Muhammad and the Believers. Anyone read it?

For those who don't know it, it's Fred Donner's book on Islamic Origins. He argues, largely from the Quran, that 'the Believers' of the first decades (the time of Muhammad and the Companions) were an ecumenical movement of Christians, Jews and early Muslims. Donner is a widely published western scholar of early Islam, and he seems to be offering a view which moderate Muslims and ecumenically-inclined Christians could share. A platform for dialogue, perhaps, with a view to recovering a more tolerant Islam?

I find much of Donner's argument weak; all the same, you can't help wishing there were something in it. I'm curious to know if anyone else has read it - Christian or Muslim - and if so what you think of it.

Here's the book's page on US amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Muhammad-Believers-At-Origin...