Kategoria BISAC: Social Science >> Islamic Studies

An American imam offers answers for today's toughest questions about Islam, and a vision for a reconciliation between Islam and the West.

One of the pressing questions of our time is what went wrong in the relationship between Muslims and the West. Continuing global violence in the name of Islam reflects the deepest fears by certain Muslim factions of Western political, cultural, and economic encroachment. The solution to the current antagonism requires finding common ground upon which to build mutual respect and understanding. Who better to offer such an analysis than an American...

Despite President George W. Bush's assurances that Islam is a peaceful religion and that all good Muslims hunger for democracy, confusion persists and far too many Westerners remain convinced that Muslims and terrorists are synonymous. In the aftermath of the attacks of 9/11, the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the recent bombings in London, an unprecedented amount of attention has been directed toward Islam and the Muslim world. Yet, even with this increased scrutiny, most of the public discourse regarding Islam revolves around the actions of extremist factions such as the...

The history of the predominantly Muslim world is examined within the context of world history. It examines political, economic, and broad cultural developments, as well as specifically religious ones. The themes of the book are tradition and adaptation: it examines the tensions between the desire of Muslims to maintain continuity with their legacy and their recognition of the need to adapt to changing conditions.

Ian Buruma's Murder in Amsterdam is a masterpiece of investigative journalism, a book with the intimacy and narrative control of a crime novel and the analytical brilliance for which Buruma is renowned. On a cold November day in Amsterdam in 2004, the celebrated and controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot and killed by an Islamic extremist for making a movie that "insulted the prophet Mohammed." The murder sent shock waves across Europe and around the world. Shortly...

" Keaton] provides the most in-depth analysis of the predicament of French Arabs and Africans living in the suburbs of Paris.... O]ne can read the book through the lens of such great African American writers and activists as Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Malcolm X.... It] contains an implicit warning to you, France, not to repeat the American racism in your country." --from the foreword by Manthia Diawara

Muslim girls growing up in the outer-cities of Paris are portrayed many ways in popular discourse--as oppressed, submissive, foreign, "kids from the projects," even as...