English version of the Koran, the sacred source-text and doctrinal foundation for 1,400 years of political Islam and counting.It will blow you away!

Finally there is an accessible Koran for every-man. Islam is no longer just for the Imams, to dispense wisdom from above.If you want to understand what is happening in the world today, you need to understand Islam. Islam is the fastest growing religion on the planet, and the Koran is the perfect word of Allah.Reading the Koran is a real slog. It is like reading all of the speeches of a politician that were randomly assembled. There is endless repetition and no reference to what is happening in the world that inspired the speeches.An Abridged Koran assembles the speeches in a chronological order and gives you basic background on what is happening in the prophets life at the time.This is critical since Abrogation is the key to understanding verses which conflict. Abrogation means go with the later verse because "It is better". The early Islam of Mecca is very different than the Islam of Medina, so hundreds of verses conflict.Exact references are included so you can go to the original sources on the internet. Many things in the Koran don't seem to make sense, so these 'chapter and verse' references are essential, not only for the original source but for finding the Islamic scholar's debates of these mysteries.I had many WTF moments, and so will you, These exact references will lead you directly to the original source materials on any of dozens of Islamic sites. So I referenced multiple Islamic sources and never found a contradiction to this books simple translation.