Islam Book Reviews Samples For Students

Anyone who realizes that they do not need to be enlightened about Islam should read journalist Paul Barrett’s “American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion.” This includes non-Muslims who claim that the average Muslims have no condemned the fundamentalist violence that is committed under the banner of their religion or that all Muslim women wear a veil or that Islam is inherently a warlike religion. This also includes Muslims, who respond to Islamist terrorism simply by talking about the sins of Israel or claiming that the problem of the role of women or violent fanatics does not ...

Islamic community treats women in an inferior way and a bad way. However, Muslims argue that they treat women in the best way possible. According to Fatima Mernissi, the author of Beyond the Veil, both notions and assumption are right up to a certain degree. The book covers religious, as well as political problems, faced by women in the Muslim community. Fatima gives the perspective of an insider and gives actual and theoretical accounts of what the women face in the Islamic community throughout the book.
Sexual inequality is the greatest focus of the author where he looks at the ...

Ali Eteraz has long established himself as one of the more insightful writers with regard to the complications of Islam and politics within Pakistan. His memoir shows his real gifts with narrative. The prose is absolutely lyric, sprinkled with deep memories and leavened with a sense of humor. The courage of the story comes from its sharp and slightly dark wit, and the reader is engaged by Eteraz’s search for answers to questions both cosmic and individual. The book consists of five sections, each of which takes one name he has given to himself. Every identity represents a step in ...

The book developed from the introductory stages of Muslim taught in the Universities in religious studies lessons. In an attempt to understand the Islamic concepts, it tries to explain the principles in simple and familiar language. Form the onset, Islam has been a difficult subject to present to students especially those who emanate form other cultures. It is harder to teach Islam in learning institutions as a result of the cultural diversity. Sachiko asserts that Islam is best understood by individuals who have been born and raised in Islamic backgrounds.
The book focuses on what Islam has brought of its ...

In chapter twelve of his book, Kaplan wrote about Burma, in which the Karen soldiers fight against the Burmese regimes that started in 1948. He described the Karen fighter and specified a Karen fighter named Saw Roe Key who was a victim of a land mine, was skeptical and thinking when the conflict between them and the Burmese regime will end as Cambodia will and Vietnam surpassed the same issue. We learned in this chapter that many Burmese ethnic groups have been fighting against the country’s military regime and they were being attack by scattering numerous land mines against these revolutionary ...

In the sixth chapter of the book, Bose argues that Islam, specifically the hajj’s ritual was a key element to the Indian Ocean’s overarching in the early modern times. When I read the hajjis accounts in opposition to colonial archive, I have learned how the author documented the pilgrims’ continuous flow in the colonial period, despite diseases, deprivation and scams. For people of South Asia mourning both the world of Islam’s and India’s loss of chronological freedom in Western Imperialism’s face, we learned that the act of hajj performance was an important anti colonial activity ...

SUMMARY OF THE BOOKS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

The book of Matthew is under of genre of Gospels and it majorly contains the narration histories, genealogy, sermons and the prophetic oracles. It was apparently by Levi who was a disciple of Christ. The main theme in the book of Mathew is the Kingdom and it has been used up to 28 times. The major characters involved in the text are The Messiah, his parents Mary and Joseph, the twelve disciples, John the Baptist and leaders such as Pilate and the Pharisees.
It was also written to convince the Jews that indeed Christ was the long awaited Messiah ...

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Written by Steyn Mark, the book was published in 2006. The author’s arguments find basis on emerging societal issues at both the regional and global level. These include high birth rates in the Muslim countries while western countries put a limit to the number of children each family can have and in turn, lower the birthrates in the said countries. A good example is Germany, a country that records an average of two children in each family and is content with the low numbers of births among its people. With such statistics, ...

Sumbul Ali-Karamali’s book, “The Muslim Next Door: The Qur'an, the Media, and That Veil Thing,” is a response in itself to the question that she asks her readers in beginning of description on the back of the book. Sumbul Ali-Karamali’s, an American Muslim mom, answers every possible question about her faith and religious practice on behalf of all Muslims that any non-Muslim reader may want to ask. Sumbul Ali-Karamali, who holds a graduate degree in Islamic Law, uses a conversational tone in her book to highlight a number of aspects of the Muslim faith in language and terms that can be ...

Introduction

“The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11” is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book for general nonfiction by American author Lawrence Wright. The book was published in the year 2006, five years after the disastrous 9/11 attacks of 2001. Amongst all of Wright’s publications, this book has been the most captivating and the quick seller of its time. It provides a historical and a detailed insight into the back ground of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, founded by Osama Bin Laden and his companions. What was the background of these people, how they have spent their childhood and more importantly how ...

Question 1: Explain and assess why Rome, during the period of the Roman Republic was able to dominate the ancient Mediterranean world. This answer should pay attention to political, social, economic, and cultural factors.
One reason that explains why Rome was able to dominate the ancient Mediterranean world was the uniting of Italy. This unity facilitated the creation of a strong military organization. With the strong army, Rome conquered Carthage, who was their main rival, as well as the Greek. In the due course of their conquest, Rome made sure that residents of the conquered communities became part of the citizens. ...

and in the Actions of the Prophet Muhammad
1. Summarize the central themes, theses, issues, or arguments of the reading assignment.

In the chapter Peace and Military Engagement in the Qur’an and in the Actions of

the Prophet Muhammad, Ozalp (2008) explored the Qur’an’s verses that pertained to violence and warfare and provided analyses of what these verses meant. He argued that the Prophet Muhammad “practised a deliberate strategy of peace and diplomacy to deal with the conflicts of his time” (Ozalp, 2008, p. 111), which he supported by discussing the general characteristics of Islam as ...

1. Summarize the central themes, theses, issues, or arguments of the reading assignment.

The chapter Warriors and Brothers by the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious

Understanding (2007) discussed the religious violence that occurred and continues to occur in Nigeria and how two religious leaders – namely, Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye from the Islam and Christian faith, respectively – are playing a big role in promoting peace and reconciliation in their country.

The chapter described how the conflict started during the British colonization when the northern part of Nigeria, which mostly had a Muslim population, was ruled indirectly by the British while ...

.
The main idea of this reading is the assertion that there is currently a gap in Jewish scholarship about the religion’s teachings concerning the avoidance of conflict. While there have been some scholars who have managed to identify passages that establish the idea of a “just” war, dating back to Maimonides, and there have been other scholars who have noted that rabbinic literature establishes peace as a “supreme ethical principle” (Gopin, p. 111). Because the country of Israel faces many threats to its continued political existence, there has been significant discussion among rabbinical scholars about how to find a way to ...

Introduction:

In this seminal book which is around 400 pages long, the author manages to cram a detailed history of the Middle eastern problem from the early years of the 1800’s to the present day. He succinctly manages to combine what occurred in the Colonial period where the Arab peoples were consistently exploited for their rich natural resources while he also manages to keep an open mind on other issues such as the traditions of Islam as well as several intrinsic problems which permeate the area and which have continued to this day.
Essentially Mansfield offers a study of the ...

The book, Islamic Activism: a social movement theory approach By Quintan Wiktoroqicz helps the readers in understanding various aspects of Islam and a number of changes that occurred in Islam and known as Islamic activism. The author has presented a balanced account of the Islam and other related issues. The author has divided Islamic activism in three parts in his book first according to him is violence and contention, second is culture and framing and third is network and alliances, page 15, 19, 22, 24, 25, 61. The way author has described several societies and discussed about their values and beliefs, it ...

Book Review of the Book, ‘The Story of the Quran’ by Ingrid Mattson

detailed book about the Quran and its place in historical and contemporary Muslim society. The author of the book is Ingrid Mattson, who originally published the book in 2008 in the United Kingdom. Dr. Mattson is an Islamic scholar and teacher as well as an interfaith activist. She is the first woman to hold prestigious positions as a Muslim scholar and a leader in the religious world. The book is written as an overall balanced and correct portrayal of the religion of Islam and the teachings of the Quran, in general. The author has mentioned other religions as well, ...

April 8,2016

Irshad Manji: The Trouble with Islam; A Muslim’s Call for Reform
Irshad Manji wrote her book The Trouble with Islam in 2003 - 2004 as an open letter. The author expressed her doubts and questions to the Muslim and non - Muslim people regarding the rigidity of Islam religion, seeking true answers. Muslim-born author Menji outlined major challenges for modern Muslims in order to get better and get rid of outdated traditions.
According to Manji, Muslims keep practicing outdated traditions that make many Muslim countries stay backward. In 1972, as a four year old girl, she arrived to ...

Islam in Saudi Arabia

Introduction.
In his book Islam in Saudi Arabia David Commins takes us through the journey of Islam as a religion in Saudi from the eighteenth century up to the twentieth century. Chapter three is titled Wahhabism and the modern state. Wahhabism rose when Wahhab and Ibn Saud signed a pact giving rise to the state of Saudi Arabia. Having been promised power and religious legitimacy by Wahhab, Ibn Saud then pledged to ensure that the teachings of Wahhabism were carried out in the entire Kingdom. In this chapter, we see how subsequent rulers handled crisis through initiating changes like ...

Book Review

Book Review 2: ‘Children of Dust’ by Ali Eteraz
Background Introduction
The book ‘Children of Dust’ by Ali Eteraz focuses on his narrative regarding his religion centered childhood. He grew up in a deeply religious Islamic family, and like most children, he follows in the same religion pathway as his parents. However, Abir Eteraz’s relationship with the religion identity is far way complex than his peers and age mates in his neighborhood in America. With time, the young boy becomes fanatical and obsessed with Islamic faith with the limited comprehension of a child. Largely, his parents are a ...

Three important beliefs of Islam

There three important, basic beliefs of the religion Islam. They include:
Belief in One God
Belief in God’s Revealed Books
Beliefs in the Prophets and Messengers of God
The belief in One God relates to believing in One, incomparable entity who has no son or father and He has the sole right to be worshipped. He is the One, True God and there is no other deity worthy of worship, but Him. Also, the attributes of God cannot be attributed to anyone else, and His divinity is not shared with any other entity as well. This is mentioned ...

Middle East History: Trickster Travels by Natalie Zemon Davis

“Trickster Travels” was written by Natalie Davis, who is a historian of the early modern period. Her main interests are cultural history and social history. She has worked for the period ranging from 15th to 18th centuries, and focused on Europe (Princeton University, history.princeton.edu). She has taught history in many universities including the University of Toronto, Brown University, the University of California at Berkeley, and Princeton University.
Her book “Trickster Travels” was published in 2006, and with the publication of this book, she successfully managed to sustain her name as one of the most interesting historians of the early ...

Introduction

Hamza Bogary’s book, ‘The Sheltered Quarter: A Tale of a Boyhood in Mecca’ is a narration about the past life of a character that has irreversibly disappeared. The author describes the life in Mecca prior to the advent of oil. The book is based on Mecca’s observations in Mecca and he uses art to express this part of his knowledge. He has managed to successfully bring out his knowledge into art through humor, empathy and his understanding about human nature. This makes his piece of work not only entertaining but also informative. The narrator, Muhaisin, has to deal with various ...

PART ONE

THE OLD TESTAMENT BOOKS
EXODUS
This is a law book, the second book in the Hebrew bible and is also one of the Torah books that are believed to have been authored by Moses himself. The book simply means the act of going out.
The main theme addressed in the book is all about the suffering of the Israelites and their departure from the land of Egypt to their promised land. The theme of salvation and theophany are manifested in this book whereby the meaning of God’s salvation history through actions that give identity to the ...

Section 1. Before reading the book by Marjane Satrapi “Persopolis” I must admit that I knew quite sufficient information about the Islamic Iranian revolution, without a too thorough knowledge of details, though. The following is literally the background I had for the last couple of years, definitely prior to reading the book.
So, the Islamic Iranian revolution was a chain of developments that happened in Iran in 1979 and which resulted in overthrowing the shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who later became a fugitive and fled to the United States of America. In the wake of the revolution not only the new ...

Chapter 6

Chapter six of this book addresses technology and reason in war. This chapter basically illustrates a theme of reason being more important in war than technology. Looking at this theme from all perspectives, there is some truth in it. The chapter draws its contents from battle of Mexico who took place in the 16th century.
As the battle continued, the outnumbered Spaniards fought with all available resources ranging from swords to cannons which dropped their opponents from 100 yards or more. This technology made them superior in the war though they were fighting a losing battle.
The Spaniards were ...

I find the Rachel R. Chapman ethnography intriguing because it gives very interesting insights in a global health initiative on maternal health care and how maternal mortality rates in Southern Africa, particularly in Central Mozambique, can be improved. Reading on, I find some of the things addressed in the book weird and absurd; it doesn’t make sense to me that pregnancies are actually, for the longest time possible, hidden from others, or how they expose someone to social threats, envy and ill will. I think pregnancy is supposed bring joy to the pregnant woman and the community at ...

“If we Americans are to learn from our mistakes, from the flailing, ineffective way we, as a nation conducted the war on terror after the attacks of 9/11, and from the way we have failed to make our case to the great moderate mass of peace-loving people at the heart of the Muslim world, we need to listen to Greg Mortenson.” (David Oliver Relin, “Three Cups of Tea,” p.5) Do we? Why/why not? To what extent can individuals make a difference in international relations?
When Greg Mortenson partook a flight to an unknown destination in the heart of the ...

The apparent ability of an opponent to take the tactics of his or her target and use the newly acquired methods against them are evident in chapter five of Beth Baron’s The Orphan Scandal. According to the author, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was successful in reducing the efforts of Christian missionaries in the country to nothing because they spent years studying them before putting their plans into action. Apparently, under Hasan al-Banan, Islamic efforts to thwart the influences of Christianity gained momentum over a period of more than a decade before striking the damaging blow (Baron 132).
...

Overview of the book

Yunus, Muhammad, and Karl Weber. Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs. New York: Public Affairs, 2010. Print.
The book was authored by Muhammad Yunus. Yunus is the founder of the Grameen Bank, which is a microcredit institution. Through his economic policies, Yunus made an immense contribution to the fight against poverty and through his economic paradigm; he manages to espouse an economic model that places humanity at the heart of polling resource together for positive potential. His efforts in the promotion of social business enabled him to win the 2006 Nobel ...

In the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Egypt and Qajar Persia embarked on ambitious project to reform their countries. The empires wanted to develop form the Stone Age to the modern ages. This saw the improvement of their arm including their arsenals, the banking systems, decriminalization of homosexuality and the introduction of secular laws. There were major projects introduced all-round the empires including development of infrastructure and the economy in general.
They sought the help of the Europeans as they needed funds to finance their projects. This led the empires to sign treaties and agreements that ...

Introduction:

In this excellent book, David Aikman focuses on the importance of China as a rising power in world religion and raises some intriguing points especially with regard to China also being an ally against radical Islam. Interestingly enough it appears that global politics is also changing in the way religion seems to be the driving force behind everything these days and this is reflected in the book by Aikman.

Review:

The book starts out by pointing out that at least one third of China’s huge 1.4 billion population will be Christian. This brings several factors into account. For many years, ...

Introduction

In the most traditional of African cultures, the duties of a woman’s role in society was never deemed as capricious, much less being awarded the honorary title of representation of an ideology known as ‘feminism.’ Yet, the memoir-enriched fictional novel, “So Long a Letter,” (Une si Longue Lettre – in French) by Mariama Ba inspired much hope for African women to convey the collective plight of their positions to the world. The book is remarkable in a number of profound ways. The book is a diary-type of letter written from the female protagonist Ramatoulaye her best friend from childhood, Aissatou. Ramatoulaye is mourning ...

BOOK REVIEW OF THE NEW ARAB REVOLT: WHAT HAPPENED, WHAT IT MEANS, AND WHAT COMES NEXT

The New Arab Revolt: What Happened, What It Means, and What Comes Next perfectly illuminates the settings and the happenings associated with the revolutions that have been taking place in the Middle East. This book is a collection of about sixty articles that have been compiled into a single volume.

It has endeavored to provide even illustrations of interview proceedings, various testimonies of congressional parties, op-eds (articles expressing a personal viewpoint written for the op-ed section of a newspaper) from various experts and other think-tanks in the field including Lewis Bernard, Anderson Lisa, Taleb Nicholas, Benn Aluf among several other experts.

It has ...

Introduction

This report scrutinizes international terrorist threats, events, responses and policies, as well as analyzing the worldwide use of apparatus available to fight terrorism, from international cooperation, international relations, covert action, constructive dedication, economic sanctions, military force, to objective security improvement. A contemporary style in terrorism emerges to be toward self- financed insecurely organized, international association of terrorists. Ever more, fundamental Islamist groups who use religion, or as a excuse, pose a grave threat to United States of America interests and to its friendly establishments. But of great unease as well is the growing political involvement of extremist Islamist gathering in foreign ...

We begin by reading a tragic denouement ending of Mark’s story. Jesus is arrested by the authorities and leads to desertion. Jesus second sermon speaks of powers that are toppled by Human. When Mark narrates the moment, disciples were caught off guard. The passion narrative is filled with execution. We cannot understand this message and the hope it bears unless we come to terms with terrible realism. Mark begins the Passion narrative with two stories where Jesus is the King and the other one a Banquet. Each prepares the reader for the tragic turn. The plot is about to take ...

In his description of himself, Baer acknowledges that he wasn’t born a patriot whose intention was to work for the CIA. He describes himself as a struggling student who had personal agendas (Baer, 2002). The book gives several accounts of what Baer describes as frustrations and mistakes he made while posted in Lebanon and India. The book also discusses the failings of the CIA. Baer gives the reasons for a failing CIA as: replacement of human intelligence with computer and satellite technology; a risk aversion approach by the agency that promoted bureaucratic practices and undermined intelligence gathering; and the prioritization of interests ...

The 2011 publication of the Otsuka’s literary fiction tells the story of Japanese mail order brides who arrived in San Francisco little after the Second World War. Through the force of her language and the poetic elements in the style of writing, Otsuka creates a riveting recount of the Japanese women’s desire to live the American dream. The author uses one of the most unorthodox but effective style of writing to relate the story of these women. Almost all of the story is presented in the first person plural narration form where the author uses the term “we” ...

The book “The Forty Rules of Love” is a fascinating novel presenting Sufi wisdom related to the relationships between men and women, between humans and God, the nature of Islam religion. In the center of the novel is and unhappy housewife Ella who are desperate about her cheating husband. In her hard moments, she finds a good book that makes her changing the worldview. In this book she finds the forty rules of love that stimulate her think different, according to the principles of the Islam religion. She is ready to accept the new attitude to life.
In the novel, ...

Introduction

The Song of El Cid is an Epic Spanish poem based on the Story of a medieval warrior from the era of Alfonso II’s reign between 1072 and 1109, Rodrigo de Viva “El Cid,” who lived between 1043 and 1099 as a knight. He fought for the Christians and sometimes for the Muslims during the Spanish Reconquest (Reconquista) and conquered the King of Valencia, which has been in the hands of Arab leaders. This earned him a great reputation, leading to his name as El Cid or “The Lord.” The Story of El Cid lends itself to analysis based on several ...

The book The Prince Among Slaves by Terry Alford revolves around the live of an African Muslim, Abd al Rahman Ibrahima, slave who was captured and sold in America as a slave. Before being captured, he was a prince, and was educated and upon being sold to slave owners in Mississippi, he was given command over slaves working in tobacco and cotton plantation. While in Africa, he had saved an Irish surgeon who petitioned for his freedom in America resulting to his release in 1828 when he was aged 60 years. He then navigated back to Africa where he died of ...

Book Review: Sexual Politics by Kate Millett

Introduction
The published dissertation for Millett’s PhD in Literature from Columbia University was a book called the Sexual Politics by Kate Millett. In 1970, Millet finished her dissertation however she started it way back in 1969 but successfully defended the dissertation and published it almost ten years later. The book was known to be a master piece and also looked at as being very much successful and notoriousduring the time it was written. Research shows that Sexual Politics and economics was a piece that assisted influence and inspiring the move of feminism. Millett’s controversial thesis in Sexual Politics and ...

The book “prince Among Slaves” was written by Terry Alford in 1977. The 284-page book is a philosophic encounter that brings to the fore the plight of slaves in the early 18th century. At the time Alford started the writing the book, the American civil movement had come alive following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr in the fight for racial equality. The book is set to mirror the life of oppression of some races and nationalities in the historical building of the current American states. The story is set in the early 1800s in the town called Natchez ...

In chapter five of his book, Robert D. Kaplan argues and denotes about Pakistan's two of the separate regions. He described the country as to be Oman's opposite in status; he claims it as a counterpoint to prosperous, stable and even an undemocratic Oman. In this chapter, we learned that the author wrote the description of the country's democracy, based on the tensions that happen, as a democracy that is present in the failing state. With all of the descriptions made by the author for the country, we understood that behind these failings are some factors that made Pakistan, be in ...

Various principals surround the financial transactions of the Islamic finance. In the Islamic finance, the purpose of financing should not involve an activity that is against the Islamic law. The financing is not supposed to receive or give interest (riba) as well as risk which is known as gharar in Islamic. However, Islamic finance is very relevant to society because it promotes the sharing of risk and reward between contracting persons. The investor always goes for projects that has a high degree of risk and reward sharing because they are for profitable. In order to achieve all these principals, the ...

What does the author mean by India’s strange rise?

India’s ‘strange rise’ is a phrase which is the reader encounter on the title of the book, In Spite Of the Gods: the Rise of Modern India. It is hard to explain what the author meant by the phrase without looking into the detailed meaning of the whole title. It is also proper in the outset that the author wrote the book while living in India where he worked for the financial times in the period 2001 to 2006 in New Delhi. The contents of the book, In Spite Of the Gods: the Rise of Modern India, are therefore a ...

Every citizen is entitled to fundamental rights. Freedom is part of the bill of rights that every citizen is entitled. This is a provision that should not be taken away from anyone unless in some exceptional circumstances. Freedom of speech for instance has been misused by various people and in some cases led to prosecution in the court of law. The ‘infamous’ Maclean’s article published in the Canadian magazine took the world by storm as the author allegedly published an article which was considered a violation of British Columbia ate speech as it incited animosity towards the Muslims. The Congress ...

Introduction

Judaism is one of the five main world religions. The other four include Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. Evidence available from archaeological and historical work shows that human beings in virtually all societies have since their humble beginnings held beliefs in supernatural beings they revered and worshiped. Religion is a set of beliefs that involves attributing the origin and cause of the universe as well as all things found in it and nature to a supernatural being (s) commonly known as God(s) who is held to be all knowing and all powerful. Religion can also be understood as an associative ...