Towards inner meaning of religious issues
Generally, the authors write their own stories and views and often have them supported, if necessary, by the quotations of important writers, philosophers, politicians and others. But in this case the author starts with quotations which she then supports or refutes by quotations of others, of course, thereafter she gives her own comments and views to complete certain points and views. It's a novel way of writing a book and that's why the book is so interesting.
As the title of the book is 'Letters to Christendom', she put series of questions to the Christian priests, reverends and other religious leaders who have been involved in propagating Christianity with some definite purpose. But the most revealing thing that she pointed out is that many of these people were ignorant about the inner or basic meaning of the religious issues in the Bible, or they deliberately distorted the meaning with a view to showing to the world that Christianity is the best religion and everybody should embrace it. Here lies the religious propaganda part of it. But by quoting from other religious books and particularly from the Qur'an, the author tried to show that their views/ interpretations of the passages from the Bible are not correct. She specifically mentioned how the westerners "perceived" Islam.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Indeed, the westerners are 'guilty of double standard'. There is nothing good in Islam they say. But she refuted their allegations very strongly and said very clearly that 'Islam means surrender and submission to one God and only God.' And here she puts forward the sayings and pronouncements of great philosophers and poets to support that Islam is the great religion.
She also pointed out that the fundamental of Islam and indeed all Faith based religions is same -- all must worship one God and God alone and none else. She also dealt with the fundamental matter like the Qur'an is a 'Miracle', it remained unchanged since it was revealed to Mohammad (S).
She also said if 'Europe had known as much of Islam as Muslims knew of Christendom', then 'Crusade could not have taken place'. Finally she talked about hypocrisy, diplomacy and justice. She brought in the issue of Bin Laden, Iraq invasion. She also quoted Mahathir Mohammad, " .. today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them." In her final thought she said, " When civilization turns to invasion and destruction for a solution how does it differ from terrorism? A suicide bomber is the poor man's F-16. She ended the book again with a quotation from the holy Qur'an, "Return unto thy Lord, content in His good pleasure! Enter thou among My bondmen!"