This engaging introduction to Islam examines its lived reality, its worldwide presence, and the variety of beliefs and practices encompassed by the religion. The global perspective uniquely captures the diversity of Islam expressed throughout different countries in the present day. A comprehensive, multi-disciplinary, and global introduction to Islam, covering its history as well as current issues, experiences, and challenges Incorporates key new research on Muslims from a variety of countries across Europe, Latin America, Indonesia, and Malaysia Central Asia Directly addresses controversial issues, including political violence and ‘terrorism’, anti-western sentiments, and Islamophobia Explores different responses from various Islamic communities to globalizing trends Highlights key patterns within Islamic history that shed light upon the origins and evolution of current movements and thought

Islam is the second most common faith in the world with over a billion adherents. Understanding Islam as a twenty-first century faith has potential to address one of the contemporary world's sorest points, and, at the same time, to release the energies of one of the world's most potent forces. Moreover, overcoming suspicion of Islam is a pertinent 21st century challenge facing the U.S. as its attempts to mend a decade of deteriorating ties with Muslim peoples world-wide. This book explores suspicion of Islamic education in the U.S., analysing the extent to which such a sentiment is based on verifiable data. The agreement between general broad principles of research ethics and Islamic teachings concerning life are discussed as well. Other chapters address the two controversial issues concerning women's rights and age of consent for children in Muslim communities. How media representations of Islam can contradict and re-interpret the sanctity of life upheld in the holy book are also analyzed. In addition, this book explores the importance of new Islamic presences in Europe, and the authors address the relationship between the state and Islamic religion, the integration of Muslims in Europe and the role of Islam inside European society.

Islam is not only a religion, but also a culture, tradition, and civilization. There are currently 1.5 billion people in the world who identify themselves as Muslim. Two thirds of the worldwide Muslim population, i.e. approximately a billion people, live in forty-eight Muslim majority countries (MMC) in the world– all of which except one are in Africa and Asia. Of these MMCs in Africa and Asia, only twelve (inhabited by about 165 million people) have ever achieved a high score on the Human Development Index (HDI), the index that measures life expectancy at birth, education and standard of living and ranks how "developed" a country is. This means that the majority of the world's Muslim population lives in poverty with low or medium level of human development. The contributions to this innovative volume attempt to determine why this is. They explore the influence of environment, space, and power on human development. The result is a complex, interdisciplinary study of all MMCs in Africa and Asia. It offers new insights into the current state of the Muslim World, and provides a theoretical framework for studying human development from an interdisciplinary social, cultural, economic, environmental, political, and religious perspective, which will be applicable to regional and cultural studies of space and power in other regions of the world.

A sweeping history of Islam and the West from the seventh century to today Europe and the Islamic World sheds much-needed light on the shared roots of Islamic and Western cultures and on the richness of their inextricably intertwined histories, refuting once and for all the misguided notion of a "clash of civilizations" between the Muslim world and Europe. In this landmark book, three eminent historians bring to life the complex and tumultuous relations between Genoans and Tunisians, Alexandrians and the people of Constantinople, Catalans and Maghrebis—the myriad groups and individuals whose stories reflect the common cultural, intellectual, and religious heritage of Europe and Islam. Since the seventh century, when the armies of Constantinople and Medina fought for control of Syria and Palestine, there has been ongoing contact between the Muslim world and the West. This sweeping history vividly recounts the wars and the crusades, the alliances and diplomacy, commerce and the slave trade, technology transfers, and the intellectual and artistic exchanges. Here readers are given an unparalleled introduction to key periods and events, including the Muslim conquests, the collapse of the Byzantine Empire, the commercial revolution of the medieval Mediterranean, the intellectual and cultural achievements of Muslim Spain, the crusades and Spanish reconquest, the rise of the Ottomans and their conquest of a third of Europe, European colonization and decolonization, and the challenges and promise of this entwined legacy today. As provocative as it is groundbreaking, this book describes this shared history in all its richness and diversity, revealing how ongoing encounters between Europe and Islam have profoundly shaped both.

"Islam in the 21st Century: Challenges, Conspiracies & Chaos" is an attempt to present a Muslim perspective in the era of disinformation, misinformation and reductive historical and theological explanations related to Islam and the Islamic World. The Islamic states are part of the so-called Third World that is dominated by the West. The Western dominance is of a multi-dimensional nature, not just military or political hegemony. Economic and intellectual forces are important components of the dominant power that the West wields. The dominant countries of the West have not only penetrated the Third World, particularly, the Islamic or Arab countries in economic and political terms but also in very significant cultural areas. This hegemonic or dominant role is exercised by certain Western countries because of the ascendant position they occupy in the world market and the community of nation states buttressed by military and technological superiority. The Western policies towards the third world - that includes the Islamic world - are primarily determined by the analysis of economic and power interests, not by the evaluation of a religion. These policies are single-mindedly pursued by Western self-interest, at times brutally, with little regard for the lives of people there. It is a question of power politics and control. The chapter one of the Book highlights the prevalent state of affairs in the Muslim countries. The second chapter unveils the mechanism of western domination of the global economy and politics. The chapter three deals with Islam and the West which strictly adheres to the principle "crusade for morality stops where self interest starts." The fourth chapter concentrates on Islam & Muslims in the Post-9/11 America. The chapter five deals with the anti-Islam and anti-Muslim campaigns in Europe. The chapter six analyses the fake Arab Spring, Islamic or cultural resurgence and religious fundamentalism. The chapter seven presents projections about the Muslim World in 2030/2050.

"Muslims have lived in Europe for hundreds of years. Only in 1878, however, did many of them become formal citizens of European states. Muslims and the Making of Europe shows how this massive shift in citizenship rights transformed both Muslims' daily lives and European laws and societies. Starting with the Treaty of Berlin and ending with the eradication of the Shari'a legal system in Communist Yugoslavia, this book centers Muslim voices and perspectives in an analysis of the twists and turns of nineteenth and twentieth century European history, from early nation-building projects to the shattering of the European imperial order after World War I, through the interwar political experiments of liberal democracy and authoritarianism, and into the Second World War, when Muslims, like other Europeans, were caught between occupation and civil conflict, and the ideological programs of fascism and communism. Its focus moves from "Ottoman Europe" in the late nineteenth century to Yugoslavia, a multi-confessional, multi-lingual state founded after World War I. Throughout these decades, Muslims negotiated with state authorities over the boundaries of Islamic law, the nature of religious freedom, and the meaning of minority rights. As they did so, Muslims helped to shape emergent political, social, and legal projects in Europe"--

Muslims in 21st Century Europe explores the interaction between native majorities and Muslim minorities in various European countries with a view to highlighting different paths of integration of immigrant and native Muslims. Starting with a critical overview of the institutionalisation of Islam in Europe and a discussion on the nature of Muslimophobia as a social phenomenon, this book shows how socio-economic, institutional and political parameters set the frame for Muslim integration in Europe. Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden are selected as case studies among the 'old' migration hosts. Italy, Spain and Greece are included to highlight the issues arising and the policies adopted in southern Europe to accommodate Muslim claims and needs. The book highlights the internal diversity of both minority and majority populations, and analyses critically the political and institutional responses to the presence of Muslims.

Fully revised and updated, the second edition of this leading textbook provides a systematic assessment of security in contemporary Europe. The book examines the changing character of security and assesses the extent of the threats posed by different challenges, as well as the policy dilemmas involved in responding to these concerns. The nature of security in Europe has been transformed in recent years. Andrew Cottey argues that this is a result of two key developments: the emergence of a security community - a zone of peace where war is inconceivable across much of Europe - and the presence of new security threats such as terrorism and energy dependence. Set in the context of the rising power of non-Western states and the continuing fall-out from the global economic crisis, this text provides a comprehensive analysis of Europe's new security challenges. Europe's traditional problem of war between states is being displaced by a new and equally daunting set of security challenges. While major war within Europe remains unlikely, the 2008 Georgia war and the 2011 Libya war were reminders that violent conflicts are still prevalent on Europe's periphery and can pose major challenges for European governments, NATO and the EU. At the same time, terrorism, nuclear proliferation as well as non-military problems like mass migration and climate change threaten Europe's security. This text is the perfect companion for advanced undergraduate and Master's level courses on European security, whether within courses in Security studies, European studies or International Relations. New to this Edition: - New framework for analysing European security - Highly topical issues covered, including Arab Spring, rise of BRIC countries, terrorism and European energy dependence