The American Spectator

p> strong> em> The Truth About Muhammad : br> Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion /em> br> By Robert Spencer br> (Regnery, 256 pages, $27.95) /strong> /p>

“History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” — James Joyce

If you want to spend a depressing afternoon, try flipping through Robert Spencer’s The Truth About Muhammad. It’s not a long read, but when you’re through you’ll have an idea of the monumental task awaiting the West.

Unlike the founders of other religions, whose lives are often shrouded in legend and mystery, Muhammad’s rise took place — as 19th century French scholar Ernest Renan put it — “in the full light of history.” Muhammad himself dictated the Koran. There are numerous other accounts of his life, both from people who knew him personally and from the hadith, a collection of “sayings of the prophet” that scholars collected shortly after his death. There is no great mystery about who Muhammad was or what he stood for. The only mystery is why the West has so much difficulty in recognizing it.

Muhammad was a warlord, pure and simple. He roused a disorganized group of nomadic tribes into a ruthless, fearless army. During his lifetime, he conquered the Arabian Peninsula and his followers eventually extended those conquests from Spain to India. By all rights, he should take his place in history among of Alexander the Great, Genghis Kahn, and Tamerlane the Great as early history’s great military leaders.