Boreal Books |
Reality
Paperback, 204 pages In a posting on my website more than a few months after my wife's passing (the Prologue in the book), I wrote that I owed you, but particularly my Lucette’s friends, an explanation as to why, when I told her that a young African working girl was crashing at my apartment in Montréal, all she said was she would like to meet her. My explanation took on a life of its own and that is how I found myself writing, during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, a book about love, sex and Islam. The dozen or so adult situation stories in PART I – Sex in the Here-And-Now, some of which may bring more than a smile to your face, are not gratuitous. PART II – Sex in the Hereafter uses the experiences revealed in PART I to make a comparison of intimate, often loving, relationships in the now with what a martyr can expect in the Hereafter. A must-read for anyone contemplating martyrdom because of what they have been told about sex in the Hereafter. |
The Koran
Pain, Pleasure and Prejudice The Koran by topic, explained in a way we can all understand Paperback, 828 pages, comprehensive index If what you are looking for is a quick and complete reference to what Allah revealed to Muhammad in His Koran, or a coffee table book that is bound to spark a spirited discussion about a timely topic, look no further than Pain, Pleasure and Prejudice. -------- Brings order to chaos. Anonymous AMAZON: USA UK Canada Australia Pain, Pleasure and Prejudice may be too cumbersome or expensive for some, even as a paperback, which is why it has been broken up into six smaller books, all priced under $18.00. |
Let Me Rephrase That! Your Layman's Guide to Abrogations 16:101 And if We replace a verse by another – and Allah knows best what He reveals – they say: “You [Muhammad] are only a forger.” Surely, most of them do not know. Knowing what more than 200 revealed truths (immutable facts communicated to a mortal by a god) an assumed omniscient deity replaced or abolished, i.e., abrogated, as inconceivable as that may seem, is essential to understanding the ultimate Message of the Koran. Cover art is a rendition of a picture of George Burns from a poster for the 1977 Warner Bros. film, "Oh, God!" Like the movie, I hope you will consider Let Me Rephrase That! a mildly irreverent but never gratuitous treatment of a reverential figure. October 2020
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Kids and The Koran
Children and The Koran The End of Empathy Paperback, 186 pages A lack of empathy, whether it be an instilled pathology or a manifestation of loyalty to one’s tribe, which our governments and our courts have encouraged by favouring religious distinctiveness over shared secular values, means we can no longer count that love of country or respect for Western civilization and what it stands for will see us through. The threat that an absence of empathy and tribalism poses could be significantly reduced if we made the Koran for adults only. By having you read what children who should be enjoying Babar the Elephant or Cinderella are reading, I hope to convince you to try to do just that—for their sake, and ours. October 2020 |
Teach Your Children Well The future as a truism and a cliché Paperback, 82 pages It is both a truism and a cliché that children are the future. Where that future will be shaped is in the classroom. Bill 21, “An Act respecting the laicity of the State” could be considered an attempt by the government of François Legault to curtail the damage done by the Liberal government of Jean Charest when it reintroduced, in 2008, the teaching of religion in the public school system in response to the Bouchard-Taylor Commission’s report on so-called reasonable accommodations. . In March 2020, the government of François Legault announced that it was ending the teaching of religion in the Québec secular public school system, in part, because of the deleterious impact it was having on students' intellectual development. |
The Prophet
1,001 Sayings and Deeds of the Prophet Muhammad Second Edition - Paperback, 454 pages Improved presentation, contents cross-referenced to Boreal Books on the Koran, appendices, additional footnotes, etc. First, there are the Koran's revealed truths (immutable facts revealed to a mortal by a god), then there are the hadiths: the sayings and example, i.e., deeds of the Prophet Muhammad. "Within the house of Islam, the penalty for learning too much about the world—so as to call the tenets of the faith into question—is death. While the Koran merely describes the punishment that awaits the apostate in the next world, the hadith is emphatic about the justice that must be meted out in this one: 'Whoever changes his religion, kill him.'"Given the fact that [hadiths are] often used as the lens through which to interpret the Koran, many Muslim jurists consider [them] to be even a greater authority on the practice of Islam. Sam Harris, The End of Faith - Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason, 2004, W. W. Norton & Company. In learning about the hadiths, you will also become acquainted with the real Muhammad as his closest friends and his child-bride, Aisha, remember him. |
Plays/Scripts
All venues - a pub, a mosque, a television studio - make for inexpensive productions on a timely subject.
Remembering Uzza If Islam was explained to me in a pub Paperback, 452 pages Remembering Uzza is meant to make learning about Islam a mostly pleasant experience while not sugar-coating or leaving out the nasty bits. And, is there a better place to get acquainted with a religion that has everyone talking than in the relaxed atmosphere of a favourite pub, in the company of friends and a troubled but engaging young woman to give you an insider's perspective? Uzza is a story for our time that has the potential to change the course of things to come. Except for Uzza, and a short appearance by a couple from a neighbouring municipality, all other characters, including Archie the bartender, are modeled on real patrons of a once-popular Ottawa nightspot. To keep the conversation between Uzza, Johnny, Gerry, Bob and Archie as unaffected as possible, implicit and explicit references to verses of the Koran and the sayings and actions of the Prophet are explained in a substantial supplement of endnotes. |
Alice Visits a Mosque to Learn About Judgment Day Paperback, 80 pages The dialogue is made up, but the revelations are real, as are the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. The character of Alice only bears a remote resemblance to the heroine of Lewis Carroll's tale of a young girl "who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures." Alice Visits a Mosque to Learn About Judgement Day is a short, often brutal play/script (it could not be otherwise) about an important concept in Islam on which the Koran expounds at length. Alice is not meant to offend but to enlighten. It is both a play and an invitation to learn more about the Koran and the Prophet. We hope you will read it (or see it, if it ever makes it to the stage or the screen) in the spirit in which it was written. AMAZON: USA UK Canada Australia
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Canada - The Fractured Nation Interviews An Inquiry Into The Breakup Paperback, 228 pages 2006 nominee for The Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. The Fractured Nation Interviews, warts and all, in which you will find the catalytic interview with the Ayatollah referenced in Uzza (excerpt).
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Essays
Between a Pillar and a Hard Place Paperback, 274 pages "We in the West find it incomprehensible that theological ideas still inflame the minds of men, stirring up messianic passions that can leave societies in ruin. We had assumed that this was no longer possible, that human beings had learned to separate religious questions from political ones, that political theology died in 16th-century Europe. We were wrong. "After centuries of strife, the West has learned to separate religion and politics – to establish the legitimacy of its leaders without referring to divine command. There is little reason to expect the rest of the world – the Islamic world in particular – will follow." Mark Lilla, professor of the humanities at Columbia University in The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics and the Modern West (2007) If you are going to read one book on Islam, make it Between a Pillar and a Hard Place. In mostly short, easy-to-read, to-the-point essays, I touch upon everything you need to know about the implications of being wrong.
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BOREAL 2016 Paperback, 432 pages A commemorative recreation of comments, articles and extracts from a watershed year when headlines and scriptures came together like at no other time since boreal.ca went live in April of 2003.
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