Tackling a subject that is as timely as it is complex, this expert work examines the turmoil inside Muslim communities, helping outsiders to understand and insiders to examine ways in which Islam can be reinterpreted for a modern world. The Global Muslim Community at a Crossroads: Understanding Religious Beliefs, Practices, and Infighting to End the Conflict is an illuminating work. Written by an eminent psychologist who was raised as a Muslim in India and now resides in the United States, it examines the core reasons for the current state of affairs in Muslim communities, explaining the psychological underpinnings of Muslim religion and practices and the reasons they can fuel violence. Drawing on the editor's exposure to Eastern and Western cultures and his longstanding interest in the study of comparative world religions, this impartial analysis takes a multidimensional approach to explaining the current plight of Muslim countries. It candidly discusses issues such as the influence of Islamic schools, the negative and positive roles of Ulema (religious scholars), a lack of critical inquiry into religious thought, Sharia, and the status of women in Islam. Finally, there are positive suggestions about a road to recovery, explaining how Muslim communities can address the interlocking problems they face while retaining the positive aspects of their beliefs.

Tackling a subject that is as timely as it is complex, this expert work examines the turmoil inside Muslim communities, helping outsiders to understand and insiders to examine ways in which Islam can be reinterpreted for a modern world. The Global Muslim Community at a Crossroads: Understanding Religious Beliefs, Practices, and Infighting to End the Conflict is an illuminating work. Written by an eminent psychologist who was raised as a Muslim in India and now resides in the United States, it examines the core reasons for the current state of affairs in Muslim communities, explaining the psychological underpinnings of Muslim religion and practices and the reasons they can fuel violence. Drawing on the editor's exposure to Eastern and Western cultures and his longstanding interest in the study of comparative world religions, this impartial analysis takes a multidimensional approach to explaining the current plight of Muslim countries. It candidly discusses issues such as the influence of Islamic schools, the negative and positive roles of Ulema (religious scholars), a lack of critical inquiry into religious thought, Sharia, and the status of women in Islam. Finally, there are positive suggestions about a road to recovery, explaining how Muslim communities can address the interlocking problems they face while retaining the positive aspects of their beliefs.

This book was written as a plea to the Muslims to avoid a blind imitation of Western social forms and values, and to try to preserve instead their Islamic heritage which once upon a time had been responsible for the many-sided historical phenomenon comprised in the term 'Muslim civilisation'. It clarifies something of the tragic confusion nowadays prevailing in the Muslim world.

Understand Islam with this accessible and compelling overview of its history, core beliefs, and polarizing divisions.

It is undeniable that Islam is today in a condition of deep crisis. Political upheavals that dominate popular discussion of the subject are no more than surface expressions of a problem of historic dimensions: the inability of Islamic scholars and institutions to reconcile the teachings and perspectives of their Faith with the realities of modernity. Democratic and constitutional government, pluralistic societies, the authority of the sciences, such principles as gender equality and religious freedom, a rapidly integrating world - all these familiar features of contemporary civilization pose insurmountable challenges to anyone who attempts to accommodate them to religious guidance laid down fourteen centuries ago for an earlier, much simpler stage in humanity's social evolution. One sees in contemporary Islam a society desperately searching for, and failing always to find, a formula that will make it possible to retain traditional Muslim faith in God while embracing the inescapable requirements of a world beyond the imagination of ages past. At the same time, millions of Muslims view with feelings of outrage and helplessness the caricature of the Faith they love that an aggressive fundamentalism is determined to impose upon it. Equally significant has been the awakening of European populations to the implications of the presence in their midst of a vast number of Muslim immigrants - some now into the third generation - who often appear essentially irreconcilable with certain foundational norms of Western culture. Perhaps not surprisingly, this has inspired widespread desire to understand the religious roots of such phenomena, awakening an unprecedented interest in Islamic belief and practice. Islam at the Crossroads presents extracts drawn primarily from the texts of the Qur'an and the Bible to explain the interrelationship between Islam and its sister Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Christianity, as well as the Baha'i Faith, the most recent link in the chain of religions capable of responding to the process of transformation in which the entire world is today caught up. The format illustrates the progressive pattern and integral coherence of the divine Revelations as constituents of one common faith, and demonstrates the principle that 'God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us, ' and, specifically, to followers of Islam, through Baha'u'llah. 'Globalization' and 'modernity', far from being alien to the Faith taught in the Qur'an, are thus rather a fulfilment of it, both spiritually and practically. Clearly, Muslims have as much right to this common heritage of humankind as do the people of any other religious background. Within the Baha'i community, much emphasis is placed on the importance of Western Baha'is undertaking a serious study of Islam, using for the purpose 'sources that are authoritative and unbiased'. This book examines the criteria offered by the teachings of Baha'u'llah for the validity of the Mission of the Prophet Muhammad, and some of the reasons why Islam and its fortunes are directly dependent on submission to God's Will and following His Straight Path in this day and age. Born in Iran and brought up in Africa, Dr Lameh Fananapazir studied medicine in Scotland and is currently a cardiologist and electrophysiologist in the United States. He is the author of several hundred medical articles and spent two and half years in Haifa, Israel where he was the director of the Health Services at the Baha'i World Centre and Visiting Professor of Molecular Genetics at Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. This book was born out of his curiosity concerning the root causes of religious fanaticism and increasing certitude that Baha'u'llah's teachings represent the only possible remedy."

This book chronicles individual perspectives and specific iterations of Muslim community, practice, and experience in the Himalayan region to bring into scholarly conversation the presence of varying Muslim cultures in the Himalaya. The Himalaya provide a site of both geographic and cultural crossroads, where Muslim community is simultaneously constituted at multiple social levels, and to that end the essays in this book document a wide range of local, national, and global interests while maintaining a focus on individual perspectives, moments in time, and localized experiences. It presents research that contributes to a broadly conceived notion of the Himalaya that enriches readers’ understandings of both the region and concepts of Muslim community and highlights the interconnections between multiple experiences of Muslim community at local levels. Drawing attention to the cultural, social, artistic, and political diversity of the Himalaya beyond the better understood and frequently documented religio-cultural expressions of the region, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Anthropology, Geography, History, Religious Atudies, Asian Studies, and Islamic Studies.

A Critical Assessment of Islam in the Modern World In his seminal work, "Islam at the Crossroads," Muhammad Asad offers a profound and insightful examination of the challenges and opportunities facing Islam in the modern world. Asad, a convert to Islam himself, provides a unique perspective on the religion, drawing from his deep understanding of both Western and Islamic thought. Asad argues that Islam is at a crossroads, facing a choice between embracing its core values of justice, equality, and compassion or succumbing to the allure of materialism and individualism. He contends that the future of Islam depends on its ability to adapt to the changing world without compromising its fundamental principles. Asad's critique of the modern Islamic world is both incisive and respectful. He identifies a number of shortcomings, including the rise of sectarianism, the stifling of intellectual inquiry, and the misinterpretation of Islamic teachings to justify violence and oppression. However, Asad also maintains a deep faith in the potential of Islam to provide a positive and transformative vision for the future. "Islam at the Crossroads" is a challenging and thought-provoking work that is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the future of Islam. Asad's insights are as relevant today as they were when the book was first published in 1934. Asad's work has been praised by scholars and laypeople alike for its honesty, insight, and profound understanding of Islam. "Islam at the Crossroads" is a landmark work that continues to inspire and challenge readers today.