Since the events of September 11, 2001, students and people everywhere are filled with questions about Islam. What do Muslims believe? Who is Osama bin Laden? What is a jihad? Even though Islam is a major religion with more than one billion followers worldwide and more than six million in the United States alone, there is still uncertainty and misunderstanding about the ideas, tenets, and practice of Islam. Understanding Islam and the people who believe in it has become crucially important in the greater world. The Islamic World: Past and Present is the ideal source for fostering understanding and answering questions. John Esposito's acclaimed four-volume The Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (1995) set the standard in references on Islam. Adapted from this award-winning set, The Islamic World: Past and Present brings all the scholarship and information of the original to general readers and college and high school students. In addition to the more approachable language and user-friendly page layout, this reference covers events and changes of the last eight years. It also includes entirely new entries to provide coverage of the pre-modern world of Islam. Containing more than 300 articles, it provides an excellent, comprehensive resource for gaining understanding into a belief system that seems mysterious and incomprehensible to many.

Since 2000, more than twenty countries around the world have held elections in which parties that espouse a political agenda based on an Islamic worldview have competed for legislative seats. Islamist Parties and Political Normalization in the Muslim World examines the impact these parties have had on the political process in two different areas of the world with large Muslim populations: the Middle East and Asia. The book's contributors examine major cases of Islamist party evolution and participation in democratic and semidemocratic systems in Turkey, Morocco, Yemen, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Bangladesh. Collectively they articulate a theoretical framework to understand the strategic behavior of Islamist parties, including the characteristics that distinguish them from other types of political parties, how they relate to other parties as potential competitors or collaborators, how ties to broader Islamist movements may affect party behavior in elections, and how participation in an electoral system can affect the behavior and ideology of an Islamist party over time. Through this framework, the contributors observe a general tendency in Islamist politics. Although Islamist parties represent diverse interests and behaviors that are tied to their particular domestic contexts, through repeated elections they often come to operate less as antiestablishment parties and more in line with the political norms of the regimes in which they compete. While a few parties have deliberately chosen to remain on the fringes of their political system, most have found significant political rewards in changing their messages and behavior to attract more centrist voters. As the impact of the Arab Spring continues to be felt, Islamist Parties and Political Normalization in the Muslim World offers a nuanced and timely perspective of Islamist politics in broader global context. Contributors: Wenling Chan, Julie Chernov Hwang, Joseph Chinyong Liow, Driss Maghraoui, Quinn Mecham, Ali Riaz, Murat Somer, Stacey Philbrick Yadav, Saloua Zerhouni.

Islam is growing rapidly both in its traditional homelands and in the West. Some in the West view Islam with a mixture of fear and suspicion. However, it is also fair to say that there is widespread ignorance about Islam, and especially about its relationship to political systems and the economy. Is Islam compatible with a free society and a free economy? Is the fact that many Muslim-majority states do not have free economies or polities a result of an incompatibility between Islam and political and economic freedom, or does it result from an unfortunate series of historical events? What role has past colonialism played in encouraging Muslim extremism? Exactly what does Islam have to say about freedom in economic, political and religious life? This book, written by a range of Islamic scholars, sheds a great deal of light on these crucial questions. It is an important book for those in the West who need to understand Islam better. It is also important for those in Muslim countries who can influence the development of political systems and economic policy. The publication of this book could not be more timely.

“Lim and Hunter’s prolific writings shed light on the resultant effects of macro and micro-policies that have shaped Malaysia. Their analyses touch especially on the key actors—individuals and organisations—that have played a catalytic role in misshaping the nation’s development. Both their opinions and reflections on the issues written here have their foundation in fundamental economics, and rightly so. Civilisational progress or regression can be seen to be closely aligned to the foundational economics of society. The end of the crisis and the dark forces will come. The question is only when and how and whether we, the people, can rise to save what is rightfully ours.” Siti Z Kasim Lawyer and activist “Can Malaysia return to the nation-building principles our forefathers agreed to—constitutional monarchy, separation of powers, rule of law, democracy, good governance and a plural society? Lim and Hunter have grappled with these issues which will decide the future of Malaysia.” Lim Kit Siang MP for Iskandar Puteri and former leader of the opposition “Lim and Hunter take on the daunting task of unravelling the complexities of the Malaysian journey since independence. They have dared to touch on all the issues that really matter which have been bullied out of the public space for being ‘sensitive’ and therefore off-limits to any reasonable discussion. Yet discuss them we must. Through the years, Malaysia, or rather her politicians, have woven a tangled web of power, race, religion and corruption that seems impenetrable. These power dynamics have brought us to our current sorry state. This book helps us to take that crucial first step of looking at ourselves honestly and critically. If we can all put the nation first and do just that, we have a chance of the Malaysia we dreamed of. This book is essential reading for all Malaysians who believe this is yet possible.” Ambiga Sreenevasan Lawyer and human rights advocate

Human rights abuses and violations in Saudi Arabia attract international condemnation. But within the country, an Islamic civil rights movement, 'HASM', has called for change. While its members have received international human rights awards, the Saudi authorities have persecuted and imprisoned them. This book is the first to study human rights in the kingdom from the perspective of these prominent Saudi civil rights activists, uncovering the actual ideas that motivate their activism. Based on analysis of the group's texts, the book highlights that HASM neither supports an overthrow of the government, of which they are accused, nor are they “liberal” advocates of universal human rights. Their complex thought is a contribution to contemporary Islamic discourse because they make a case for 'peaceful civil jihad' through the protection of citizens' basic rights, but within a rigid, Salafist interpretation of social affairs that imposes heavy limits on politics, human rights and democracy. Furthermore, HASM's texts use war rhetoric and anti-Semitic language, with different arguments and words for domestic or international audiences. The most comprehensive text on this Islamic civil rights movement, the book employs detailed discourse analysis and includes sources from HASM texts in both Arabic and English.

To understand what is happening in the troubled world, it is necessary to comprehend the nature and the characteristics of the worlds religions and their followers without any political correctness. I am from the East, and I am a scientist. The scientists are mostly objective. They are unbiased and free from their personal feelings and prejudices. In writing this book, I have tried to be objective and represent how a man from the East views the religions and their followers. This book is dedicated to all the victims of religious violence.

The Balkans—the gateway between East and West—are also Europe's soft underbelly, a rough neighborhood where organized crime and terrorism present a constant threat. This eye-opening book details how 15 years of misguided Western interventions, political scheming, and local mafia appeasement, compounded by a massive infusion of Arab cash, fundamentalist Islamic preaching and mosque-building have allowed radical Islamic groups to fill in the cracks between internal ethnic and religious schisms and take root in key areas of the Balkans. With all eyes currently focused on the widening conflict in the Middle East and the terrorist threat coming from the region, the West is in danger of overlooking a potent new battleground in the greater war on terror—the Balkans. This historically volatile region saw some of the worst violence of the late 20th century in the Yugoslav Wars of Secession. During these conflicts, stunningly shortsighted and politically motivated policies of the United States and its allies directly allowed Islamic mujahedin and terrorist-related entities to establish a foothold in the region—just as with the progenitors of the Taliban a decade earlier in Afghanistan. Although the 9/11 attacks caused a partial reassessment of Western policy, it may already be too late for a region still largely ignored. The proliferation of foreign fundamentalist groups has had a cancerous effect on traditional Balkan Islamic communities, challenging their legitimacy in unprecedented and often violent ways. Well-funded groups like the Saudi-backed Wahabbis continue to exploit internal schisms within local communities, while the international administrations in Bosnia and Kosovo have actually strengthened the grip of local mafia groups—business partners of terrorists. Worst of all, the Western peacekeepers' chronic don't rock the boat mentality has allowed extremist groups to operate unchallenged. Nevertheless, regional demographic and cultural trends, coinciding with an increasingly hostile attitude in the larger Muslim world over Western military actions and perceived symbolic provocations, indicate that the lawless Balkans will become increasingly valuable as a strategic base for Islamic radicals over the next two decades. Utilizing the post-al-Qaeda tactics of a decentralized jihad carried out through small, independent cells (leaderless resistance) while seeking to fundamentally and violently remold Muslim societies, such Balkan-based extremists pose a unique and tangible threat to Western security.

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is the Muslim world's only intergovernmental body-the largest such system operating outside of the United Nations. This is the first history of the OIC.