BRUCE B. LAWRENCE, Shattering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998). Pp. 256. $47.50 cloth, $16.95 paper.

Extract

Setting out to “shatter the myth” that links Islam to political violence, to women, and to global economic development requires not only a thorough knowledge of the realities themselves that have suffered the alleged distortion, but also a solid grasp of the false images or misleading assumptions that stand in need of correction. A work such as this one, which announces rectification of blinkered, poorly informed, or prejudiced views as its chief intention, takes its shape in large measure from the assertions it chooses for its targets. In this case, Bruce Lawrence is returning to a key aspect of the theme treated in a wide comparative framework in his notable 1989 book, Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against the Modern Age, and he has selected a rather broad facade against which to launch his rebuttal.