This book is a portrait of the current Supreme Leader and the cultural and intellectual milieu in which he came to power. It offers details about his character, including his interest in literature, and demonstrates how he became a master of consolidating power and adopted an aggressive regional posture and strategic hedging on the nuclear issue.

This book is a portrait of the current Supreme Leader and the cultural and intellectual milieu in which he came to power. It offers details about his character, including his interest in literature, and demonstrates how he became a master of consolidating power and adopted an aggressive regional posture and strategic hedging on the nuclear issue.

This book provides a detailed account of the emergence and metamorphoses of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its political arm, Jamat ud Dawah, since the early 1990s. Linking the group's narratives to the process of Islamization in Pakistan and divergent views on the country's Islamic identity, it is the first systematic analysis of how the organization, globally reviled as the perpetrator of the 2008 Mumbai Bombings, has developed its conception of da'wah (proselytizing) and jihad in response to regional and global developments. Samina Yasmeen makes extensive use of Urdu materials (pamphlets, books, ephemera) by Markaz Da'wah wal Irshad, the parent organization of LeT, to examine the 'insider's vision' of the dominant threats to Pakistan and the Muslim ummah, as well as strategies for countering these threats. She argues that while adopting an oppositional narrative vis-à-vis India and the West, LeT has increasingly turned its attention to da'wah narratives within Pakistan engaging with broader spectrums of society. Women have increasingly been assigned significant agency in this narrative, and JuD's activism in education and social welfare has helped it acquire social capital. This, in turn, prompts a re-imagining of the movement's relationship with the Pakistani military.

An introductory guide to the important elements of the world's largest religion, including the Quran, the Pillars of Faith, and the life of Muhammad, as well as Islamic history, customs and rituals, and contributions to world culture. Essential Islam: A Comprehensive Guide to Belief and Practice is the ideal beginner's resource on the core elements of a faith that, like Christianity and Judaism, offers a guide to holy living and a path to salvation—one that like other world faiths has inspired peace and war, tolerance and brutality, enlightenment and abysmal ignorance. Essential Islam offers an insightful, objective look at Islam from its inception to the present day, including a discussion of Islamic beliefs about God, history, warfare, marriage, the afterlife, and the relationship between Islam and other faiths. It is a rich source for dispelling misconceptions—for example, only 10 percent of Muslims are Arabic, and only a quarter of those reside in the Middle East—and for understanding tensions between groups within and outside Islam. More importantly, it gives readers a portrait of Islam not as a religion of extremists, but as a dynamic living faith practiced by people of all kinds in virtually every corner of the world.

Who really rules Iran today? Are the men in official positions merely puppets activated by hidden hands? How are decisions made in a system that appears so chaotic at first glance? Is the current political structure doomed to conflict? These are some of the questions that Amir Taheri addresses in this riveting and timely book. An anatomy of one of the most secretive regimes in the contemporary world, The Persian Night traces the historical, religious, cultural, and political roots of the Khomeinist revolution and analyzes the way it has grown into a pseudo-religious ideology over the past three decades. Taheri dissects a regime that has hijacked a nation of seventy million people and mobilized its resources for global “holy war” against the United States and its allies. From Khomeini’s “divine mission” to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s messianic campaign in the name of the “Hidden Imam,” Iran is on a trajectory towards war. The Persian Night looks into the actual links between the Islamic Republic and terrorist networks including al-Qaeda and Hezballah; the reality of the Iranian nuclear program; the Islamic Republic’s war-making capabilities and strategies; and the origins of the three Khomeinist phobias—women, Jews, and the United States. But as Taheri demonstrates, Khomeinism is not Iran. Today there are two competing Irans: the one manifested in the negative Khomeinist energies that have dragged the nation into its dark night; the other drawing from the long and celebrated history of Persian culture while extending a friendly hand to the West. Successive U.S. administrations, along with most European governments, have failed to understand the reality of the Khomeinist regime and at times have even aided its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, including a nuclear arsenal. Taheri provides a set of imaginative suggestions for more effective ways of dealing with Iran.

Offering readers an engaging, accessible, and balanced account of the contributions of American Muslims to the contemporary United States, this important book serves to clarify misrepresentations and misunderstandings regarding Muslim Americans and Islam. Unfortunately, American mass media representations of Muslims—whether in news or entertainment—are typically negative and one-dimensional. As a result, Muslims are frequently viewed negatively by those with minimal knowledge of Islam in America. This accessible two-volume work will help readers to construct an accurate framework for understanding the presence and depictions of Muslims in American society. These volumes discuss a uniquely broad array of key topics in American popular culture, including jihad and jihadis; the hejab, veil, and burka; Islamophobia; Oriental despots; Arabs; Muslims in the media; and mosque burnings. Muslims and American Popular Culture offers more than 40 chapters that serve to debunk the overwhelmingly negative associations of Islam in American popular culture and illustrate the tremendous contributions of Muslims to the United States across an extended historical period.

In this introduction to the Qur'an, Fazlur Rahman unravels its complexities on themes such as God, society, revelation, and prophecy.