Inside Islam: The Faith, the People and the Conflicts of the World's Fastest Growing Religion

by John Miller (Editor), Robert D. Kaplan, William T. Vollmann

Inside Islam offers an unprecedented and extremely timely examination of Islam, one of the world's three major monotheistic religions, in all its complexity. Editors John Miller and Aaron Kenedi, who in God's Breath collected the essential sacred texts of seven major wisdom traditions, bring together pieces by such notable writers and thinkers as Karen Armstrong, Huston Smith, V. S. Naipaul, Thomas Cleary, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Robert D. Kaplan, Geraldine Brooks and others. Organized into three sections—on Muslims, their beliefs, and their ancient and modern conflicts—Inside Islam is for everyone seeking new levels of understanding about the religion whose influence is being felt around the world now more than ever.

Genres: Religion, Islam, Nonfiction, Middle East, History, Spirituality, Politics

263 pages, Paperback

First published April 8, 2002

About the author

John Miller has edited a number of intriguing anthologies for Chronicle Books, including Lust and White Rabbit. He runs Big Fish Books, a packaging company in San Francisco.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

As books from the public library on Islam go, this was the best so far, though I still found it incredibly superficial - almost pointless.

You can learn 10x as much about Islamic beliefs from Wikipedia. If you want a beginner's guide to the socio-economic politics driving Islam then this is also a decent start, but there was nothing here for anyone but a novice, a curious investigator of Islam.

Inside Islam? Definitely not. A passing glance from a moving car window at best.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of essays which is meant as a jumping off point for learning more about Islam. It would fit well in a college survey course. The essays themselves are interesting and for the most part well-written. I give the author points for including the history as well as religion tenets.

[Maimuna Arshad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the book as it had a lot of different perspectives from various people. Some were new insights and others were about the common misconceptions about Islam.

[Sharjeel · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book touched some very sensitive issues but ideology of understanding the issues is merely missed.

[Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

In short, I'd expect a book called "Inside Islam" to 1) actually discuss Islam in some depth, and 2) include a good amount of input from actual Muslims, not an assortment of Western journalists.

I found this book largely disappointing. It is divided into three sections with essays covering "The Faith," "The People," and "The Conflicts." The sections on faith are decent but pretty surface level; any intro level religious studies textbook will tell you all the same information and more, though the firsthand account of the Hajj was interesting. Essays on "The People" provided a *bit* more information about history and religious movements, but here we begin to see a trend within the book. There is a constant focus on portraying Muslims *in opposition to* America/the West/modernity/etc. The essay on Iran and Shi'ism was practically insulting in its reductionist portrayal (which, incidentally, left out a great deal of important history in service of the author's narrative).

This negative trend only gets worse in "The Conflicts." The worst of the bunch is a load of chauvinist tripe by Bernard Lewis, but works by Karen Armstrong and noted Iraq War supporter Fareed Zakaria are only marginally better. I took issue with the essay on women in Islam by Geraldine Brooks not so much for its content but for the lack of any counternarrative whatsoever. Brooks condemns the enforced veiling of women in much of the Muslim world, and I agree with that standpoint. However, I've read statements from Muslim women explaining why they *prefer* to wear a headscarf/veil; while I can't say I totally understand that perspective, I believe it deserves some sort of mention (as I alluded to before - imagine a book about Islam featuring testimonies from actual Muslims!). I also took issue with her discussion of honor killings and FGM without any mention of the fact that these practices are not endorsed in the Qur'an and are not prevalent throughout the entire Muslim world.

I should note here that I was not expecting the book to be entirely positive and uncontroversial. One unfortunately cannot discuss Islam in any sort of depth without discussing fundamentalism, terrorism, unfortunate doctrines regarding women, etc. I am not a Muslim, and I do not agree with all the precepts of Islam, nor do I believe Islam (or any religion) should be above criticism. That said, I *do* believe that topics like this deserve to be presented fairly, leaving room for nuance and understanding. This book utterly fails in that regard, and I would not recommend it to anyone.

[Jack Kirby and the X-man · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is split into three sections - The Faith, The People and The Conflicts. Each of these sections contains 4-6 chapters written by numerous contributors. The chapters are re-publications of essays, magazine articles and book chapters - which leads to a slightly disjointed feel to the book. But in general the editors have done a great job in creating a very readable book.

The Faith provides a reasonable overview of the core beliefs and values of Islam.

The People provides a series of case-studies of the role of Islam in the lives of people from seven different countries. I felt that a key geographic region missing from this section was the Gulf states - an examination of the role and impact of Islam on Saudi Arabia is surely key in a book such as this. Similarly the role of Islam in Pakistan is covered in passing in this book, but would similarly hold much interest.

The Conflicts examines both the historic and current animosity between the West and Islam. This section was the weakest section in the book - I suspect primarily because it is the section that everyone has talked about for the last decade. While including the views of Bernard Lewis, this book included numerous references to Samuel P. Huntington's Clash of Civilisations thesis - which would have been useful to include in this section.

[Jeremy Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 2002, this is still an excellent introduction for anyone who wants to understand some of the conflicts happening today, written by internationally respected authors who have lived and breathed various islamic cultures. It's an unadorned look at islam's successes and failures, and you can't help but come away from it richer.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a relatively clear picture of the expansion of Islam throughout the world, and the influence of the varied cultures in the countries where it is a majority religion. The writings are excerpts from previous publications and,therefore, somewhat limited in content. However, this is a good overview of this topic.

[Vince Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of perspectives, some by Muslims and some by insightful other observers, affords a glimpse of both the beliefs and history of Islam, but also of how history and political events have shaped the variety of social views of believers in an array of Islamic countries.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent complilation of essays from some big hitters in the field - Armstrong, Zakaria, etc.

[Eugene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essays were hit-and-miss, but the ones that were good were very helpful.

[Fatima]

good of you

[Ellangland · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little outdated but nonetheless a must read for living in the 21st century. Bonus: learn the appropriate usage of the words: Islam, Islamic, Islamist, Muslim, and Arab.

[Larry Koester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fair and interesting.

[Angela Platt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic resource for a beginner's academic study to Islam. This book contains a plethora of essays written by historians and journalists which evaluate past and present characteristics of Islam. Some authors being Muslim, while others secular contributors, a wide range of perspectives is entailed in this monograph. Especially engaging are the chapters which discuss women in Islam, and why the West is widely disdained in the Islamic world.

[SRO · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. There was a very wide gap from the inception of Islam to its place in the modern world, so it could have benefited from including more pre-modern essays, but overall it presents multiple interesting perspectives.