Closing of the Muslim Mind

Robert R. Reilly is a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Reader’s Digest, and National Review, among many other publications. A former director of the Voice of America, he has taught at the National Defense University and served in the White House and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Reilly is a member of the board of the Middle East Media Research Institute and lives near Washington, D.C.

Should be required reading for anyone who hopes to argue effectively against Islamic jihad." —The Center for the Advancement of Capitalism“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