In Islam, apostasy is still viewed as an almost unthinkable act, and in orthodox circles, it is considered a crime punishable by death. This work gives an account of ex-Muslims from all parts of the Islamic world, who recount how they slowly came to realize that the religion into which they were born was not only a sham but also a dangerous cult.
The sacred book of Islam, "The Koran", is the subject of voluminous commentary, yet it rarely receives the kind of objective critical scrutiny that has been applied to the texts of the Bible. This volume aims to correct this neglect of objective scholarship, and features commentaries on "The Koran" published from the beginning of the 20th century.
To Muslims the Hadith literature represents the Koran in action, stories of 'revelation made concrete in the life of the Prophet. Among the orthodox they are considered as sacred as the Koran itself. This work provides non-Muslims many insights into the mindset of the average Muslim who is raised on these traditions about Muhammad.
Muslim Extremism from the Arab Conquests to the Attack on America
Presenting an account of global Islamic terrorism, this book aims to answer the question that has been on the minds of Americans since September 11: Why do they hate us? It also tells that as the chief backer of Israel, the United States is seen by extremists as the evil power behind the hated 'Zionist enemy'.
A Modern History of the Islamic World provides a clear overview of the ways in which twentieth century modernism affected the societies of the Islamic world and how modernism was developed from an Islamic perspective.
This text tells the story of how the enslavement of Africans by Berbers, Arabs and other Africans became institutionalized and legitimized throughout Muslim Africa. It provides a portrait of domestic slavery from the 10th to 19th-centuries in a wider religious, social and economic context.
Sufi Responses to the Russian Advance in the North Caucasus
After the first war in Chechnya in 1994 the world discovered the warlike Muslim peoples intent on liberating themselves from domination by a distant Russian government. This work focuses on the impact of the Sufi brotherhoods to analyze the formation of resistance in Chechnya and Daghestan.
Beneath the battle cries of the jihad and an Islamic politics that draws attention to a religion of rigid rules and obsessive devotion, lies the mystical Islam, known as Sufism. This work offers a critical, secular perspective on Sufism and concludes that mystical experience is not a trustworthy validation of religion.
