Understanding Islam from the West: A passionate and thought-provoking study of Islam

By Laurence Bernard

Understanding Islam from the West is a study of the Islam religion and explanation of the basic tenets of the religion. In simple, straight-forward text, the author explains what Islam is and what it is not, especially pointing out what aspects of the religion and lifestyle that the West has misunderstood. The text is broken int

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laurence Bernard
• Release date: Feb 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781802277906

Book preview

I was born into a mixed-faith family, with my father’s family coming from Russia with a strong Jewish belief and my mother’s family from England with a firm Christian faith.

I had always believed in God from childhood but did not understand Christianity or how a man on Earth was a God. After reading the Bible, it became even more apparent that Jesus was not a God but a messenger sent from God.

After more research, it was easy to see that neither Jesus nor his disciples wrote the Bible. Nearly half of the New Testament was written by a Roman man called Paul 40 – 50 years after the death of Jesus, and other works in the Bible have authors of unknown origin. After reading it many times and seeing the contradictions and errors throughout the Old Testament and New Testament, I thought this book could not be 100 percent true; therefore, I could not base my salvation on a book with errors.

I moved away from all religion but kept my inert feeling of one almighty God that created the universe.

In 2017, I visited Egypt on vacation. On my first day on the beach, I met a Muslim man called Hassan Abourehab, and we started to converse. I enjoyed our conversation; every morning and afternoon, Hassan would find me on the beach, and we sat and talked.

At the end of my vacation, we swapped numbers and communicated via text and social media. Ten months later, I returned to Egypt, but this time stayed with my new friend Hassan.

He picked me up from the airport and took me to his family home in Luxor, I was welcomed like one of their own, and immediately they put my mind at rest.

On the second day of my visit with Hassan, he attended the mosque and asked me if I would like to come and watch the prayer. I said I would love to, as I had never been inside a mosque, and I was intrigued to see how it differed from the Christian church. The mosque was relatively small compared to churches back home, with no statues or religious iconography. There was a candelabra-type light in the middle of the room and a mosaic-covered doorway at the front of the room that everyone faced when praying.

When we got there, I was welcomed by the local Imam Mohammed, and he suggested that I join in with the prayer if I would like to.

The mosque felt immensely spiritual, and the people there were extremely welcoming. I was humbled by being able to join in, and I accepted. That was the first time I had prayed to God for a long time and the first time I had put my head to the floor in complete submission to Allah. Although I could not understand the words coming from the Imam, I could feel the spirituality of Allah running through my body, it was an amazing experience, and I immediately wanted to know more about Islam as all I had seen was misinformation on the western media.

I asked Hassan to teach me about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. Over the next few days, we talked and visited the mosque twice in Luxor.

Coming to the end of my vacation, we were in Hurghada and visited the central Mosque (Mosque El Mina Masjid). This was much grander than the building in Luxor, a beautiful building with many domed roofs, an ample prayer space inside, and a sizeable candelabra-type light with over a hundred lights on it.

Again, I got in line with Hassan, and we prayed with the congregation. After prayers, I started talking to the Imam, who was a lot younger than me but very knowledgeable, and he asked me what my beliefs were. I said that I had been spiritual for most of my life, and this is the first religion that I have looked at that makes sense.

After talking for a while, he asked me if I wanted