Why the West Fears Islam

This is not the first book addressing the problems Muslims are accused of causing in the West but it is one of the best. It attempts to unveil the multiple mechanisms at work in the binary opposition that pitches Islam against the West. (p. 139) Simultaneously, it addresses the crucial question of whether Western Muslims are threatening the core values of Islam. The author claims that her book is the first systematic and comparative review of the existing knowledge about Muslim political behaviour and religious practices in western European countries and in the U.S., based as it is on interviews with 500 Muslims in Amsterdam, Berlin, Boston, London, and Paris. The author is known as a university teacher, formerly with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard Divinity School and the Groupe de Sociologie des Religions et de la Laicité at CNRS in Paris. Currently, at Birmingham University, she teaches religion and politics.