Georgetown University Lecturer Karen Armstrong, "Islam Is A Religion Of Success..."

Sacred Heart Chapel, Georgetown

Karen Armstrong is recognized as a provocative, original thinker on the role of religion in the modern world. She earned her Master's in Literature from the University of Oxford, taught modern literature at the University of London, and taught part time at the Leo Baeck College for the Study of Judaism and the Training of Rabbis and Teachers.  She is the author of 20 books, some of which have been translated into forty languages, and which include: Holy War, The Crusades and Their Impact on Today’s World [1988]; Muhammad, A Biography of the Prophet [1991]; A History of God [1993]; Islam, A Short History [2002]; The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness [2005]; and The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions [2006].

Link (here) to the Georgetown University website.

In an interview with Bill Moyers published on March 2009 at Public Broadcasting Service site, Armstrong states that "Islam is a religion of success.… Mohammed was not an apparent failure. He was a dazzling success, politically as well as spiritually, and Islam went from strength to strength to strength." Armstrong argued that “until the 20th century, Islam was a far more tolerant and peaceful faith than Christianity. The Qur’an strictly forbids any coercion in religion and regards all rightly guided religions as coming from God; and despite the Western belief to the contrary, Muslims did not impose their faith by the sword”.

Link (here) to a much larger piece by the Melkite Greek Catholic Robert Spencer his famous blog is entitled Jihad Watch