The book presents the similarities and contrasts between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It shows how each of the three religions shares a common core of religious and ethical teachings with the other two, although differing in places with regard to specific doctrine and dogma.

About the Author:
DR. JERALD F. DIRKS holds B.A. and M. Divinity from Harvard University and doctorate in Psychology from the University of Denver. He is a former ordained minister (deacon) in the United Methodist Church and is author of The Cross & The Crescent, The Abrahamic Faiths, Understanding Islam, and Abraham - The Friend of God. He published over sixty articles in the field of clinical psychology and over one hundred and fifty articles on Arabian horses. He has traveled extensively in the Middle East and interacted widely with the Muslim communities in the United States.

For centuries the hostility between Christianity and Islam has been a barrier to any effort to develop better understanding between the two. It is a barrier which neither Islam, lacking a voice in the West, nor the West, secure in its own position, has been greatly concerned to penetrate. This book contains papers written by Muslim scholars to meet what is now recognized, at least on their part, as an urgent contemporary need to acquaint the Western reader with the true message of Islam, as understood by the Muslims themselves, and to put him in touch with important currents of thought in the Muslim world, It is hoped that this may establish a basis for initiating a meaningful and open-minded discussion on the contribution which Islam can make in solving the problems facing modern society.

The Bible is the basis for the teachings of Christianity, and the Qur'an is the main source of Islamic Religion and Law, this book compares Islam and Christianity according to a comparative study of the Bible and the Qur'an.

Preface
A religion should not be judged by the opinions and attitudes of its biased enemies. Neither should it be judged by the behavior of some of its nominal followers because there are bad people among every religious group, nor making a judgment based on those people are misleading as they may be violating their religion. A religion should rather be judged by its teachings as well as the effects of these teachings on its real followers.
Since the Bible is the basis for the teachings of Christianity, and the Qur'an is the main source of Islamic Religion and Law, this book compares Islam and Christianity according to a comparative study of the Bible and the Qur'an. This approach ensures that the comparison is based on facts and not on prejudice or misunderstanding.
It should be emphasized that when this book talks about Islam, it does not give exaggerated or insincere information to persuade the reader, but rather presents the real teachings of Islam. Everything mentioned in this book, about Islam, is supported by Verses from the Qur'an which was revealed about fourteen hundred years ago. Likewise, everything mentioned about Christianity is supported by verses from the Bible.

The Purpose of this Book
The purpose of this book is to achieve the following objectives using the Qur'an and what survived in the Bible from the teachings of the Prophets (peace be upon them), with the help of our common sense, reason and intellect:

• To confirm that Prophet Jesus (pbuh) was a great Messenger of Allah, that he was the Christ, that he was given the Gospel, that he was born miraculously without a father and that he gave life to the dead by Allah's leave and healed him who was born blind and the leper by Allah's leave.
  
• To confirm that the original Gospel revealed to Prophet Jesus (pbuh) was lost and that the existing gospels include few parts of that original Gospel mixed with people's texts and interpretations, which contain a lot of errors and contradictions.
  
• To disprove misrepresentations and lies in the Bible against Allah.
  
• To disprove false charges in the Bible against the Prophets, Lot, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, and Job (peace be upon them).
  
• To disprove false charges in the Bible against Prophet Jesus (pbuh).
  
• To point out the wrong beliefs which were added (intentionally or unintentionally) into the message of Prophet Jesus (pbuh). To disprove the doctrines of Trinity, Original Sin, Blood Atonement and Divine Sonship of Prophet Jesus (pbuh).
  
• To prove that the Qur'an is the Word of Allah and the last revealed Book this has never been changed or adulterated. To prove that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the awaited Prophet prophesied in the Bible.
  
• To present the real Islam through the Qur'an and remove lies and misrepresentations wrapped around Islam by its enemies.

"Crucial to the vitality of any religious community is its ability to attract and engage descendants and converts. By this measure, notwithstanding the proliferation of mosques and Islamic organizations, the Muslim community in America is not doing at all well." This rather sober assessment motivates Dr. Lang to address, in this book, the alienation from the Mosque of the great majority of America's homegrown Muslims. In Losing My Religion: A Call For Help, the author comes to terms with many of the queries put to him by Americans of Muslim parentage and converts to Islam since the publication of his book Even Angels Ask in 1977. Lang asserts that to effectively respond to the general malaise of American-born Muslims, the Islamic establishment in America needs to be willing to listen to the doubts and complaints of the disaffected. This entails engaging in open discussions on issues with which many in the Muslim community will be uncomfortable, but Lang avers that such open dialogue will be of more benefit to young American Muslims struggling with their faith than the covert and uniformed discussions that often take place or no discussion at all. For this reason, Lang feels it is important and beneficial "to be candid and objective and not evade controversy, for to inadequately state the case for or against a specific position, especially when it challenges convention, only serves to further alienate the skeptical." In addition to examining questions of theodicy, hadeeth authenticity, and moot practices within the American Muslim community, the author includes many testimonials and inquiries that make this book informative.

Struggling to Surrender: Some Impressions of an American Convert to Islam is a very personal account of one man's search for God and meaning in the midst of a culture that places no value on such a quest. Dr. Lang was brought up as a Catholic and educated in a Catholic school. However, one day he found that his religious beliefs could no longer provide satisfactory answers to his questions. And so his quest began: reason, agnosticism, atheism, and, finally "coincidence"—a chance encounter with a Muslim student in one of his classes that eventually led to his conversion. As he soon found out, however, this was not the end of the matter, for now he had to fit in with his new community, its beliefs and traditions, and the Islamic worldview and lifestyle. For American Muslims, most of whom come from a Judeo-Christian background and a mental framework that is almost totally alien to that of a traditional Muslim, this is no easy feat. How does one deal with demands for the blind acceptance of hadeeth and accepted interpretations, the gulf between what the Qur'an says and the reality of Muslim life, the "status" of women, the presence of religion in every sphere of one's life, cultural conflicts, and many other issues? Ever since his conversion, Dr. Lang has struggled to answer these questions for himself. At the request of numerous Muslim acquaintances, he decided to write about his experiences so that other American and western-educated Muslims could benefit from his insights.

In Understanding Islam, Dr. Dirks offers a timely and factually correct alternative to understanding Islam. It is written for the Western, and primarily Christian reader. The primary focus of the book is on what is termed Sunni Islam, i.e., the Islam practiced by approximately 85-90% of the self-professed Muslims in the world. The book is unique in several respects. It treats Islam from its own point of view. It is written by a natural-born American for the Western reader, and thus may avoid some of the cultural overlay that accompanies some books on Islam written by other Muslim authors. The author is an American who has practiced Islam both while living in America and in the Middle East, thus offering a broader perspective than would have otherwise been possible. As a convert from Christianity to Islam, and as a former ordained minister within Christianity, the author does a very good job of expounding the commonalities and contrasts of Islam with Judaism and Christianity, while still avoiding the temptation to distort Islam by interpreting it from within a Judaeo-Christian perspective. The reader is introduced to Islam almost exclusively through the two primary sources of Islam, i.e., the Qur'an and the sunnah, which are the only completely authoritative sources on Islam.

Insightful essays on Christian-Muslim relations by one of the world’s leading experts.
A Christian View of Islam brings together fifteen key essays by Tom Michel, the noted Jesuit scholar of Islam. This compendium is organized into three major categories:

1. Inter-religious Dialogue: Encountering the "Other"
2. Christian-Muslim Studies: Comparative Perspectives
3. A Christian View of Islam.

Topics range from studies of various approaches to inter-religious dialogue in Part 1 to five comparative studies in Part 2, to Part 3, in which Michel addresses a number of issues, including Islam as the "other," Islamic non-violence, holiness and ethics in Islam, and a Qur'anic approach to ecology.

The first question usually posed to a newly converted Muslim is "Why?" This book was written by a revert to Islam to answer this question. Her distinctive story details her journey to Islam along with what she found in her new religion and what she left behind.