Not in God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence Hardcover – October 13, 2015

Brilliant and well written book on Abrahamic religions over the ages that gives an in-depth understanding of this complex and important group of cultures and religions that have left their mark on civilization. It also explains the very essence of the title on his book: "Not in God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence". It adds profound yet clear pointers of how to prevent political power from taking the world into a destructive war, like it has over the years. "Today Jews, Christians and Muslims must stand together, in defense of humanity, the sanctity of life, religious freedom and the honour of God himself". "Wars are won by weapons but it takes ideas to win a peace"...says Jonathan Sacks.Reading this book, I am enlightened, not only on the subject matter, but on the religion I have practiced all my live, Catholicism. Since I recall being at my mother's and father's side, I was taught to cherish the values between religions, races and genders and the importance of trying to understand the interdependence between us.My book "Network Africa A Complex System" published by Xlibris, describes my experiences living and working in countries with very different social environments, namely Europe, Africa, India and China stressing the importance of that interdependence between religions, races and genders. Jonathan Sacks book also adds value and substance to my research on "Convivencia" and explains and supports the principle of requiring a peaceful outcome to the current religious violence that we now face.Having read "The Ornament of the World. How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain" by Maria Rosa Menocal, I was encouraged to carry out research into this fascinating subject now published on the Researchgate website.The research project focuses into “Convivencia” at Al-Andalus and the Caliphate of Cordoba, Spain, between the years 756 to 1031. In Convivencia we can see a model for peace between Muslims, Christians and Jews, being the three main beliefs that dominate world religious and socio- political environments.For over 400 years, knowledge and mysticism thrived in the Spanish towns of Córdoba, Toledo and Granada as students and teachers in all three religions and cultures helped one another to learn, translate, and understand ancient teachings. Unprecedented level of scientific, philosophical, and metaphysical discovery, rendering medieval Spain the ornament of the world. This serves as an extraordinary model for all countries seeking an effective peace process. The alternative is military action recently approved by the United Nations.Christianity, Islam and Judaism, otherwise known as the Abrahamic religions, are being researched at Woolf Institute, Cambridge, United Kingdom; University of Texas, Austin, USA; Georgetown University, Doha, Qatar; The Open University of Israel, Raanana, Israel and the University of CapeTown, Cape Town, South Africa, amongst others. This extensive wealth of knowledge ensures, that through academic postgraduate studies, e-learning, conferences and real life experiences, we address the many challenges being faced in social interactions and in conflict situations through a better understanding of these complex relationships. This should reduce the risk of conflict in the environments we live in, despite ISIS "rejecting peace as a matter of principle" and "hungers for genocide" according to Grahame Wood's "What ISIS really want?" published in The Atlantic of March 2015.

One can be forgiven for observing the basic disconnect between Monotheism as practised by Jews and Christians and Muslims as each has their own way of relating to Him. While the Christians generally support a triple embodiment, thus causing more than a little confusion regarding which one is really Him, the problem in Islam seems to be a function of the conflation of religion and politics/law which invests religious leaders with both state power and spiritual power, a mix we Jews understand through our own history to be perverting of the role He wants us to play in relation to His world. Rabbi Sachs has created a book thoroughly representative of his respect for the spiritual nature of man, but similarly analytical in finding the potential cause of this altruistic evil, a force which causes the most public function of Islam to betray the essence of Monotheism in pursuit of narrow and self-centred, dualistic objectives. The function of this latest book is to explore and explain through the view of modern thought as to how a group can claim to have origins in the life of Abraham and, yet, so thoroughly betray every principle for which he lived and in which he believed. If I may extrapolate from this excellent work, one is tempted to support the idea of an Islamic Reformation from the damage witnessed through the theocratic practices of today's Islamic states, a reality not likely to be accepted with anything short of the kind of warfare experienced in the wake of the Christian Reformation. However, if we are to pursue life in His name, it seems rather clear that excluding politics from religion may be one of the first steps to eliminating the current gruesome activities taking place not in His name.The book is absorbing, informative, and has a number of excellent and refreshing analyses of the traditional Torah interpretations of Genesis. I would recommend this as not just a book for Jews, but for all those willing to better understand the complex relationship between man's spiritual behaviour, his human relationships, and how those elements are realised by some within the framework of governance where the underlying religion does not support the public behaviour.Best of all, I can say I truly learned something from this well-researched and gentle dissection of otherwise grossly disturbing behaviours.