Islam's Predicament- Perspectives of a Dissident Muslim

Islam's Predicament brings together Dr Mansur's most important essays written over the last decade, previously published in various journals and media. Starting with "The War within Islam" he then goes on to "Three Muslim Perspectives", "Of Danish Cartoons, Muslim Rage and the Bedouin State of Mind", "Muslim on Muslim Violence", "Keeping Faith in the Age of Islamist Terror" and much more.

Dr Salim Mansur, a Muslim, was born in Calcutta, India and moved to Canada where he received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He is now an Associate Professor at the University of Western Ontario. He is a renowned voice in the debate of moderate vs. militant Islam, the author of numerous articles published in the Jerusalem Quarterly, American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, The Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Arab Studies Quarterly, Middle East Quarterly, a frequent contributor to the Globe & Mail, The National Post, Toronto Sun, National Review online and others, a frequent commentator and analyst on radio and television, including the PBS Jim Lehrer Hour and in 2006, he received the American Jewish Congress' Stephen S. Wise "Profile in Courage" award.

The essays in this book, both the longer and the shorter pieces. were written in the period after the events of September 11, 2001. For me 9/11 came to represent the moment when all hesitations, skepticism and inner doubts about Muslim history dissolved, and it became clear that the principal conflict within Islam is between the forces of tyranny and the desire for freedom. Muslim or Islamist terrorism is the ill begotten offspring of this history of tyranny. The origin of this conflict is coterminous with the beginning of Muslim history, and tyranny being the dominant element in Muslim history since the demise of Muhammad (the Prophet) it has shaped the religious understanding and practice of Islam among Muslims.

In the face of Muslim extremism and terror that went global with 9/11, there remains the urgent need for Muslims to confront and repudiate those who have perverted their faith, or hijacked it, and made of Islam an ideology of bigotry and war (jihad). Mine has been a small effort in that urgently needed larger and wider struggle against radical Muslims, or Islamists, who have wrecked the Muslim world and have spread fear and violence indiscriminately among non-Muslims.

**Contents and Sample Pages**