Islamic fundamentalism and intolerance are a result of the exaltation of the Quran and the figure of Muhammad. Only when Muslims dare to question Muhammad's inviolability and allow him to be seen as human does a reform of thought begin – only when they recognize Muhammad as the difficult, contradictory, and perhaps troubled person he was. Abdel-Samad dissects the world religion of Islam with the tools of a psychologist: a family with an oversized paternal figure.