The Curse of God: Why I Left Islam by Harris Sultan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a book with a lot of promise but is ruined by convoluted and repetitive arguments that, at times, read like an incoherent rant. The author’s specious contention is that scientific concepts in the Koran were based on the prevailing knowledge at the time of its writing and are,hence, not divine revelations. The Koran apparently maintains, for example, that the earth is geocentric rather than heliocentric.
Nit-picking aside, he has rightly pointed out that twisted interpretations of the Koran suit the Muslim clergy.
This warping of facts is what is happening in Hinduism. I am concerned by the increasing misrepresentation of Hindu myths as the truth, by both Hindu fanatics and Hindu laity alike. They ludicrously attribute Hindus in the hoary past of pioneering test-tube babies, organ transplant and plastic surgery. Another preposterous claim is that in the Mahabharata during the war in Kurukshetra, nuclear weapons and flying chariots were supposedly used as weapons of mass destruction. In this increasingly bizarre scenario, the most risible example is the farcical debate going on about the caste of Hanuman the Monkey God. One two-bit politico (a Muslim to boot) contends that the mythological god is a Muslim as the name Hanuman ends like other Muslim names like Rehman, Suleiman etc.
However, the book is immensely readable, supplemented as it is with interesting graphics and statistics.

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