What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam pdf download

What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam Second Edition John L. Esposito

Book Contents

• General Information                                        
• Why do we need to know about Islam?          
• Are all Muslims the same?                              
• How many Muslims are there, and where do they live?      
• Faith                                                                 
• What do Muslims believe?                              
• Why do Muslims say they are descended from Abraham? 
• How did Islam originate?                                
• What is the Muslim scripture?                         
• Why is Arabic so important in Islam?             
• What role does Muhammad play in Muslim life?   
• Was Muhammad a prophet like the prophets in the Bible? 
• Why is so much known about Muhammad’s life?  
• Why do Muslims object to images of Muhammad?
• Did Muhammad have multiple wives?            

WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT ISLAM

• ·         What do Muslims believe about a worldwide Muslim community
• (ummah)?                                                      
• What are the core beliefs and practices that unite all Muslims?          
• What do Muslims do on the pilgrimage to Mecca?                     
• What is the Kaaba?                                              
• What is the significance of Mecca?                                  
• How do Muslims pray?                                           
• Do Muslims believe in angels?                                     
• How do Muslims view the Day of Judgment?                          
• Do Muslims believe in heaven and hell?                             
• What are Muslim women promised in the afterlife?                    
• Do Muslims believe in saints?                                       
• Do Muslims believe in sin and repentance?                           
• What do Muslims believe about Mary and Jesus?                      
• Do Muslims have a Sabbath like Jews and Christians?                 
• Do Muslims have a weekly worship service?                          
• Do Muslims have religious holidays or holy days?                      
• Does Islam have a clergy?                                         
• What is a mosque?                                              
• What is an Islamic center?                                         
• What is a madrasa?                                              
• Are there any divisions in Islam?                                    
• What is the difference between Sunni and Shii Muslims?               
• What are the divisions among Shii Muslims?                         
• Who is the Aga Khan?                                            
• What is Wahhabi Islam?                                          
• What is Salafi Islam?                                             
• Is there a difference between Muslims and Black Muslims?              
• Who are the Sufis?                                                
• Who are these Islamic fundamentalists?                              
• ·         Contents ix
• Is Islam medieval and against change?                              
• Is Islam compatible with modernization?                             
• Are there any modern Muslim thinkers or reformers?                   
• Islam and Other Religions              
• Do Muslims believe Islam is the only true religion?                     
• What about Muslim religious intolerance?                             
• How is Islam similar to Christianity and Judaism?                     
• How do Muslims view Judaism? Christianity?                          
• Why do Muslims persecute Christians in Muslim countries?              
• Haven’t Jews and Christians always been enemies of Islam?             
• Who won the Crusades?                                          
• Are Muslims involved in interfaith dialogue?                          
• Customs and Culture                  
• Why does Islam separate men and women?                           
• Are women second-class citizens in Islam?                           
• What do Muslims say about women’s rights?                        
• What kinds of roles did women play in early Islam?                    
• Why do Muslim women wear veils and long garments?                 
• Why do Muslim men wear turbans or caps?                         
• Why do Muslim men wear beards?                                 
• Does Islam require circumcision?                                  
• Is the practice of Muslim arranged marriages changing?                
• Can Muslim men have more than one wife?                         
• Can Muslims marry non-Muslims?                                  
• What does Islam have to say about domestic violence?                
• How does Islam treat divorce?                                    
• Why are Muslims reluctant to shake hands?                          
• ·         How do Muslims feel about pets, or petting animals?                  
• What is Islam’s attitude toward alcohol and pork?                     
• Why are Muslims against dancing?                                
• Why are some Muslims opposed to music?                          
• What is Muslim hip-hop?                                         
• How do Muslims greet each other, and why?                        
• Why do Muslims say “Peace be upon him?” What does PBUH mean?    
• How does Islam handle burial and cremation?                       
• What does Islam say about the environment?                         
• Violence and Terrorism               
• What is jihad?                                                 
• Is there a global jihad today?                                      
• Is Islam a primary cause and driver of terrorism?                      
• How can Islam be used to justify terrorism, hijacking, and hostage taking?  
• Does Islam permit suicide bombers?                                
• Why are Muslims so violent?                                      
• Who are the “moderate” Muslims?                                
• Why haven’t Muslims denounced terrorism?                          
• Do Muslims have a martyrdom complex?                            
• Why do they hate us?                                           
• Why was Salman Rushdie condemned to death?                     
• Society, Politics, and Economy         
• What is Islamic law?                                            
• Do Muslims today want Shariah law?                              
• Will Muslims impose Shariah in the West?                          
• What is the role of a fatwa?                                       
• What does Islamic law say about marriage, divorce, and inheritance?     
• ·         Contents xi
• What does Islam say about homosexuality?                          
• What does Islam say about abortion?                                
• What does Islam say about birth control?                           
• How does Islam respond to stem cell research?                       
• What does Islam say about slavery?                               
• Is honor killing sanctioned by Islam?                               
• How does Islam view female genital mutilation?                      
• Why are Islamic punishments for crimes so harsh?                    
• Why don’t Muslims practice a separation of church and state?          
• Why does religion play such a big role in Muslim politics?               
• What is Islamism?                                               
• Why do Muslims reject secularism?                                
• Why is Jerusalem so important to Muslims?                         
• Is Islam compatible with democracy?                              
• Are Muslims in America more loyal to the Quran or the Constitution?     
• Why aren’t Muslim countries more democratic?                      
• Does Islam reject Western capitalism?                              
• What does Islam say about poverty and social justice?                 
• Are Muslim Americans engaged in community service?                
• What is Islamic finance and banking?                               
• Are there Muslim televangelists-preachers?                         
• What role does the Internet play in Islam today?                      
• What are the major obstacles to Islamic reform?                      
• Is there a clash of civilizations?                                    
• What contributions have Muslims made to world civilizations?          
• Muslims in the West                  
• Who are the Muslims of America?                                  
• What kinds of problems do Muslims face in America?                 
• Who and where are the Muslims of Europe?                         ·  
• What kinds of problems do Muslims in Europe face?                   
• What is Islamophobia?                                           
• GLOSSARY                                   
• SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING            

Book Preface

What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam grew out of my experiences after the tragedy of 9/11. Like many of my colleagues, I was bombarded with questions about Islam and Muslims.

While some questions centred on the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, many were the same queries that have arisen time and again over the years in media interviews, government and corporate briefings, and presentations at universities and civic organizations:

Why is Islam so violent? Does the Quran approve of terrorism and suicide bombing? Is Islam compatible with modernity? Why do Muslims persecute Jews and Christians?

Reflecting on 9/11 and these persistent questions, I realized how much has changed and how much remains the same. Islam is the second-largest of the world’s religions globally as well as in Europe, and it is the third-largest religion in America.

Yet many in the West continued and still today continue to function within an enormous information vacuum, the same one I myself suffered from over thirty years ago. When I first encountered Islam in graduate school, I was astonished to discover that there was another Abrahamic faith. We had always talked about the Judeo-Christian connection, but never the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition.

Why? If Muslims recognize and revere many of the major patriarchs and prophets of Judaism and Christianity (including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus) and God’s revealed books, the Torah and the Message (Gospels) of Jesus, why had I not been aware of this after all my years of liberal arts and theological training?

Learning about Islam gave me a new perspective, a new way of understanding history, from the Crusades and European colonialism to American and Soviet neocolonialism. Thus not only religion but also history, politics, and civilization, classical and modern, came alive for me.

Today, however, many are still relying on media stereotypes, seeing Islam through distorted lenses that focus on terrorists, religious extremists, and oppressed women. The actions of a radicalized minority become equated with the faith of the mainstream majority.

And yet Muslims are now an integral part of the religious landscape of America and Europe; they are increasingly our fellow citizens, neighbours, and colleagues.

Of course, many more introductions to Islam exist today than thirty years ago. I myself wrote Islam: The Straight Path and other books and articles that I have drawn upon in compiling this book. But many people today have specific questions and are looking for a quick, brief, and direct answers, ones not easily found in historical and religious histories.

 What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam is meant to meet that need. Its primary purpose is to communicate what Muslims believe and why they do what they do.

The book is not designed to be read from cover to cover; readers can look for answers to specific questions of interest to them.

Because each question and answer is self-contained (it does not presume previous knowledge or that one has read previous answers), some material will appear in more than one answer.

Many of the questions, which have come from people in very diverse audiences, reflect a predisposition to believe that there is something profoundly wrong with Islam and Muslims.

This underlying belief can result in the unconscious application of a double standard, approaching Islam differently than we would Judaism or Christianity when discussing how religion relates to extremism, militancy, violence, and terrorism.

While we accept historical development in our own faiths with respect to pluralism, human rights, the status of women, and democratization, there is often a presumption that change is impossible in Islam.

I have had the good fortune to study, observe, and teach several religions, in particular Christianity and Islam as well as Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

All these faiths have given meaning to and transformed the lives of millions of people throughout history. Regrettably, all also have had their dark side; religions that preach compassion, justice, and peace have been used—or abused—by extremists and militants.

All are challenged in our modern and postmodern world to embrace a pluralism that balances affirmation of the truth of their faith with respect for the truth to be found in others. For religion should be about righteousness, not self-righteousness.

Regrettably, the legacy of 9/11, continued terrorist attacks, and fears of growing radicalization have resulted in a sharp increase in Islamophobia (discrimination against Muslims because of their faith or race), hate speech, and violence.

Politicians, far-right political commentators, hardline Christian Zionist ministers, and the proliferation of anti-Muslim hate blogs have exploited the situation.

They blur the distinction made by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and many other Americans between, on the one hand, Islam and the vast majority of Muslims and, on the other, a dangerous fraction of the world’s Muslims.

This latter group, like Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and other religious extremists, hijack religion to legitimate their acts of terror.

The encounter between the West and the Muslim world, between American and European Muslims and the Judeo- Christian and secular traditions of America and Europe, is not a clash of two separate and antithetical worlds. Jews, Christians, and Muslims are children of Abraham, part of a Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition.

The world of Islam is global; its capitals and communities are not only Cairo, Damascus, Mecca, Jerusalem, Istanbul, Islamabad, Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta but also London, Paris, Marseilles, Bonn, New York, Detroit, and Washington.

Our common future demands a new, more inclusive sense of pluralism and tolerance built upon mutual understanding and respect.

 If we are ever to achieve such mutual understanding, an essential part of the package must be knowledge of what Islam teaches and what Muslims believe about Islam as well as what we believe about them.