another world-renowned scholar, Fred Donner, published
his book Early Islamic Conquests, which details the wars,
invasions and conquests in Arabia, Syria and Iraq by
Mohammed and the first Muslims.^351 In 1999 scholar
Reuven Firestone published Jihad: The Origin of Holy War
i n Islam, which shows that before 9/11 academics were
openly publishing books on Jihad as holy war and how this
was essential to the success of Islam.^352 But one does not
need to be an academic who works through esoteric tomes:
in 1996 a professor of the history of Islam published a
coffee-table book of snippets about Great Dates in Islamic
History, which by page 5 has Mohammed expelling and
massacring Jewish people from their lands in Arabia (for the
crime of not submitting to the rule of Islam).^353 Towards the
end of this 370 page book of snippets of Islamic history, is
listed the first bombing of the World Trade Center by the
followers of an Egyptian Sheikh.^354 How is Islam a religion
of peace when a book dedicated to listing the “great
dates” of this religion begins with genocide in Arabia, and
ends fourteen-hundred years later with a Muslim bishop
trying to murder thousands of Americans in New York?
In between these two events are listed battle after battle,
slaughter after slaughter. Would a book on the most
significant dates in the history of Buddhism list armed
conflict on page after page after page? How is it that no
journalists have challenged The Grand Lie, when any look
through the shelves of a university library or through the
pages of Amazonʼs website would provide evidence which
contradicted the ludicrous idea that “Islam is a religion of