The Indonesian government has tried to defeat terrorist groups and uproot radicalism, both through military and cultural-ideological approaches. The recent attack at Mako Brimob Depok, West Java, and the bombing in Surabaya, East Java, however, have shown that radical Islam and terrorist groups are not defeated yet. Killing terrorists does not always mean killing terrorism. It could even have the opposite impact, i.e., strengthening and fertilizing the radical ideology. The government, being aware of this, has been supporting Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in promoting Islam Nusantara, widely believed to be the ideological antidote for radicalism and terrorism. Proponents of Islam Nusantara believe that radical ideology contradicts the character traits of Islam Nusantara, i.e., peaceful, smiling, tolerant, moderate, and accommodative to culture. Radicalism and intolerance are commonly seen in NU circles as being disseminated by transnational movements such as Hizbut Tahrir and Salafi-Wahhabi groups. Though not terrorist groups, they do teach intolerant and exclusive religiosity which provides a breeding ground for terrorism. Among Indonesian Muslims, including NU, Islam Nusantara has received varied responses and been met by resistance. The emergence of NU Garis Lurus and the concerted efforts to debunk Islam Nusantara by some preachers are among the forms of activities that seek to undermine Islam Nusantara. The introduction of Islam Nusantara is further hampered by the attitude of some of its proponents who emphasize its exclusivity by identifying Islam Nusantara only with NU. Barring its current limits, Islam Nusantara has the potential to become an exceptional form of Islam or a template for tolerant Islam that can be emulated by Muslims in other parts of the world, especially in terms of its ability to accommodate local culture and multiculturalism.

In the wake of September 11th instant theories have emerged that try to root Osama Bin Laden's attacks on Wahhabism. Muslim critics have dismissed this conservative interpretation of Islam that is the official creed of Saudi Arabia as an unorthodox innovation that manipulated a suggestible people to gain political influence. David Commins' book questions this assumption. He examines the debate on the nature of Wahhabism, and offers original findings on its ascendance in Saudi Arabia and spread throughout other parts of the Muslim world such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. He also assesses the challenge that radical militants within Saudi Arabia pose to the region, and draws conclusions which will concern all those who follow events in the Kingdom. The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia is essential reading for anyone interested in the Middle East and Islamic radicalism today.

The hijab is arguably the most discussed and controversial item of women's clothing today. It has become the primary global symbol of female Muslim identity for Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and is the focus of much debate in the confrontation between Islam and the West. Nowhere has this debate been more acute or complex than in France. In ""Hijab and the Republic"", Bronwyn Winter provides a riveting account of the controversial 2003 French law to ban Islamic headscarves and other religious signs from public schools. While much has been written on the subject, Winter offers a unique feminist perspective, carefully delineating its political and cultural aspects.To understand the current controversy, the author traces the history of secularism in France and the shift in interpretations of Islam before turning to a review of the more recent past. Drawing on both scholarly literature and popular commentary, she examines the headscarf debate from its inception in 1989 through fluctuations in its intensity in public consciousness over the 1990s to its surging significance in the wake of 9/11 and the consequent shift in global politics. Winter argues convincingly that the issue must be understood within the specific historical and cultural context of France and through a feminist lens, since gender is fundamental to the debate about veiling Muslim women. ""Hijab and the Republic"" presents a fresh and richly detailed examination of a subject that remains at the forefront of discussion about Islam and the West.

Growing populations and economies have led to an increase in water demand around the globe. However, there are large variations in the amounts of water available, and growing concern surrounding the uncertainty associated with these supplies. This is evident nowhere more than in the dry and arid Arabian peninsula. Global food security also faces an uncertain future. The Gulf states suffer from a substantial food gap, and all the countries in the region are net food importers. The increase in the region's population, rising income levels, and harsh weather conditions that prevent the increase of local food production, have resulted in a vast increase in the region's food imports. In this book, water and food resource management strategies are examined, as well as the policies in the Gulf states, the global geopolitics of water security, future demand trends in the Gulf region, and the particular challenges faced by the UAE in ensuring a reliable supply of food and water in the coming decades.

This book shows how ethnography can create a greater understanding of Islam in particular social contexts. Islam is stereotypically presented as a monolithic civilisation that has stifled the emergence of cultural pluralism and individual freedom. In contrast, this volume showcases the diversity and plurality of Muslim societies. The contributors reflect on how the ethnographic method allows the description, representation and analysis of the social and cultural complexity of Muslim societies in the discourse of anthropology. It shows the benefit of using ethnography as a method to engage with and relate to specific real-world examples. It includes case studies on rituals and symbols in Syria, Tunisia, Damascus, Algeria, Britain, Pakistan, Brazil and Lebanon. It covers practices such as veiling, students' religious practices, charitable activities, law and scholarship in Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Yemen.

This book explores the evolution of a Shia Ismaili identity and crucial aspects of the historical forces that conditioned the development of the Muslim modern in late colonial South Asia. It traces the legal process that, since the 1860s, recast a Shia Imami identity for the Ismailis, and explicates the public career of Imam Aga Khan III amid heightened religious internationalism since the late-nineteenth century, the age of 'religious internationals'. It sheds light and elaborates on the enduring legacies of questions such as the Aga's understanding of colonial modernity, his ideas of India, restructured modalities of community governance and the evolution of Imamate-sponsored institutions, key strands in scholarship that characterized the development of the Muslim and Shia Ismaili modern, and Muslim universality vis-a-vis denominational particularities that often transcended the remits of the modular nation and state structure.

This powerful book exposes how gendered Orientalism is wielded to justify Western imperialism. Over the last ten years, Western governments and mainstream media have utilized concepts of white masculine supremacy and feminine helplessness, juxtaposed with Orientalist images depicting women of color as mysterious, sinister, and dangerous, to support war. Oscillating between Mrs Anthrax, female suicide bomber and tragic, helpless victim, representations of 'brown women' have spawned both rescue narratives and terrorist alerts. Examining media and pop culture from Sex and the City 2 to Vanity Fair and Time magazine, Robin Riley uses transnational feminist analysis to reveal how this kind of transnational sexism towards Muslim women in general and Afghan and Iraqi women in particular has led to a new form of gender imperialism.

When Reza Aslan's bestseller Zealot came out in 2013, there was criticism that he hadn't addressed his Muslim faith while writing the origin story of Christianity. In fact, Ross Douthat of The New York Times wrote that "if Aslan had actually written in defense of the Islamic view of Jesus, that would have been something provocative and new." Mustafa Akyol's The Islamic Jesus is that book. The Islamic Jesus reveals startling new truths about Islam in the context of the first Muslims and the early origins of Christianity. Muslims and the first Christians - the Jewish followers of Jesus - saw Jesus as not divine but rather as a prophet and human Messiah and that salvation comes from faith and good works, not merely as faith, as Christians would later emphasize. What Akyol seeks to reveal are how these core beliefs of Jewish Christianity, which got lost in history as a heresy, emerged in a new religion born in 7th Arabia: Islam. Akyol exposes this extraordinary historical connection between Judaism, Jewish Christianity and Islam - a major mystery unexplored by academia. From Jesus' Jewish followers to the Nazarenes and Ebionites to the Qu'ran's stories of Mary and Jesus, The Islamic Jesus will reveal links between religions that seem so contrary today. It will also call on Muslims to discover their own Jesus, at a time when they are troubled by their own Pharisees and Zealots.

Radicalization, and the terrorism that is frequently linked to it, have been subject to much study and governmental intervention. Nevertheless, the processes that lead to radicalization remain thinly conceptualized although governments and their agencies worldwide have invested heavily in counter and de-radicalization programs. There are at least 34 anti-radicalization programs worldwide, most of which were initiated post-2001, with a focus on Muslims and Muslim communities. These policies and programs have led to interventions in the daily lives of thousands, often in ways that push the boundaries of human rights law and norms. However, the effectiveness of these programs is unclear. This book compares anti-radicalization programs that target Islamic extremism in the UK, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, the Netherlands and Pakistan. It looks particularly at the ways in which the program tactics differ depending on the gender of the target, arguing that the gendered way in which anti-radicalization is pursued helps to reveal its limitations. These programs fail to take into account how masculinity and femininity inform the radicalization process. Moreover, the programs tend to link men's radicalization to excessive, but flawed, masculinity, and women's radicalization to passivity, which consequentially limits understandings of the various modes of belief, belonging, and behavior of those they are trying to engage. Solutions for male de-radicalization hinge on particular ideals of masculinity that few men can obtain, while the de-radicalization of women is seen as a rescue mission. Although the rhetoric of battling terrorism is often couched in a narrative of "women's rights" and "liberal values", the book demonstrates that the consequences of the programs often run counter to such ideals. The book's findings are applicable not just to de-radicalization programs, but also to broader counter-radicalization agendas that address resilience and community engagement. The book also highlights the way in which anti-radicalization measures hew to or differ from older programs addressing right-wing extremism, anti-cult measures, and sectarianism. Ultimately, Gender, Religion, Extremism proposes an alternative way of implementing anti-radicalization efforts that are rooted in a feminist peace-one that is transformative, inclusive, and sustainable.

The Shias of Pakistan are the world's second largest Shia community after that of Iran, but com- prise only 10-15 per cent of Pakistan's population. In recent decades Sunni extremists have increasingly targeted them with hate propaganda and terrorism, yet paradoxically Shias have always been fully integrated into all sections of political, professional and social life without suffering any discrimination. In mainstream politics, the Shia- Sunni divide has never been an issue in Pakistan. Shia politicians in Pakistan have usually downplayed their religious beliefs, but there have always been individuals and groups who emphasised their Shia identity, and who zeal- ously campaigned for equal rights for the Shias wherever and whenever they perceived these to be threatened. Shia 'ulama' have been at the forefront of communal activism in Pakistan since 1949, but Shia laymen also participated in such organisations, as they had in pre-partition India. Based mainly on Urdu sources, Rieck's book examines, first, the history of Pakistan's Shias, including their communal organisations, the growth of the Shia 'ulama' class, of religious schools and rivalry between 'orthodox' 'ulama' and popular preachers; second, the outcome of lobbying of successive Pakistan governments by Shia organisations; and third, the Shia-Sunni conflict, which is increasingly virulent due to the state's failure to combat Sunni extremism.

Debunking conventional narratives of Afghanistan as a perennial war zone and the rule of law as a secular-liberal monopoly, Faiz Ahmed presents a vibrant account of the first Muslim-majority country to gain independence, codify its own laws, and ratify a constitution after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Afghanistan Rising illustrates how turn-of-the-twentieth-century Kabul-far from being a landlocked wilderness or remote frontier-became a magnet for itinerant scholars and statesmen shuttling between Ottoman and British imperial domains. Tracing the country's longstanding but often ignored scholarly and educational ties to Baghdad, Damascus, and Istanbul as well as greater Delhi and Lahore, Ahmed explains how the court of Kabul attracted thinkers eager to craft a modern state within the interpretive traditions of Islamic law and ethics, or shari'a, and international norms of legality. From Turkish lawyers and Arab officers to Pashtun clerics and Indian bureaucrats, this rich narrative focuses on encounters between divergent streams of modern Muslim thought and politics, beginning with the Sublime Porte's first mission to Afghanistan in 1877 and concluding with the collapse of Ottoman rule after World War I. By unearthing a lost history behind Afghanistan's founding national charter, Ahmed shows how debates today on Islam, governance, and the rule of law have deep roots in a beleaguered land. Based on archival research in six countries and as many languages, Afghanistan Rising rediscovers a time when Kabul stood proudly as a center of constitutional politics, Muslim cosmopolitanism, and contested visions of reform in the greater Islamicate world.

In this landmark study, Shahla Haeri offers the extraordinary biographies of several Muslim women rulers and leaders who reached the apex of political systems of their times. Their stories illuminate the complex and challenging imperatives of dynastic succession, electoral competition and the stunning success they achieved in medieval Yemen and India, and modern Pakistan and Indonesia. The written history of Islam and the Muslim world is overwhelmingly masculine, having largely ignored women and their contributions until well into the 20th century. Religious and legal justifications have been systematically invoked to justify Muslim women's banishment from politics and public domains. Yet this patriarchal domination has not gone on without serious challenges by women - sporadic and exceptional though their participation in the battle of succession has been. The Unforgettable Queens of Islam highlights lives and legacies of a number of charismatic women engaged in fierce battles of succession, and their stories offer striking insights into the workings of political power in the Muslim world.

In the United States and Europe, the word "caliphate" has conjured historically romantic and increasingly pernicious associations. Yet the caliphate's significance in Islamic history and Muslim culture remains poorly understood. This book explores the myriad meanings of the caliphate for Muslims around the world through the analytical lens of two key moments of loss in the thirteenth and twentieth centuries. Through extensive primary-source research, Mona Hassan explores the rich constellation of interpretations created by religious scholars, historians, musicians, statesmen, poets, and intellectuals. Hassan fills a scholarly gap regarding Muslim reactions to the destruction of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad in 1258 and challenges the notion that the Mongol onslaught signaled an end to the critical engagement of Muslim jurists and intellectuals with the idea of an Islamic caliphate. She also situates Muslim responses to the dramatic abolition of the Ottoman caliphate in 1924 as part of a longer trajectory of transregional cultural memory, revealing commonalities and differences in how modern Muslims have creatively interpreted and reinterpreted their heritage. Hassan examines how poignant memories of the lost caliphate have been evoked in Muslim culture, law, and politics, similar to the losses and repercussions experienced by other religious communities, including the destruction of the Second Temple for Jews and the fall of Rome for Christians. A global history, Longing for the Lost Caliphate delves into why the caliphate has been so important to Muslims in vastly different eras and places.

The world today faces numerous challenges, including the ongoing fallout from the financial crisis and varied and diverse examples of violence and conflict across the globe. Combined with the many changes affecting both the regional and global balance of power - such as the apparent decline of the United States, the growing influence of the East, and the evolving role of international organizations - these challenges have led some to question how global power will be distributed in the coming two decades. Global Strategic Developments offers an examination of these developments, providing an exploration of the future of the global system and its international powers and organizations. With analysis of military, security, financial and economic challenges that face the Gulf, the wider Middle East and beyond, this book is of vital importance to those interested in the future of both geopolitical networks and the global monetary system.

At a time when violent images of the Muslim world dominate our headlines, Western audiences are growing increasingly interested in a different picture of Islam, specifically the idea of Muslim nonviolence, and what it could mean for the world. But is nonviolence compatible with the teachings of Islam? Is it practical to suggest that Muslim societies must adopt nonviolence to thrive in today s world? Where is the Muslim equivalent of a Mohandas K. Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr.? "Searching for a King" offers a comprehensive look into Islamic conceptions of nonviolence, their modern champions, and their readings of Islam s sacred texts, including the Qur an and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad.Jeffry R. Halverson asserts that the foundation for nonviolence in Islam already exists. He points to the exemplary lives and teachings of modern Muslim champions of nonviolence, including Abdul Ghaffar Khan, an ethnic Pashtun from the tribal regions of Pakistan whose 100,000 Muslim followers peacefully resisted British colonial rule in India. Using rich historical narratives and data from leading NGOs and international governmental organizations, Halverson also makes the case that by eliminating the high costs of warfare, nonviolence opens the door to such important complementary initiatives as microfinancing and women s education programs. Ultimately, he endorses Muslim conceptions of nonviolence and argues for the formulation of a nonviolent version of jihad as an active mode of social transformation.

The story of Islam and the Muslim people is an integral part of Australian history. This book covers the period from post-World War II until the 1980s, when the history of Islam in Australia unfolded into a rich multi-ethnicity, manifested by diverse Muslim ethnic groups. Muslim migrants found Islam in Australia more pluralistic than they found possible in their homeland, because in Australia they met fellow Muslims from many different ethnic, racial, cultural, sectarian and linguistic backgrounds. Muslims are an integral part of Australia's social fabric and multicultural way of life, shaping their Muslimness in an Australian context and their Australianness from Muslim viewpoints and experiences. Documenting socio-historical characteristics rather than providing a theological interpretation, Muslims Making Australia Home covers interrelated Islamic themes in the sociology of religion by noting how these themes reappear in cultural history. The book reveals many unknown or little-known historical facts, stories and valuable memories.

Western Sufism is sometimes dismissed as a relatively recent "new age" phenomenon, but in this book, Mark Sedgwick argues that it actually has very deep roots, both in the Muslim world and in the West. In fact, although the first significant Western Sufi organization was not established until 1915, the first Western discussion of Sufism was printed in 1480, and Western interest in some of the ideas that are central to Sufi thought goes back to the thirteenth century. Sedgwick starts with the earliest origins of Western Sufism in late antique Neoplatonism and early Arab philosophy, and traces later origins in repeated intercultural transfers from the Muslim world to the West, in the thought of the European Renaissance and Enlightenment, and in the intellectual and religious ferment of the nineteenth century. He then follows the development of organized Sufism in the West from 1915 until 1968, the year in which the first Western Sufi order based not on the heritage of the European Middle Ages, Renaissance and Enlightenment, but rather on purely Islamic models, was founded. Later developments in this and other orders are also covered. Western Sufism shows the influence of these origins, of thought both familiar and less familiar: Neoplatonic emanationism, perennialism, pantheism, universalism, and esotericism. Western Sufism, then, is the product not of the new age but of Islam, the ancient world, and centuries of Western religious and intellectual history. Drawing on sources from antiquity to the internet, Mark Sedgwick demonstrates that the phenomenon of Western Sufism not only draws on centuries of intercultural transfers, but is also part of a long-established relationship between Western thought and Islam that can be productive, not confrontational.

An exploration into the ways in which ethnography can create a greater understanding of Islam in particular social contexts This comparative approach to the various uses of the ethnographic method in research about Islam in anthropology and other social sciences is particularly relevant in the current climate. Political discourses and stereotypical media portrayals of Islam as a monolithic civilisation have prevented the emergence of cultural pluralism and individual freedom. Such discourses are countered by the contributors who show the diversity and plurality of Muslim societies and promote a reflection on how the ethnographic method allows the description, representation and analysis of the social and cultural complexity of Muslim societies in the discourse of anthropology. Key Features * shows the benefit of using ethnography as a method to engage with and relate to specific empirical realities * includes case studies on rituals and symbols in Syria, Tunisia, Damascus, Algeria, Britain, Pakistan, Brazil and Lebanon * covers practices such as veiling, students' religious practices, charitable activities, law, and scholarship in Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Yemen

This third edition of the best-selling title 'Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence' has been completely revised and substantially enlarged. In this work, Prof Kamali offers us the first detailed presentation available in English of the theory of Muslim law ('usul al-fiqh'). Often regarded as the most sophisticated of the traditional Islamic disciplines, Islamic jurisprudence is concerned with the way in which the rituals and laws of religion are derived from the Qur'an and the 'Sunna' - the precedent of the Prophet. Written as a university textbook, 'Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence' is distinguished by its clarity and readability; it is an essential reference work not only for students of Islamic law, but also for anyone with an interest in Muslim society or in issues of comparative jurisprudence.

The relationship between Jews and Muslims has been a flashpoint that affects stability in the Middle East and has consequences around the globe. In this absorbing and eloquent book Martin Gilbert challenges the standard media portrayal and presents a fascinating account of hope, opportunity, fear, and terror that have characterized these two peoples through the 1,400 years of their intertwined history.

Harking back to the Biblical story of Ishmael and Isaac, Gilbert takes the reader from the origins of the fraught relationship--the refusal of Medina's Jews to accept Mohammed as a prophet--through the ages of the Crusader reconquest of the Holy Land and the great Muslim sultanates to the present day. He explores the impact of Zionism in the first half of the twentieth century, the clash of nationalisms during the Second World War, the mass expulsions and exodus of 800,000 Jews from Muslim lands following the birth of Israel, the Six-Day War and its aftermath, and the political sensitivities of the current Middle East.

"In Ishmael's House" sheds light on a time of prosperity and opportunity for Jews in Muslim lands stretching from Morocco to Afghanistan, with many instances of Muslim openness, support, and courage. Drawing on Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sources, Gilbert uses archived material, poems, letters, memoirs, and personal testimony to uncover the human voice of this centuries-old conflict. Ultimately Gilbert's moving account of mutual tolerance between Muslims and Jews provides a perspective on current events and a template for the future.

In 2004, the French government instituted a ban on the wearing of "conspicuous signs" of religious affiliation in public schools. Though the ban applies to everyone, it is aimed at Muslim girls wearing headscarves. Proponents of the law insist it upholds France's values of secular liberalism and regard the headscarf as symbolic of Islam's resistance to modernity. "The Politics of the Veil" is an explosive refutation of this view, one that bears important implications for us all.

Joan Wallach Scott, the renowned pioneer of gender studies, argues that the law is symptomatic of France's failure to integrate its former colonial subjects as full citizens. She examines the long history of racism behind the law as well as the ideological barriers thrown up against Muslim assimilation. She emphasizes the conflicting approaches to sexuality that lie at the heart of the debate--how French supporters of the ban view sexual openness as the standard for normalcy, emancipation, and individuality, and the sexual modesty implicit in the headscarf as proof that Muslims can never become fully French. Scott maintains that the law, far from reconciling religious and ethnic differences, only exacerbates them. She shows how the insistence on homogeneity is no longer feasible for France--or the West in general--and how it creates the very "clash of civilizations" said to be at the root of these tensions.

"The Politics of the Veil" calls for a new vision of community where common ground is found amid our differences, and where the embracing of diversity--not its suppression--is recognized as the best path to social harmony.

"A ground-shaping book that defines the edge of so many vital contemporary debates. Hers is a voice simultaneously behind and beyond the veil" Colum McCann Headscarves and Hymens explodes the myth that we should stand back and watch while women are disempowered and abused in the name of religion. In this laceratingly honest account, Eltahawy takes aim both at attitudes in the Middle East and at the western liberals who mistake misogyny for cultural difference. Her argument is clear: unless political revolution in the Arab world is accompanied by social and sexual revolution, no progress will be made. Headscarves and Hymens is the book the world has been crying out for: a powerful, fearless account of what it really means to be a woman in the Muslim world. 'A fascinating, can't-look-away, whistle-stop tour of the Middle East' Daily Telegraph 'Brave and impassioned . . . A shocking book, and one that will make anyone who has seen veiling as a cultural issue think very hard about what is really going on' Mail on Sunday

A lushly illustrated survey of exquisitely crafted weapons and armor from the Islamic world, which display extraordinary artistry and opulence From its origins in the 7th century, armor and weaponry were central to Islamic culture not only as a means of conquest and the spread of faith, but also as symbols of status, wealth, and power. More than 120 exceptional examples from the renowned collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art are presented in detail to demonstrate the remarkable craftsmanship and beauty of Islamic arms and armor. These diverse objects, which have never been catalogued or published in detail, span ten centuries and represent nearly every Islamic culture, from Spain to the Caucasus. Among these masterpieces are rare early works, such as the oldest documented Islamic sword, and fine examples of decorated helmets and body armor from late-15th-century Iran and Anatolia. Also included are lavish gem-studded weapons from royal courts in the Ottoman world and India. Each piece is handsomely photographed, with a detailed discussion of its technical, historical, and artistic importance. Made by master artisans in conjunction with leading designers, goldsmiths, and jewelers, these stunning objects demonstrate how utilitarian military equipment could be transformed into striking and extravagant works of art.

The Syrian state is less than 100 years old, born from the wreckage of World War I. Today it stands in ruins, shattered by brutal civil war. How did this happen? How did the lands that are today Syria survive incorporation with the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century and the trials and vicissitudes of the Sultan's rule for four centuries, only to collapse into civil war in recent years? Arguably it was the Ottoman period that laid the fragile foundations of a state that had to endure a turbulent twentieth century under French rule, tentative independence, a brutal and corrupt dictatorship and eventual disintegration in the twenty-first. Across a diverse cast of individuals, rich and poor, James Reilly explores these fractious and formative periods of Ottoman, Egyptian and French rule, and the ways that these contributed to the contradictions and failings of the rule of the Assad family; and to a civil war which produced the so-called Islamic State. In charting Syria's history over the last five centuries in their entirety for the first time, Reilly demonstrates the myriad historical, cultural, social, economic and political factors that bind Syrians together, as well as those that have torn them apart. Based on primary sources, recent historiography in English, French and Arabic and more than 30 years' experience living and working in the region, this is the essential book for understanding modern Syria and the Middle East.

This an entirely new introduction to Islam by a major American news corespondent versed in Islamic religion, culture, and politics, one who has seen the course of war and upheaval, peace and prosperity. Unmasking the tie between Islam and modern terrorism, Ed Hotaling explores the radical challenge posed by terrorists to the religion they claim to follow and their threat to the world at large. Paralleling the rise of Islam with the life of Muhammad, Hotaling describes how Muhammad created the first Islamic state. He was an innovative general and diplomat who respected women's rights. Hotaling draws the stunning conclusion that if the Prophet were alive today, he would be an American. Hotaling explains, "Just as he did in the heat of persecution, embattled leadership and war, he would have stood up today for his principles, debated and negotiated with his rivals, tolerated their ideas until he could win them over . . . and fought in the open." Here is the amazing story of how Muhammad's followers conquered half the world, exceeded early Christian Europe in the arts, sciences, and government, and won the bloody battles of the Crusades. Hotaling traces the path of Islam to modern times and the spread of Islamic Revivalism spurred by the Iranian Revolution. He reveals its connection to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. With compelling precision, he uncovers alternatives to an impending cataclysmic clash of civilizations.