A timely reminder

THE Islamic world has had a bad Press recently - or at least those sections of it prepared to fly jetliners into Manhattan skyscrapers.

But before we in the West start demonising a quarter of the world's population, it's as well to know a bit of history.

Take these two events from the dim and distant past.

In 1099, the Crusaders finally wrested Jerusalem from Muslim control.

They were so pleased with themselves that, over the ensuing days, they devoutly sliced to pieces 40,000 non-Christian men, women and children in an orgy of God-endorsed butchery.

Ninety years later, the Holy City was retaken by Saladin.

The legendary Muslim leader let the Crusaders leave peacefully, ordered his soldiers not to harm the city's Christian and Jewish inhabitants and permitted pilgrims to continue visiting Christianity's most revered shrine, the Holy Sepulchre.

Paints rather a different picture of the cultural divide between Christendom and the followers of Mohammed, doesn't it?

And that's why this book is so important. It serves as a timely reminder that there's much more to the Islamic world than suicide bombers and fatwas - and that if some Muslims are consumed with hatred for the "Christian" West, well, maybe it's our brutal ancestors who made them that way.

The religion that spread from the deserts of Arabia to dominate a swathe of the world stretching from Iran to Morocco was a highly civilising influence, giving rise to a flowering of art and learning which was easily a match for our own Renaissance - and that was still several hundred years off.

Just like Europe with its shared but varied history, the Islamic world is complex and diverse, forged by 1,500 years of political and social upheaval.

This book helps you make sense of it all - and discover that things aren't quite as clear-cut as you may have thought.

Ceri Vines