GOD IN THE QUR’AN
Jack Miles
Alfred A Knopf
241 pages; $26.95
MUHAMMAD
Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires
Juan Cole
Nation Books
326 pages; $28
Is Allah, the God of Muslims, a different deity from the one worshipped by Jews and Christians? Is he even perhaps a strange “moon god,” a relic from Arab paganism, as some anti-Islamic polemicists have argued?
What about Allah’s apostle, Muhammad? Was he a militant prophet who imposed his new religion by the sword, leaving a bellicose legacy that still drives today’s Muslim terrorists?
Two new books may help answer such questions,