Lexington Books
Pages: 252
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-1-4985-3741-4 • Hardback • April 2017 • $129.00 • (£99.00)
978-1-4985-3743-8 • Paperback • May 2019 • $50.99 • (£39.00)
978-1-4985-3742-1 • eBook • April 2017 • $48.00 • (£37.00)
Richard L. Benkin received a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and is author of A Quiet Case of Ethnic Cleansing: The Murder of Bangladesh's Hindus.
Introduction: Who is a Moderate Muslim? Richard L. Benkin
Chapter 1: Smoking out Islamists, Daniel Pipes
Chapter 2: Islamist Extremism: Threat to World Peace, Kulbhushan Warikoo
Chapter 3: Wither Moderate Islam: Malaysian Style, Sunil Kukreja
Chapter 4: Is There a Non-Radical Islam?, Naseer Dashti
Chapter 5: An Islam That Rejects Islamists: The Case of the Baloch, Meerain Baloch
Chapter 6: The Debate about Radical versus Non-Radical Islam, Amitabh Tripathi
Chapter 7: Moderate Islam Is an Illusion—at Least for Now, Umar Duad Khattak
Chapter 8: Being Pakhtun: Interview with a Muslim Female Living in Exile, Richard L. Benkin and Anonymous
Chapter 9: Balochistan to the Road of Independence, Aziz Baloch
Chapter 10: South Asian Muslim Attitudes towards Jews, Israel, and Zionism, Navras Jaat Aafreedi
Chapter 11: The Myth of Bangladesh as a Moderate Muslim Nation, Richard L. Benkin
This collection was far too rich to be pressed into a brief review. This book needs to be read in depth, especially by those wanting to know more about specific local problems experienced in certain parts of South Asia today, specifically Balochistan, Afghanistan and the Pashtun region, and Pakistan and Bangladesh. Readers should expect to find quite disturbing yet insightful material, presented from various insider perspectives, often in the words of people with direct experience of violence.
— South Asia Research
Richard L. Benkin has put forth a solid collection of essays on one of the most critical topics of the day—distinguishing between moderate Muslims and Islamists. With the growing threat of Islamist groups in the Middle East and their affiliates in the West, the issue of identifying moderates necessitates a clear and guided answer, which is detailed throughout these essays. This book is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the complexities and nuances of the Muslim world at large.— Asaf Romirowsky, Middle East Forum
Is Islam at its core ‘moderate’ or ‘radical’? Can the ‘moderates’ ultimately win out over the ‘extremists’ in a battle for the soul of Islam? How does ‘radical Islam’ gain a foothold in Muslim communities that have lived in peace with their non-Muslim neighbors? In this eye-opening book, Richard L. Benkin and an array of South Asian Muslim scholars confront these questions and more. The emphasis on Pakistan and Bangladesh creates a fascinating paradigm with numerous applications to study of the larger Islamic world. Essential reading for all those—especially policymakers—who are baffled as to how and why Islam’s jihad imperative has made, after a long period of relative (but not absolute) quiescence, such an unexpected and spectacular reappearance in the modern world.— Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch