Rating: 
Summary: An eye opener
Review: Stephen Schwartz's book does an excellent job of explaining the history of Islam and its various sects for those of us who are neophytes on the subject. He then spends plenty of ink explaining the rise of the Wahhabi sect and what hatred it has preached in the last 300 years. Not only is Wahhabism anti western civilization, it is even militant against other Muslim sects. Schwartz saw the nefarious side of the Wahhabi sect while reporting on the Bosnian conflict. He witnessed first hand the Wahhabi clerics sent to Bosnia to help rebuild the Muslim community try to take over and change the culture of Bosnian Muslims and their religious beliefs. They were sent with plenty of money from the Saudi royal family to rebuild mosques that were destroyed but only if the mosques were rebuilt using Wahhabi architectural standards and modes. He focuses in on the relationship between the militant Wahhabi sect and the Saudi royal family. Schwartz, a Moslem himself, does a good job of exposing the Saudi ruling family's efforts in using its vast wealth in promoting this militant hateful sect's teachings in Muslim day schools throughout the world including right here in the U.S. This book goes a long way to shedding light on the disturbing fact that the Saudi royal family is supporting this kind of hatred throughout the world.
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Summary: Crucial fact omitted by the author
Review: The author mendaciously presents Ottoman domination in the Balkans as begnign and illuminating. He blithely ignores the genocide represented by the Turkish devshirme system -- the "Blood Levy" of Christian boys kidnapped into the Janissary Corps -- and pretends that the murderous darkness of Ottoman misrule was somehow enlightened (and the resistance to it, notably by Balkan Christians, condemnable). This is propaganda currently designed to facilitate Turkey's entrance into the EU ("Europe"). It poisons the well from which all well meaning people need to learn about the true tragedy of non-Muslim communities ruled by Islam.
Rating:
Summary: Simplistic, Naive
Review: The author of this book is a neo-conservative so-called expert on Islam. He doesn't speak or read Arabic. He is not a Middle East scholar. Rather than explore the complexities of Middle Eastern history or Islam, he has decided to focus on a narrow brand of Islamic fundamentalism to show how Islam is a threat to the west.Does this sound familiar? This combination of naivite and narrow interests got the United States in the Iraq war. Readers -- American voters, for that matter -- would do well to avoid this kind of book and this kind of simplistic thinking.
Rating:
Summary: READ THE BOOK
Review: The pagan warrior from Jordan has not read the book, or he would realize that it says exactly what he says -- and it does not present the house of Sa'ud as the only face of Islam. Rather, it presents a sympathetic view of Shi'ism and especially Sufism, in addition to traditional Sunnism. The book has been attacked by Western Islamophobes for its manifest sympathy for Islam.
Rating: 
Summary: What a Long Strange Trip It¿s Been
Review: The title of this review jumped out at me halfway through the book and it held during the remainder of my reading. Unfortunately it meant that I had that annoying Grateful Dead song running through my head for the last week, but it's too fitting to not use it. The Two Faces of Islam does indeed make for some occasionally bizarre reading. On its first face, Schwartz's book is a harsh and brutal criticism of Saudi Arabia, a country that is increasingly and appropriately viewed negatively for its support of Wahhabi style extremism and support for terrorism. Schwartz closely details the rise of Saudi Arabia, the only country in the world named for its founder - even Stalin only named cities after himself - and then traces its involvement in scenes of terror, chaos, murder, suppression and other lovely things throughout the world. Schwartz's hatred for Wahhabi Islam is clear and unmistakable, but I think in the end it is too narrow. This is where we see the two faces of The Two Faces of Islam. About Iran, and particularly the Ayatollah Khomeini, we read great evasions. Iran is known to be a terrorism supporter. While not outright denying this, Schwartz seems to go out of his way to evade the issue, implying that Iran is only a minor nuisance and portraying Khomeini as a stern but honorable mystic holy man. Continuing criticism or distrust of Iran is considered obsessive hatred. If Schwartz wishes to portray Saudi Arabia as worse than Iran that is fine. It may even be accurate, a claim I think likely. But to deny the evil present in the Tehran regime is just ludicrous. We see a similar, though harder to criticize, intensity in his defense of all things Balkan. Apparently the Bosnian Muslims made quite an impression on Schwartz. Actually, he rather stridently defends all things Islamic except for Wahhabism, laying all the troubles in the Muslim world squarely on their doorstep. As regards the Balkan Muslims, there too he conveniently forgets certain aspects of their lovely culture. The treatment by Muslims there towards their own women who have been "shamed" by the Serbs defies any condoning, but is never even mentioned. Even so, as I write this review in the spring of 2003 the Balkan Muslims are the only ones not screaming at America, so he may be on to something. In short, when Schwartz is not talking about Saudi Arabia it's a bit hard to figure out just what he is talking about - figuratively speaking. While his case against the Saudi monstrosity is strong, his case for everything else is not so good, and he wanders about the religious landscape, offering up more criticism of liberals than of Khomeini, and trying to pull everything back to evil Saudi Arabia. For thorough reporting, and certainly for the strength of his writing, I'm awarding The Two Faces a fourth star, but with reservations. I think many of the points he brings up need to be independently reviewed (And Schwartz does not seem to have learned that footnoting controversial claims is a good way to gain credibility with skeptical readers), but this is still a powerfully written book that deserves a fair reading. The subject is just too important to dismiss.
Rating:
Summary: Islamic Religion Good/Bad
Review: The Two Faces of Islam is a compelling analysis of the Wahabi (bad) elements and the accepting,usually Sufi,(good) elements of the Islamic religion. Enough facts are presented to make an excellent case that the Saudi Arabian Wahabbi Islamic religion is very repressive and does not correspond to the teachings of Muhammad. The Wahabbi drive to require all Islamic sects to practice Islam as per the Wahabbi interpretations is fascistic. The book presents the thought that the other Islamic sects might throw out the Wahabbis one day. The author also compares Saudi Arabia to Yugoslavia in terms of ethnic dislike between Saudi factions. I enjoyed the book very much.
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Summary: A unique and important book with some serious flaws
Review: The Two Faces of Islam is a passionate, polemical book that attempts to refocus the war on terrorism on the Wahhabi branch of Islam, the officially established doctrine of that part of Arabia now under control by the House of Sa'ud, i.e. "Saudi" Arabia. Schwartz argues that the emerging dominance of Wahhabism within the Islamic world, buttressed by petrodollars and the Sa'uds strategic alliance with Western powers, has obscured the true, pluralistic, tolerant face of Islam with a dogmatic, oppressive, anti-intellectual, violent face of Islam. Schwartz has identified himself as a follower of a mystical, unitarian form of Sufi Islam. His political beliefs are difficult to pinpoint on the spectrum, but he was written articles for right-wing media like Frontpage and the Weekly Standard, and he has long been passionately opposed to the extreme left. Like Schwartz's Islam, his book has two faces: one is an apologetic for Muhammad and traditional Islam, the other is his vigorous polemic against Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia, and its western benefactors. Both aspects of the book have faults. With regard to his apologetic, Schwartz is not always convincing to those of us with doubts about the notion that Islam "means peace." His defense of Muhammad is far more ambiguous than he realizes, and his dicussion of the less flattering aspects of Islamic rule, such as the dhimmi, are far from satisfying for anyone familiar with the subjects. I strongly disagree, however, with the notion that Schwartz has written this book to appeal to the "Islamophobic" crowd. ("Islamaphobia" is itself a suspect term often employed by groups like CAIR who front for radical Islam and want to shut down any rational discussion of Islamic theology or the extremists' global infrastructure). His book is, if anything, an admirable attempt to destroy what he sees as a catastrophic public identification of Wahhabism with Islam itself. Schwartz devotes a large portion of the book to discussing how the Sa'uds have used their resources and influence to present Wahhabism as "true" Islam all around the world. The flaw of the second aspect is that Schwartz neglects to discuss the other possible sources of Arab-Islamic extremism, so focused as he is on pinning the tail on the Wahhabi camel. He does not satisfactorily consider, for example, the influence of secular ideologies such as pan-Arab socialism or Ba'athism. He also goes out of his way, unconvincingly, to absolve Shi'a Islam for any responsibility for Islamic radicalism. The most disturbing part of the book is when Schwartz attempts to have us believe that Ayatollah Khomeini was not such a bad guy after all, that he was really a mystic with benevolent Sufi tendencies, that he was just a victim of anti-Shi'a Wahhabi propaganda! I think the people of Iran would dissent from his view of the theocrats in Tehran. Thus his goal to wall off Wahhabism as the sole source of Islamic extremism go too far at times. On the whole, the book deserves a wide readership and consideration. Despite its flaws, I have found this to be one of the most helpful and refreshingly unorthodox post-September 11 books (although Schwartz was ringing this bell long before that fateful day).
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Summary: Necessary Story of Wahhabism
Review: The Two Faces of Islam: The House of Sa'ud from Tradition to Terror by Stephen Schwartz (Doubleday) The social and political consequences of Wahhabism are shown to have created a climate of intolerance and oppression that has warped the fabric of Islam in Saudi Arabia. Now with an excess of petrol dollars, this Wahhabism gives succor and support to ideologies of hatred and terror throughout the Islamic world. This story needs to be understood as some form of Wahhabism is often at the root of extremist Islam. Another feature of The Two Faces of Islam is that moderate Muslims have strong populist traditions that are assaulted by Wahhabi triumphalist deep pockets. A good read about one important thread in the extremist politics of Islam. Recommended.
The hostility of most of the other reader reviews shows, in my opinion, how polemic breeds extremer polemic. This work is definitely polemical. The central message about the pernicious effects of Wahhabism on Saudi society and politics, as well as its warping effect on liberal democratic tendencies in Islam remain the pillars of good sense upon which this work is constructed. Judge for yourself and do not let the name-callers blind you from learning important consequences of Wahhabi extremism for international terrorism.
Rating: 
Summary: Crucial points destroyed by typical spin journalism
Review: There are two faces to this review, as well. Negative first, positive second. Having read the recent controversies about Schwatz's alleged conversion to Islam and as a devout anti-Wahhabi Muslim myself, I was so excited to read this book. Unfortunately, this book is written more to appeal to the Islamaphobia crowd. And, they are incapable of seeing these two faces of Islam Stephen is trying to demonstrate to us, since they can seldom see beyond their narrow pre-conceived whatever it is they NEED to believe. This book is written in the "preaching to the choir" style to just that crowd -- what a pity. Worse, the spin of it's journalism descends to the sophomoric level, almost Mike Savage style, but not quite. Finally on the negative side, I found numerous, too me, crucial errors of Islamic facts for instance that he translates "kafir" as unbeliever. I think most of the non-fundamentalist scholars translate this as DIS-believer and this difference is crucial in so many ways -- beginning with tolerance. "Jahalyia", meaning ignorant is closer to unbeliever.
ON THE POSITIVE SIDE, this book is filled with crucial insights and crucial facts which I have not been able to find anywhere else. For ANY non-Muslim who really wants to understand us as the global and diverse bunch that we are this book is mandatory. I wish he would have included more on what are the vast majority of Muslims: Asian and African. And good for Muslims, the book IS peppered with enough critical of America statements that must raise serious doubts if this book is in fact meant to be Islamaphobic spin. I'm guessing it wasn't, but sincere. The tone just those nasty and hard to break mainstream journalistic habits. I'm SO sad this so important book seems so spoiled by the tone and style of its writing -- buy it anyway.
Rating:
Summary: This book is all too true
Review: This book is all too true - it looks at the real issues of what is going on in today's world and especially the way in which Saudi-funded Wahhabism is altering the Muslim world globally. As Bernard Lewis points out, it is as if the US government owned all the oil revenues and used that to fund the Klu Klax Klan worldwide. We live in disturbing times! Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE
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