Der vorliegende Band schafft ein interdisziplinares Forum fur die gegenwartsbezogene Turkeiforschung in Deutschland. Er prasentiert Forschungsergebnisse von NachwuchswissenschaftlerInnen, die sich durch einen frischen Blick auf die Turkei, methodische Vielfalt sowie interdisziplinare Ansatze auszeichnen. Der Band tragt so zu einem besseren Verstandnis von Gesellschaft, Politik, Wirtschaft, Geschichte und Kultur des Landes bei, das sowohl regional als auch im europaischen Kontext einen immer wichtiger werdenden Platz einnimmt. "

Considered the most authoritative single-volume reference work on Islam in the contemporary world, the German-language Der Islam in der Gegenwart, currently in its fifth edition, offers a wealth of authoritative information on the religious, political, social, and cultural life of Islamic nations and of Islamic immigrant communities elsewhere. Now, Cornell University Press is making this invaluable resource accessible to English-language readers.

More current than the latest German edition on which it is based, Islam in the World Today covers a comprehensive array of topics in concise essays by some of the world's leading experts on Islam, including:

the history of Islam from the earliest years through the twentieth century, with particular attention to Sunni and Shi'i Islam and Islamic revival movements during the last three centuries;

data on the advance of Islam along with current population statistics;

Muslim ideas on modern economics, on social order, and on attempts to modernize Islamic law (shari'a) and apply it in contemporary Muslim societies;

Islam in diaspora, especially the situation in Europe and America;

secularism, democracy, and human rights; and

women in Islam Twenty-four essays are each devoted to a specific Muslim country or a country with significant Muslim minorities, spanning Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union.

Additional essays illuminate Islamic culture, exploring local traditions; the languages and dialects of Muslim peoples; and art, architecture, and literature. Detailed bibliographies and indexes ensure the book's usefulness as a reference work."

The anthology is an introduction to political cultures in the Islamic world and into relations between the West and Islam. It outlines similarities and differences in the understanding, perception and communication of basic politico-ideological issues like modernity democracy, human rights, violence, the emancipation of women, and economic development and social justice.
It details its analyses in country studies on relations between the USA and Europe on the one side and Algeria, Iran, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Bosnia, Israel/Palestine, Iraq, Central Asia and Pakistan on the other side.
The book, which was first published in Germany, was deemed to be "a convincing reply to Huntington" (S]ddeutsche Zeitung). Mostly German scholars and scholars working in Germany present original insights into a complex matter that although at the heart of international and intercultural relations is often treated in simplistic ways.