Malise Ruth's book answers the urgent need for an introduction to Islam. . .

He addresses major issues with clarity and directness, engages dispassionately with the disparate sterotypes and polemics on the subject, and guides the reader surely through urgent debates about fundamentalism.

Islam features widely in the news, often inthe most militant versions, but the few people in the non Muslim world really understand the nature of Islam.

Malise Ruthven's Very Short Introduction contains essential insights into issues such as why Islam has such major divisions between movements such as the Shi'ites, the Sunnis, and Wahhabis, and the central importance of the Shar'ia (Islamic law) in Islamic life. It also offers fresh presepectives on contempory questoins: Why is the greatest "Jihad" (holy war) now against the enemies of Islam, rather then the struggle against evil? Can women find fulfillment in Islamic societies? How must Ilsam adapt as it confronts the modern world?