About the Book

Radical Eye For the Infidel Guy
Are you tired of hearing that Islam is a religion of peace while terrorist plots are uncovered, beheadings of prisoners are broadcast on the Internet, and carnage in Iraq has become routine? Are you fed up with the politically correct whitewashing of the obviously grim realities of radical Islam? Then, Radical Eye for the Infidel Guy is the book you’ve been waiting for. Kevin J. Ryan uses sardonic humor and a streak of radical irreverence to expose Islamist ideology for what it really is and to help you develop your own Radical Eye.

Combining the debunking zeal of Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason with Mad magazine’s irreverent view of history and politics, Ryan has written the most politically incorrect—and funniest—book on radical Islam that you’re ever likely to read.

Reviews

RADICAL EYE FOR THE INFIDEL GUY: Inside the Strange World of Militant Islam Kevin J. Ryan. Prometheus, $24 (272p) ISBN 9781591025078
March 19, 2007 Web-exclusive

For those who prefer their global threat analysis laugh-free, this treatise on the dangers of Islam—punctuated with lists like "The Crusades vs. the Jihad: Battle of the Holy Wars"—might be worth skipping. Ryan's cultural study attacks the notion that Islam is "a religion of peace and tolerance," making a bold case outlining Islam's direct threat to Western culture and democracy. Ryan characterizes the Muslim world as "ruled by hatred, casual murder, medieval-style torture, and a nearly pathological misogyny," and his study of it "heartbreaking, infuriating, tragic and almost comical in its extremism and contradictions"; as such, his tone of beleaguered outrage works perfectly. Though Ryan's pointedly inflammatory rhetoric can grate, he covers plenty of ground, including the honor killing of Muslim women by their own fathers and brothers, state-sanctioned execution for those who convert from Islam and, of course, suicide bombing. Ryan can undermine his own arguments with simplistic answers to complicated questions (Did 9/11 happen "because we let our women wear shorts, go to school, drive a car, and go to work? I think it was a large part of it"), but his fearless look at the troubling aspects of Islam is informative and provocative. (Mar.)
© 2007, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Monstersandcritics.com Likes the Book!
By Sandy Amazeen May 21, 2007, 3:47 GMT

Anyone who believes Islam is a religion of peace had better run to their nearest bookseller and pick up a copy of this witty, eye-opening look at the basic tenants of the Qur’an and its followers. Told with an outrageous gallows humor, one can only wonder how this gem has escaped the wrath that the now infamous Danish cartoon incurred. Pointing out absurdity of waging war on a tactic, i.e. terrorism, Ryan goes on to list the top ten things you probably don’t know about Islam including “there are more actual slaves serving Muslim masters in the world today then there were in the U.S. at the beginning of the Civil War.” Especially frightening is the chapter on “Women’s Rights or What Size Stick to Use to Beat Your Wife” which details the regular practice of genital mutilation throughout predominately Muslim countries and how rape is seen as a reflection of the woman’s male relatives. Typically, the way to restore family honor is to kill the rape victim, often by brutal methods. Balancing these horrors is the guide to protecting women the Taliban way which is funny in a macabre sort of way.

Biting humor aside, Ryan provides sobering, an in-depth look at the foundations of Islam that invites readers to explore the religion for themselves and draw their own conclusions. Not intended for the serious scholar, this is nevertheless, a sobering look at the roots of one of the world’s great religions.

The New York Post Reviews the Book and, Well, You Can’t Please Everybody!

By JOSEPH BRAUDE

June 10, 2007 -- RADICAL EYE FOR THE INFIDEL GUY: INSIDE THE STRANGE WORLD OF MILITANT ISLAM BY KEVIN J. RYAN PROMETHEUS BOOKS, 272 PAGES, $24

FREE societies won't win the War on Terror unless they unleash their most powerful weapon against Islamic radicals: satire. So argues bestselling sci-fi novelist and screenwriter Kevin Ryan in his new book, "Radical Eye for the Infidel Guy," a cheeky primer on Islam and its history with a focus on its violent streak.

A year after Muslim rioters killed 50 in response to Danish cartoons spoofing their faith, Ryan's effort takes courage. Who but the author of the Star Trek trilogy "Errand of Vengeance" would dare try to explain the epic Battle of Constantinople using hobbit and orc analogies from "Lord of the Rings."

The book takes aim at popular tropes about Islam's essence - "a religion of peace," "a religion of tolerance" - which Ryan feels are dishonest. He faults a combination of Muslim advocacy groups and the "politically correct" media for obscuring a history of warfare and religious chauvinism that dates back to the prophet Mohammed.

If Islam takes the prophet's words and deeds as exemplars to be emulated literally, Ryan argues, then where do Mohammed's murder of a female poet and massacre of a Jewish tribe fit into the religion of peace?

He demonstrates that vast Islamic empires spread through armed conquest - the jihad - and that the rights of women and minorities are compromised under Islamic law.

Hardly a gory detail is spared in his highlights from 1,400 years of bloody warfare and descriptions of stoning, female genital mutilation and the rape of captives. These dark scenes are grist for Ryan's satire; lists include "fun facts about slavery in the Qur'an" and "a woman's worth in Saudi Arabia," alongside recurring warnings about a mock syndrome called "Sudden Loss of Head."

Ryan's book, however, proves no less one-sided and propagandistic than the advocacy groups it bashes. His long tour of Islamic warfare leaves gaping holes about the urban cultures that emerged in between each battle. He's blind to the formidable pre-modern scientific achievements ranging from algebra to algorithms, the Arabic translation movement that preserved Greek classics for all time and the flourishing of Islamic art and architecture.

A reader would be at a loss to explain why so many Jews fled the fires of Christian Spain's Inquisition for Muslim North Africa, and the death camps of Nazi Germany for Istanbul and Alexandria - or why hundreds of millions of Muslims today who shun violence themselves find any merit in their faith at all.

These glaring omissions are to be expected in the sort of shrill, polarizing tomes that seem to sell these days. But they sure aren't funny.

Joseph Braude, a columnist for The New Republic, is author of "The New Iraq."

Fighting Terrorism Through Literature
Every aspect of the War on Terror has been analyzed and debated, except, perhaps, the most important: the true nature of the enemy—the radical, the fundamentalist, the militant, the Osama wannabe. Because of political correctness, most analysts, journalists, and pundits have been reluctant to look too closely at the beliefs, history, and lifestyle of radical Muslims.

Kevin J. Ryan is not handicapped by correctness as he fires the next shot in the War on Terror from the cultural frontline. Taking a clear-eyed look at Islamic history and society, Ryan presents a picture of radical Muslims that is infuriating, heartbreaking, and comical in its extremism and contradictions. Applying his unique Radical Eye, Ryan shows us a world of hatred, casual murder, medieval-style torture, and an unhealthy preoccupation with women’s sexuality.

In chapters like “Back to the Future: Or, Forward to the Seventh Century” and “Women’s Rights: Or, What Size Stick to Use to Beat Your Wife,” Radical Eye for the Infidel Guy reveals radical Islam’s spectacularly inept and incredibly bloody military history, it’s amputation-friendly criminal justice system, the real meaning of radical Islamic “tolerance,” militant family values, the reason why slavery is a “holy” institution for fundamentalist Muslims, and the important distinction between a raving mad radical and a barking mad one.

Often irreverent and frequently outrageous, Radical Eye for the Infidel Guy blows the lid off the ideology that fuels today’s Islamic terrorists by hitting them with the two weapons that the Western world has, so far, hesitated to use: the truth and humor.

Radical Eye for the Infidel Guy is a remarkable, funny, and tragic look at the world of Islamic extremism. Ryan has produced a book that is part satire, part historical study, and part myth-shattering cultural analysis. He puts the current wave of Islamic extremism into context by going back to the earliest days of Islam and taking a look at the life and personal philosophy of the Prophet Muhammad. Ryan explores a number of hot-button topics including the history of the Muslim world’s centuries of conflict with the West as well as Islam’s record on women’s rights, tolerance, criminal justice, war, peace, and education. In the end, the book culminates with a hilarious description of what a radical Islamic makeover would look like for an average American. In the process, Radical Eye for the Infidel Guy blasts apart many of the cherished myths about Islam, including the “true” meaning of jihad, the reality of Islamic “tolerance,” and the many accepted tales about the Prophet that so-called moderate Muslims never want to talk about.

After more than five years of fighting the War on Terror and the insanity of the Danish cartoon explosion, its time that the Western world started to look at the beliefs and history of the radical Muslim world. Like Charlie Chaplin taking on the Nazis in The Great Dictator, Ryan has a field day lampooning the patent absurdities espoused by Muslim extremists.