Book picks similar to
Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from Al-Banna to Bin Laden by Roxanne L. Euben
islam
religion
middle-east
nonfiction
Unholy Alliance: The Agenda Iran, Russia, and Jihadists Share for Conquering the World
Jay Sekulow - 2016
A movement born in Iran during the Islamic Revolution in 1979, radical Islam has at its heart the goal of complete world domination. As this movement has grown, Iran has entered into alliances with Syria and Russia, leading to a deadly game of geopolitical threats and violence. Not only will you better understand jihadist terror, but you will also learn about Sharia law—a legal code that removes all personal liberty and is starkly incompatible with the US Constitution. All Muslims are required to follow Sharia—as are all who live in lands controlled by Islam. It is the goal of radical Islam to see Sharia instituted across the globe. If we are to combat radical Islam’s agenda of domination, we must arm ourselves with knowledge. With carefully researched history, legal-case studies, and in-depth interviews, Unholy Alliance lays out the ideology and strategy of radical Islam, as well as the path we must take to defeat it.
Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)
Martin Luther - 1991
the 'Radical' Reformers]. They sought to enlist the cooperation of rulers in the work of reforming the Church. However, neither regarded the relationship between Church and rulers as a comfortable or unproblematic one. They were torn between the overriding imperative of uncompromising obedience to the will of God as revealed in Scripture, and their sense of the urgent need to maintain order and authority in Church and polity.The two texts translated here, Luther's On Secular Authority and Calvin's 'On Civil Government', constitute their most sustained attempts to find the proper balance between these two commitments, demanding a consideration of the nature of justice, the justification and scope of civil authority, the liberty of Christian subjects, and the place of the Church in the world.Despite their mutual respect, there were wide divergences between them. Luther's On Secular Authority was later cited en bloc in favor of religious toleration, whereas Calvin envisaged secular authority as an agency for the compulsory establishment of the external conditions of Christian (as well as civil) virtue and the suppression of dissent.The introduction, glossary, chronology, and notes on further reading contained in this volume help located the texts in the broader context of the authors.
World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism
Norman Podhoretz - 2007
Now, in this provocative and powerfully argued book, he takes on the most controversial issue of our time—the war against the global network of terrorists that attacked us on 9/11.From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Moral Life: An Introductory Reader In Ethics And Literature
Louis P. Pojman - 1999
Integrating literature with philosophy in an innovative way, editor Louis P. Pojman uses literary works to enliven and make concrete the ethical theory or applied issues addressed in each chapter. Literary works by Camus, Hawthorne, Hugo, Huxley, Ibsen, Le Guin, Melville, Orwell, Styron, Tolstoy, and many others lead students into philosophical concepts and issues such as relativism; utilitarianism; virtue ethics; the meaning of life; freedom; sex, love, and marriage; and environmental ethics. Once introduced, these topics are developed further through readings by philosophers including Aristotle, Jane English, Thomas E. Hill, Jr., Jean-Paul Sartre, and Bernard Williams. This unique anthology emphasizes the personal dimension of ethics, which is often ignored or minimized in ethics texts. The second edition offers several new selections including work by Maya Angelou, Kevin Bales, John Benson, Susan Glaspell, C. S. Lewis, R. M. MacIver, Plato, Plutarch, James Rachels, Ayn Rand, Voltaire, and Kurt Vonnegut. It also adds a new chapter on justice and the threat of terrorism featuring material from the Old Testament--in which the equivalent of a jihad occurs--followed by philosophical analyses by Martha Nussbaum and Louis P. Pojman. Featuring expanded part and chapter introductions as well as biographical sketches, abstracts, and study questions for each reading selection, The Moral Life, 2/e, is ideal for introductory ethics courses. It also provides an engaging gateway into personal and social ethics for the general reader.
How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor
James K.A. Smith - 2014
This book by Jamie Smith is a small field guide to Taylor's genealogy of the secular, making it accessible to a wide array of readers. Smith's How (Not) to Be Secular is also, however, a philosophical guidebook for practitioners a kind of how-to manual that ultimately offers guidance on how to live in a secular age. It's an adventure in self-understanding and a way to get our bearings in postmodernity. Whether one is proclaiming faith to the secularized or is puzzled that there continue to be people of faith in this day and age, this is a philosophical story meant to help us locate where we are and what's at stake.
The Reason Revolution: Atheism, Secular Humanism, and the Collapse of Religion
Dan Dana - 2014
It focuses squarely on the inherent irrationality of religion, and reveals its utter irreconcilability with science. Offering several "reconciliation theories" to people of faith, it forces every reader to make a choice.Contents The Reason Revolution in historical context Questioning belief Reasons for skepticism Secular humanism as an alternative worldview Political implications of atheism The collapse of religion Hopeful predictions Reconciliation theories Comments by clergyCall to action
Letters to a Young Muslim
Omar Saif Ghobash - 2017
Today's young Muslims will be tomorrow's leaders, and yet too many are vulnerable to extremist propaganda that seems omnipresent in our technological age. The burning question, Ghobash argues, is how moderate Muslims can unite to find a voice that is true to Islam while actively and productively engaging in the modern world. What does it mean to be a good Muslim?What is the concept of a good life? And is it acceptable to stand up and openly condemn those who take the Islamic faith and twist it to suit their own misguided political agendas? In taking a hard look at these seemingly simple questions, Ghobash encourages his sons to face issues others insist are not relevant, not applicable, or may even be Islamophobic. These letters serve as a clear-eyed inspiration for the next generation of Muslims to understand how to be faithful to their religion and still navigate through the complexities of today's world. They also reveal an intimate glimpse into a world many are unfamiliar with and offer to provide an understanding of the everyday struggles Muslims face around the globe."
Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown
Jonathan Z. Smith - 1982
Smith has pointed the academic study of religion in a new theoretical direction, one neither theological nor willfully ideological. Making use of examples as apparently diverse and exotic as the Maori cults in nineteenth-century New Zealand and the events of Jonestown, Smith shows that religion must be construed as conventional, anthropological, historical, and as an exercise of imagination. In his analyses, religion emerges as the product of historically and geographically situated human ingenuity, cognition, and curiosity—simply put, as the result of human labor, one of the decisive but wholly ordinary ways human beings create the worlds in which they live and make sense of them. "These seven essays . . . display the critical intelligence, creativity, and sheer common sense that make Smith one of the most methodologically sophisticated and suggestive historians of religion writing today. . . . Smith scrutinizes the fundamental problems of taxonomy and comparison in religious studies, suggestively redescribes such basic categories as canon and ritual, and shows how frequently studied myths may more likely reflect situational incongruities than vaunted mimetic congruities. His final essay, on Jonestown, demonstrates the interpretive power of the historian of religion to render intelligible that in our own day which seems most bizarre."—Richard S. Sarason, Religious Studies Review
Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11
Syed Saleem Shahzad - 2011
A brilliant account of the workings of state terrorism by the world’s foremost critic of US imperialism.
The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew--Three Women Search for Understanding
Suzanne Oliver - 2006
We're three mothers from three faiths -- Islam, Christianity, and Judaism -- who got together to write a picture book for our children that would highlight the connections between our religions. But no sooner had we started talking about our beliefs and how to explain them to our children than our differences led to misunderstandings. Our project nearly fell apart.""After September 11th, Ranya Idliby, an American Muslim of Palestinian descent, faced constant questions about Islam, God, and death from her children, the only Muslims in their classrooms. Inspired by a story about Muhammad, Ranya reached out to two other mothers -- a Christian and a Jew -- to try to understand and answer these questions for her children. After just a few meetings, however, it became clear that the women themselves needed an honest and open environment where they could admit -- and discuss -- their concerns, stereotypes, and misunderstandings about one another. After hours of soul-searching about the issues that divided them, Ranya, Suzanne, and Priscilla grew close enough to discover and explore what united them."The Faith Club" is a memoir of spiritual reflections in three voices that will make readers feel as if they are eavesdropping on the authors' private conversations, provocative discussions, and often controversial opinions and conclusions. The authors wrestle with the issues of anti-Semitism, prejudice against Muslims, and preconceptions of Christians at a time when fundamentalists dominate the public face of Christianity. They write beautifully and affectingly of their families, their losses and grief, their fears and hopes for themselves and their loved ones. And as the authors reveal their deepest beliefs, readers watch the blossoming of a profound interfaith friendship and the birth of a new way of relating to others.In a final chapter, they provide detailed advice on how to start a faith club: the questions to ask, the books to read, and most important, the open-minded attitude to maintain in order to come through the experience with an enriched personal faith and understanding of others.Pioneering, timely, and deeply thoughtful, "The Faith Club"'s caring message will resonate with people of all faiths.For more information or to start your own faith club visit www.thefaithclub.com
Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror
Mahmood Mamdani - 2004
In this brilliant look at the rise of political Islam, the distinguished political scientist and anthropologist Mahmood Mamdani brings his expertise and insight to bear on a question many Americans have been asking since 9/11: how did this happen? Good Muslim, Bad Muslim is a provocative and important book that will profoundly change our understanding both of Islamist politics and the way America is perceived in the world today.
The Irony of Democracy: An Uncommon Introduction to American Politics
Thomas R. Dye - 1970
Known for its "elitist approach" to American Government, this text presents its argument in a new context--the politics of the 21st century--including the Clinton and Bush Administrations effects on government and politics the U.S.
How Civilizations Die (And Why Islam Is Dying Too)
David P. Goldman - 2011
The untold story is that birthrates in Muslim nations are declining faster than anywhere else—at a rate never before documented. Europe, even in its decline, may have the resources to support an aging population, if at a terrible economic and cultural cost. But in the impoverished Islamic world, an aging population means a civilization on the brink of total collapse—something Islamic terrorists know and fear.Muslim decline poses new threats to America, challenges we cannot even understand, much less face effectively, without a wholly new kind of political analysis that explains how desperate peoples and nations behave.In How Civilizations Die, David P. Goldman—author of the celebrated "Spengler" column read by intelligence organizations worldwide—reveals how, almost unnoticed, massive shifts in global power are remaking our future.Goldman reveals:How extinctions of peoples, cultures, and civilizations are not unthinkable—but certainHow for the first time in world history, the birthrate in the West has fallen below replacement levelWhy birthrates in the Muslim world are falling even fasterWhy the "Arab Spring" is the precursor of much more violent change in the Islamic worldWhy looming demographic collapse may encourage Islamic terrorists to "go for broke"How the United States can survive the coming world turmoilIn How Civilizations Die, David P. Goldman has written an essential book for understanding what lies in the future for America and the world.
Settings of Silver: An Introduction to Judaism
Stephen M. Wylen - 1989
Now, its author, Stephen Wylen, performs a genuine service by updating his critically acclaimed text for the 21st century. Settings of Silver, Second Edition, reflects the changes in the political structure of Eastern Europe and other recent events, while retaining its accessibility, easy-to-understand language, and compactness. In four sections, the author covers the history of Judaism. Section One includes basic beliefs, what it means to be a Jew, the role of Torah, and the Jewish view of God. Section Two covers faith, practices and customs, including holydays, marriage and family law and ritual, dietary laws, and beliefs surrounding death and the afterlife. Section Three is a history of Judaism, from its foundations to the early part of the 20th century, with a look to mysticism, literature, philosophy and daily life in the Jewish community. In Section Four the author continues the history of Judaism up to the present day, including the Holocaust, the State of Israel, the effects of modernism on Judaism, and the future of Judaism. Engaging, timely, and appropriate for persons of all religious backgrounds, this enduring work belongs in the library of anyone (Jews included) who wants to understand Judaism and the Jewish people.
China and the Chinese
Herbert Allen Giles - 1902
You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.