Fairy-tale Islam: Deceptions Masking a Dark Reality

I admire Dr. Mateen Elass’ willingness to build awareness, fight for truth and challenge cancel culture. In his new book, he shines the light on Islam, it’s history and cultural traditions that need to be understood. Mateen’s life work has been to seek answers to the questions we need to be asking. In this well researched book, Mateen encourages awareness and provides an excellent opportunity for all Westerners to understand the implications of blindly accepting the narrative that we are offered by our media today surrounding Islam and it’s followers. -

This book from Mr. Elass debunks so many of the myths that have been swallowed like poison by the protesters we see rioting in our streets for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. I have a great resource in this book to share light in the darkness.

“Fairy-Tale Islam: Deceptions Masking a Dark Real y” by Mateen Elass, Ph.d, is a grim but important journey through much of Islam which, by Elass’ charges, is a dangerously hypocritical faith. It is the faith into which he was born and reared. Mateen’s story from high school onward through graduate school is one of gradual and then quicker turning away from the Islamic faith of his upbringing in his homeland, Saudi Arabia. There is neither time nor space in a short review to display all of Elass’ credentials to write a book which is critical of the faith he was reared in. Suffice to say his family background, his literacy in Arabic, extensive academic achievements at Stanford and at Durham , along with 40 years of dedicated research give him ample qualifications.Mr. Elass’ critique of Islam in this book is fierce, amply-documented from original and secondary source material, and unrelenting. He gives little ground in destroying the two main pillars of core Islamic faith: the model of humanity par excellence – the perfect man -- Mohammed, and the total reliability and divine authorship of every space and character of the Koran text.“Fairy-Tale Islam” is from front to last a display of how Islam is portrayed (rather than practiced) in the Western world today. Elass contends that hypocrisy and deception, (both of which along with clear commands to violence for the sake of Islam) run throughout the Koran. Any honest look at the life of Mohammed shows us this was not a good, kind, or disciplined man.Also a simple knowledge of the history of Islam in the last 14 centuries, and perhaps most dangerously in the most recent decades demonstrates that Islam is a faith bent on conquest. This, for the West is especially worrisome as Islamic peoples are the sole people group that boasts enormous population growth [1/3 of Earth’s population by 2050]. Additionally, the increasing demands for Sharia law become more and more insistent as the Muslim population expands in contemporary Europe. All of this makes it clear that Islam never has nor ever will be content to coexist or share power with infidels.However, it is Elass’ contention, and he demonstrates it thoroughly, that we in the West, and most particularly our elite universities and the seats of governmental power, plus our media and entertainment industries have been hood-winked into portraying orthodox Islam as a benign, peace loving, and altruistic system. Elass shows this portrayal of Islam to be naive and totally uninformed of its orders from Allah. He makes it clear that at its core, Islam's intent is to one day fulfill Mohammed’s articulated vision of a world free of infidel unbelievers and with califates dedicated only to true Koranic Islam and Sharia law holding full sway in all the citadels of world power.Reading “Fairy-Tale Islam” is a bracing and fascinating journey for this reader through material of which I’d long been unaware. Mr. Elass quotes chapter and verse of the Koran throughout his book.The penultimate paragraph of “Fairy-Tale Islam” reads this way:“We must expose fairy-tale Islam if the West is to avoid sufferingthe fate of so many past civilizations that buckled under the threat of thesword or some other form of stealth jihad. The first step in preservingWestern civilization from the encroachment of Islam is awareness.”For me, “Fairy-Tale Islam” was an alarming, yet fortifying read. Mateen Elass’ call to Islamists, secularists, Christians, and to “nones” demands our close attention.

"FairyTale Islam" is a very interesting and readable presentation of the inconsistencies and even the silliness of Islam. It is packed with interesting history and details on many aspects of Islam, and how they relate to today's world.The title ("Fairy Tale") is a bit misleading, because one might think of happy childhood tales; whereas after reading it, I might choose a title such as: "Very Grimm Tales about Islam". I suppose titles such as: "The Hidden Facts of Islam" or "What the Quran really says" or "Islam is not what you have been told" might be more accurate.It is important to note that most of the references for this book are from the Quran and the various other "holy writings" of Islam (the Hadith, etc). The discussions are not presented from western literature, but from the words of the Islam texts themselves.The book is written by a scholar, Dr Mateen Elass, who is very knowledgable on this topic, having studied Arabic and Islam for decades, and was raised in Saudi Arabia in a mixed secular muslim family. He spent much of his formative years searching for truth, eventually receiving graduate degrees at Stanford University, and a PhD from Durham. I really appreciate and enjoy reading all of the footnotes he has included, which explain many of the arabic words and interesting details behind the words and historical events. The result is a highly readable book, even though written by a true scholar.Four decades ago, when I first started encountering the claims of Islam, I spent a lot of years wondering if Allah and the Christian God are really the same, just described in different languages with different cultural influences. I wish I had read this book back then... but of course it wasn't available. Dr Elass demonstrates clearly the gaping differences between Allah and the Judeo-Christian God, looking at the question from many different viewpoints. His arguments are compelling, and make it obvious that they cannot be the same god. (I am embarrassed now that it wasn't obvious to me 40 years ago.)Using the Quran, Hadith, and other Muslim sources, Dr Elass shows that the Sharia law of Islam is not compatible with democracies nor constitutional republics; and certainly not with women's rights. This last item should be obvious from any visit or videos of countries with Sharia law; but the fairy tale nature of Islam seems to allow these facts to be totally ignored by those who have an agenda..The entire book is written carefully, and avoids inflammatory emotion by presenting a factual explanation of what the Quran and Hadith say about many topics. I appreciate this careful exposition. Even so, I won't be surprised if Dr Elass is unfairly accused of "Islamophobia" (which is clearly false, as he isn't afraid to let the facts expose what they will): such an emotional response is often used to try to suppress truthful writing. Given the unthinking emotion exhibited recently on related topics, even where the facts are crystal clear (such as 7 October-2023), I can imagine a whole set of future "reviews" accusing Dr Elass of who-knows-what. I am therefore impressed by his willingness to state his position clearly, factually, and even in a loving manner.