So I kind of like this book. However, it has some pretty drastic problems to be honest that make me hesitant to recommend it. Multiple grammatical errors in the Arabic (ie, Muttalib, which is not even a word in Arabic, presumably he means Mutallib, that is 'demander') and in his basic history facts. For example, he says Constantine made Christianity that official religion of the Roman Empire. That is hogwash. He did not such thing. He did make Christianity legal with the edict of Milan (313) and call (and fund) the Council of Nicea (325) because the doctirnal disputes going on throughtout the empire were affecting civil order. But it was not until several decades later during the reign of Theodosius that Christianity became THE religion of the Roman Empire when the pagan rites were forbidden.
Musk, of the Anglican Diocese of Egypt et al, is trying a little too hard to be like Kenneth Cragg. And there is no one alive today as brilliant as Cragg in terms of getting the Muslim world (except for Cragg, who is very old and living in Oxford from what I hear), and except for perhaps Bernard Lewis. That having been said, there are some decent quotes here and there:
The Islamists (the "fundamentalists")make detailed appeal to verses (about killing non-believers for example) that are said to abrogate other verses (about respecting non-Muslims). Why does an eternally existing word need recourse to a doctrine of abrogation? Could it not make up its eternal mind?
Musk, Bill. 2005. Kissing Cousins? Christians and Muslims Face to Face. Monarch. p 104.
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