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Review: The 9/11 Verses: Terrorist Teachings in the Koran
- By Gary Dale Cearley
- Published January 26, 2009
- Religion and Spirituality
Gary Dale Cearley
Reviewer Gary Dale Cearley is an expatriate American who chooses to write about controversial material. His subject matter tends to run the gamut from historical subjects to biography and even humor. Originally from Arkansas, he has spent several years in Korea as well as Vietnam and is now living in Thailand.Â
View all articles by Gary Dale Cearley
Author: Karl Trautwein
ISBN-10: 0982027303
ISBN-13: 978-0982027301
Karl Trautwein’s book, The 9/11 Verses: Terrorist Teachings
in the Koran, was not the kind of book that I thought it would be
when I first picked it up. What did I expect? Well, I thought it
might be a bit of a tome on the “clash of civilizations” but in
fact it really only deals with the actions of the Islamic terrorists
through the holy texts of their own religion aside from contrasting
New Testament verses here and there. Nor more sociological, political
or theological explanations are needed. Karl Trautwein spells out for
the layman’s the basic root for all of the grease fire terrorism
(as I prefer to call it) that we see all around the world. According
to the author the September 11 attacks were not retaliation for
United States policy nor did they ultimately have to do with Israel.
These attackers were simply following commands that they find in the
Quran and in Hadith. Trautwein concludes that the real Islam,
according to the Quran, is the Islam of the zealot.
So where does the author come up with his conclusion about radical Islam? Karl Trautwein explains that he was baffled by the September 11 attacks and needed to find some understanding of it all so he took it upon himself to read the Quran word for word as well as much of the better authoritative Hadith (sayings about Muhammad’s life and Quranic teachings) to find the source of the Muslim terroristic actions. His findings, to the thinking man, are almost as frightful as terrorism itself. What Trautwein basically concludes is that without a vast reformation this terrorism will be a self perpetuating and never ending cycle of violence from the fringes of the Muslim world aimed at Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
The author’s aim was to lay out for all to see exactly what the Quran says in these cases of deadly violence and he uses it to take umbrage with those who claim that Islam is a religion of peace. Trautwein points out that these controversial verses, or should I say the verses that seem controversial to those in the non-Muslim world (or Dar Al Harb – the House of War, as it is known in Islam), are actually quite in keeping with the actions of the most fearsome terrorists. Trautwein surmises that those Muslims who truly read and accept the Quran and Hadith are commanded by Islam not only to treat non-Muslims not as neighbors but rather as enemies but more to the point they are commanded to fight and even kill non-Muslims wherever they may be. To kill a kaffir, an infidel, is not only a command in Islam, but it also gives the killer a greater reward in Paradise and if the killer is martyred in the attack his family will share in the greater reward. Trautwein concludes that anyone who’d believe otherwise is either fooling themselves or they have not studied the subject properly – the words of the verses that Karl Trautwein exposes are very clear and there can be no other context derived. The Islam of the terrorist is the true Islam, not the complacent Islam of the peaceful Muslim.
There will be readers who see that the author has juxtaposed contrary verses from the Christian New Testament and this will take a bit away from Trautwein’s argument. But actually I don’t believe that the Christian verses are meant to do anything but to underline the starkness of the Quranic verses. The Islamic writings are clear enough on the subject. Do we accept the truth or do we hide our heads in the sand like an ostrich? This is the question Karl Trautwein forces you to confront.
Click Here To Purchase The 9/11 Verses: Terrorist Teachings in the Koran