Once in a while a book comes along that can reshape the thinking of the world. One person at a time. "Reading the Muslim Mind" is just such a book. Dr Hassan Hathout starts out from a simple observation - a lifetime of biculturalism leads him to note that "Islam in the West is widely known for what it is not." This encyclopedic personality sets out to guide the reader on a comprehensive tour through Islam. For this voyage, he supplies a keen and lucid anatomy of Islamic life. But more: he provides, with incisive clarity, the inner guidebook; he uncovers the tracing of the mind at work behind the practice, the spirit behind the letter, the rationale and the Ultimate Reason, God.

Once in a while a book comes along that can reshape the thinking of the world. One person at a time. "Reading the Muslim Mind" is just such a book. Dr. Hassan Hathout starts out from a simple observation--a lifetime of biculturalism (the Egyptian-born physician has lived in Britain and now resides in the USA) leads him to note that "Islam in the West is widely known for what it is not." This encyclopedic personality (doctor of medicine, thinker, speaker, poet) sets out to guide the reader on a comprehensive tour through Islam. For this voyage, he supplies a keen and lucid "anatomy" of the Islamic life. But more: he provides, with incisive clarity, the inner guidebook: he uncovers the tracing of the mind at work behind the practice, the spirit behind the letter, the rationale and the Ultimate Reason, God. For non-Muslims and what Dr. Hathout aptly calls the Judeo-Christian-Islamic world tradition at large, the trip proves illuminating and always thought-provoking. For Muslims, it will re-anchor and enrich their faith and offer vital and timely answers to up-to-the-minute dilemmas of life at the brink of the millennium. The book addresses key issues of our time from the Islamic perspective. Dr. Hathout in this wise, warm and inspiring work is speaking to the audience of humankind, in the Age of Selfishness, "Microtheism" and Godlessness. In his clarion call of hope, the author knows that when a "minimum critical mass turns to cooperation and understanding, real change is possible. To be known for what one really is, is nothing less than a human right, Dr. Hathout notes. Here then is Islam as it (really) is, and the world as it (really) can be. (Book jacket).

A fascinating journey into Islam's diverse history of ideas, making an argument for an "Islamic Enlightenment" today In Reopening Muslim Minds, Mustafa Akyol, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and opinion writer for The New York Times, both diagnoses “the crisis of Islam” in the modern world, and offers a way forward. Diving deeply into Islamic theology, and also sharing lessons from his own life story, he reveals how Muslims lost the universalism that made them a great civilization in their earlier centuries. He especially demonstrates how values often associated with Western Enlightenment — freedom, reason, tolerance, and an appreciation of science — had Islamic counterparts, which sadly were cast aside in favor of more dogmatic views, often for political ends. Elucidating complex ideas with engaging prose and storytelling, Reopening Muslim Minds borrows lost visions from medieval Muslim thinkers such as Ibn Rushd (aka Averroes), to offer a new Muslim worldview on a range of sensitive issues: human rights, equality for women, freedom of religion, or freedom from religion. While frankly acknowledging the problems in the world of Islam today, Akyol offers a clear and hopeful vision for its future.

A fascinating account of the Muslims in twentieth-century India, Pakistan and Bangladesh through his biographical sketches of eight prominent Muslims— Sayyid Ahmed Khan (1817-1898), Fazlul Haq (1873-1962), Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), Muhammad Iqbal (1876-1938), Muhammad Ali (1878-1931), Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958), Liaqat Ali Khan (1895-1951) and Zakir Hussain (1897-1969) Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, provides a deeply insightful and comprehensive picture of the community in the subcontinent today.

Islam's Intellectual Suicide—and the Threat to Us All People are shocked and frightened by the behavior coming out the Islamic world—not only because it is violent, but also because it is seemingly inexplicable. While there are many answers to the question of “what went wrong” in the Muslim world, no one has decisively answered why it went wrong. Until now. In this eye-opening new book, foreign policy expert Robert R. Reilly uncovers the root of our contemporary crisis: a pivotal struggle waged within the Muslim world nearly a millennium ago. In a heated battle over the role of reason, the side of irrationality won. The deformed theology that resulted, Reilly reveals, produced the spiritual pathology of Islamism, and a deeply dysfunctional culture. Terrorism—from 9/11, to London, Madrid, and Mumbai, to the Christmas 2009 attempted airline bombing—is the most obvious manifestation of this crisis. But Reilly shows that the pathology extends much further. The Closing of the Muslim Mind solves such puzzles as: · why peace is so elusive in the Middle East · why the Arab world stands near the bottom of every measure of human development · why scientific inquiry is nearly dead in the Islamic world · why Spain translates more books in a single year than the entire Arab world has in the past thousand years · why some people in Saudi Arabia still refuse to believe man has been to the moon · why Muslim media frequently present natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina as God’s direct retribution Delving deeper than previous polemics and simplistic analyses, The Closing of the Muslim Mind provides the answers the West has so desperately needed in confronting the Islamist crisis.

Most Christian workers rely on the Qur'an as their primary source for understanding Islam and Muslims. But the Qur'an doesn't answer all the questions. However, the Islamic traditions do. Understanding these traditions-the one area that influences Muslims more than any other-can reduce fear and conflict while helping us build a rapport with Muslims and share with them the hope of Christ. Author and Navigator Ed Hoskins has spent years sequentially going through approximately 35,000 respected Islamic traditions, condensing them into a usable format, and organizing them into six topics: Muhammad Women Heaven and hell Jews and Christians Shariah law Jihad Refreshing and revealing, his comprehensive review of all the major Islamic traditions shows what Muslims believe, think, and do.

The events of September 11, 2001, forever changed the world as we knew it. In their wake, the quest for international order has prompted a reshuffling of global aims and priorities. In a fresh approach, Gilles Kepel focuses on the Middle East as a nexus of international disorder and decodes the complex language of war, propaganda, and terrorism that holds the region in its thrall. The breakdown of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in 2000 was the first turn in a downward spiral of violence and retribution. Meanwhile, a neo-conservative revolution in Washington unsettled U.S. Mideast policy, which traditionally rested on the twin pillars of Israeli security and access to Gulf oil. In Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, a transformation of the radical Islamist doctrine of Bin Laden and Zawahiri relocated the arena of terrorist action from Muslim lands to the West; Islamist radicals proclaimed jihad against their enemies worldwide. Kepel examines the impact of global terrorism and the ensuing military operations to stem its tide. He questions the United States' ability to address the Middle East challenge with Cold War rhetoric, while revealing the fault lines in terrorist ideology and tactics. Finally, he proposes the way out of the Middle East quagmire that triangulates the interests of Islamists, the West, and the Arab and Muslim ruling elites. Kepel delineates the conditions for the acceptance of Israel, for the democratization of Islamist and Arab societies, and for winning the minds and hearts of Muslims in the West.