ISLAMIC IMPERIALISM: A History, by Efraim Karsch. Yale University Press, 2007. 284 Pp. (BP52.K37).

Professsor Efraim Karsch covers the history of the rise and fall of Islamic power from Islam's first empire to contemporary Middle East. He believes that inherent in Prophet Muhammad's March 632 farewell address is a prophetic note that Islam should prevail in Europe and the United States. Muhammad said: "I was ordered to fight all men until they say 'There is no god but Allah.'" Osama bin Laden, November 200l said: "I was ordered to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad." (P. 1).

This is an alarming book by the professor and head of the Mediterranean Studies Programme, King's College, University of London. How can the press in the free world not be exercised to warn the West that it is headed for deep trouble if the current signs continue to point in the direction Professor Karsh sees? He has published extensively and served as a consultant on Middle Eastern affairs.

Professor Karsh says "Even countries that were never ruled by the caliphate have become targets of Muslim imperial ambition. As immigration, conversion, and higher rates of child birth have greatly increased the number of Muslims within Europe (in France one in ten people is a Muslim and a reported fifty thousand Christians convert to Islam every year; in Brussels Muhammad has been the most popular name for male babies for some years; in Britain attendance at mosques is higher than in the Church of England), prophecies of Islam's eventual triumph over the West have become commonplace." P. 236.

"Islam is a universal religion. It aims to bring its message to all corners of the earth. It hopes that one day the whole of humanity will be one Muslim community." P. 237. World Islamic leadership, unlike many of the peaceful Muslims we know as neighbors, has a militant stance that places the whole world in danger.

…The Library Committee