Understanding Muhammad begins with a brief history of his life. It gives a description of his loveless childhood, followed by relatives who took pity on this orphaned boy and spoiled him, which contributed to the developed of his narcissistic personality disorder, a trait that made him a megalomaniac bereft of conscience.
Muhammad believed in his own cause. Even when he lied, he felt entitled and justified to do so. Thanks to another mental illness, namely temporal lobe epilepsy, the prophet of Islam had vivid hallucinations he interpreted as mystical and divine intimations.
He also suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder, causing his fixations on numbers, rituals and stringent rules. In the addition, he suffered from acromegaly, a disease caused by excessive production of a growth hormone resulting in large bones and odd facial features.
The combination of his psychological disorders and his unusual physiognomy made him a phenomenon that set him apart from ordinary people.
His uneducated followers interpreted his differences as signs of his prophethood. Like devotees of all cults, they rose to champion his cause with dedication. By defying death and butchering others they made Islam the world's second largest religion, now the biggest threat to world peace.
The author argues that Islam is incompatible with democracy and human rights, and the only way to avert the clash between barbarity and civilization, and a world disaster, is to expose its fallacy and d
