Exploring the increasing impact of the Internet on Muslims around the world, this book sheds new light on the nature of contemporary Islamic discourse, identity, and community. The Internet has profoundly shaped how both Muslims and non-Muslims perceive Islam and how Islamic societies and networks are evolving and shifting in the twenty-first century, says Gary Bunt. While Islamic society has deep historical patterns of global exchange, the Internet has transformed how many Muslims practice the duties and rituals of Islam. A place of religious instruction may exist solely in the virtual world, for example, or a community may gather only online. Drawing on more than a decade of online research, Bunt shows how social-networking sites, blogs, and other "cyber-Islamic environments" have exposed Muslims to new influences outside the traditional spheres of Islamic knowledge and authority. Furthermore, the Internet has dramatically influenced forms of Islamic activism and radicalization, including jihad-oriented campaigns by networks such as al-Qaeda. By surveying the broad spectrum of approaches used to present dimensions of Islamic social, spiritual, and political life on the Internet, iMuslims encourages diverse understandings of online Islam and of Islam generally.

A panel of thirty-five experts, writers, and religious leaders--including Muhammad Ali and Karen Armstrong--take a close-up look at the future of Islam, the historical realities that have shaped it, the paradoxes and schisms within it, the conflict between fundamentalism and progressives, and its beliefs and practices, in an informative panel discussion. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

A Muslim environmentalist explores the fascinating intersection of environmentalism and Islam. Muslims are compelled by their religion to praise the Creator and to care for their community. But what is not widely known is that there are deep and long-standing connections between Islamic teachings and environmentalism. In this groundbreaking book, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin draws on research, scripture, and interviews with Muslim Americans to trace Islam’s preoccupation with humankind’s collective role as stewards of the Earth. Abdul-Matin points out that the Prophet Muhammad declared “the Earth is a mosque.” Using the concept of Deen, which means “path” or “way” in Arabic, Abdul-Matin offers dozens of examples of how Muslims can follow, and already are following, a Green Deen in four areas: “waste, watts (energy), water, and food.”

They Must Be Stopped is New York Times bestselling author Brigitte Gabriel's warning to the world: We can no longer ignore the growth of radical Islam–we must act soon, and powerfully. Drawing from seventh-century teachings, Gabriel probes into how fundamentalist Islam, under the guise of religious liberty, perpetuates hatred towards western values while exploiting the U.S. legal system. This crucial work takes a hard look at madrassas, flagging their surge in America as part of a rising radical army on U.S. soil. Gabriel fearlessly critiques an overbearing climate of political correctness that often stifles candid discussions about radical Islam. She passionately advocates that America must shed its restraint, questioning its complacency towards this growing internal threat, and demand its representatives to take protective action. Delving into its religious and historical basis, the encroachments across the globe, and systemic abuses of democracy in the name of religion, They Must Be Stopped serves as a clarion call to the world.

Alone among the world's religions, Islam is not just surviving but flourishing. Yet many people know little about Islam and regard its continuing attraction as something of a mystery. In this book, Du Pasquier, an award-winning Swiss journalist, provides a thorough introduction to Muslim belief, history and culture. He deals not only with topical issues, such as 'fundamentalism' and the status of Muslim women, but provides an overview of the Qur'an, the Prophet, Islamic history, and the nature of Muslim art and literature. Unbiased yet passionate, the book offers an 'unveiling' which must be heeded if the present mutual incomprehension between East and West is to be overcome.

A bold new conceptualization of Islam that reflects its contradictions and rich diversity What is Islam? How do we grasp a human and historical phenomenon characterized by such variety and contradiction? What is "Islamic" about Islamic philosophy or Islamic art? Should we speak of Islam or of islams? Should we distinguish the Islamic (the religious) from the Islamicate (the cultural)? Or should we abandon "Islamic" altogether as an analytical term? In What Is Islam?, Shahab Ahmed presents a bold new conceptualization of Islam that challenges dominant understandings grounded in the categories of "religion" and "culture" or those that privilege law and scripture. He argues that these modes of thinking obstruct us from understanding Islam, distorting it, diminishing it, and rendering it incoherent. What Is Islam? formulates a new conceptual language for analyzing Islam. It presents a new paradigm of how Muslims have historically understood divine revelation—one that enables us to understand how and why Muslims through history have embraced values such as exploration, ambiguity, aestheticization, polyvalence, and relativism, as well as practices such as figural art, music, and even wine drinking as Islamic. It also puts forward a new understanding of the historical constitution of Islamic law and its relationship to philosophical ethics and political theory. A book that is certain to provoke debate and significantly alter our understanding of Islam, What Is Islam? reveals how Muslims have historically conceived of and lived with Islam as norms and truths that are at once contradictory yet coherent.