Whom, you may ask, is Karen Armstrong? Even a cursory web search immediately reveals that she is a "prolific scholar of religions" who has written on a multitude of faiths. Says Armstrong...

"I usually describe myself, perhaps flippantly, as a freelance monotheist. I draw sustenance from all three of the faiths of Abraham. I can't see any one of them as having the monopoly of truth, any one of them as superior to any of the others."

I must make a note to revisit the meaning of "scholar" if I hope to understand this woman's appeal because she is, especially with regard to Islam, spectacularly wrong. Now, I'll confess to harboring a portion of passive ill-will for her (as men often do toward women who've made them look the fool). No, we never dated, but I, like millions of the equally gullible, read her international best-seller A History of God and bought the full package. The work is called "stunningly intelligent" and she "one of the most provocative original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world." Embarrassingly, I held her work in the same light and soon, so enlightened by Armstrong's insight, became an apologist for Islam based on what I had "learned."

But the facts once examined shout, Karen, you are either mentally challenged, incompetent, or have an agenda beyond human understanding. Anyone who knows anything about the Qur'an, dhimmitude, Islam's barbarous history or women's rights under Islam would conclude that your defense of the faith is no better than dangerously misleading. But you are obviously intelligent and ostensibly competent so we are left to conclude that you have an agenda; a personal one, we suspect, not intentionally destructive and yet who cares? The pablum you spread about Islam, because of its massive appeal and distorted content, imposes a disservice upon the entire, threatened, non-Islamic world.

And for this I say, Karen Armstrong, shame on you.

Those interested in an examination of Ms. Armstrong's fuzzy thinking may read this critique of Islam: A Short History.

Also consider this. 

Finally, Satyameva Jayate, a Hindu who, though he (or she?) may lack Ms. Armstrong's fame and scholarship has composed a much more informed (though infinitely less politically correct) take on Islam. Says Jayate:

Islam imposes a threat to the whole world which is far worse than deforestation, nuclear destruction or AIDS. It is an insidious, devilish disease creeping into the veins of the world. Every individual must realize the destructive and evil nature of this religion, for it eats away at the very foundation of humanity which is an individual's ability to think individually and act accordingly.