Understanding Islam in the West

Gilles Kepel, Allah in the West: Islamic Movements in America andEurope (Stanford, CA Stanford University Press, 1997). 273 pp.Adam LeBor, A Heart Turned East: Among the Muslims of Europe andAmerica (London: Little, Brown and Company, 1997), 322 pp.Understanding Islam and the West is not as easy a task as it mightseem. If one attempts to study Muslims living in the West, one is facedby millions of people who are divided among different states, come fromdifferent ethnic origins, adopt different schools of thought and understandingwithin their belief system, and incorporate a realm of perspectives,movements, subcultures, and contradicting positions toward theWest.Conversely, if one chooses to study the West in Dar al-Zslum, one isbound to face a past full of conflict and confrontations, a present of intellectualhesitation and unbalanced power relationships, and a future ofconfusing choices and questions on the prospects of democratidon andthe gains/losses of increasing globalization. Hence, scholars choose tofocus on one aspect. Recent attempts include studying Islam in relationto the West on a purely philosophical level (e.g., Khuri), the compatibilityof Islam and democracy, the future of the process of democratizationin the Islamic world (e.g., Esposito and Voll), and studying the responseof Muslim intellectuals to the questions and concepts of modernity, (e.g.,Cooper and Nettler).' ...