Customer Reviews

The Changing Face of Islam in America: Understanding and Reaching Your Muslim Neighbor

5 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a student at Nyack College, where Larry, the author, teaches. He prefers that we call him Larry instead of Dr. Poston because that's the kind of man he is: simple, seething with intelligence. Upon reading these reviews, speaking with Larry several times about Islamic issues, and bowsing the book(I'm in college, no time to read, just browse :) ), I think these reviews are somewhat ridiculous, and/or they miss the point completely. As for this book being shameful because you felt "misled," did you even read the back?! Did you check to see the context the book was written in and for? You know, the part that says this book was written from an envangelical Christians perspective? Culture is ALL about perspective. So obviously, upon reading that, you would be prepared for what you were about to read. Now, if he wanted to, he could very well have written this book from a different perspective, but he chose his path and wrote the book. There's nothing shameful about that, or misleading, it's called a topic. The man has a doctorate and has lived all over the world...he knows a little something more than the average person up in Maine, or any other average person living in the US. As for the other review about "stupid" comments, you're missing the point: he's saying Christianity shouldn't be about culture at all: caucasian, african american, modern, postmodern, whatever, we should just stick to what Jesus tells us instead of making it about us. It's suppose to be about Him anyway, not what our culture is comfortable with. In my, admittedly probably slightly bias opinion, I think this is an excellent book for learning about Islam from an educated Christian perspective and reaching out to that community without pushing the Bible down their throats. He remains true to text and is well spoken. If you ever have a chance to meet and talk with him, it would be well worth your time.

This is totally superficial...

But look at the cover. The background is the World Trade Center, while the title is Changing Face of Islam in America. The book came out in February 2000, a year and a half before the attacks. In retrospect, the title could have been about the changing face of America due to Islam.

There were occasional factual inaccuracies. However this book is a good overview of the subject from a Christian perspective.

Occasionally, I was bothered by some statements in the book. In chapter 5, for example, the author makes a rather stupid statement: "Will ministers wearing kente cloth, African drums during worship services, depictions of the Hebrew Patriarchs (along with Jesus, Mary, and the disciples) as blacks... produce African-American churches that contain biblical truth? Or will... people in these churches merely receive Black nationalism wrapped in a sub-biblical theological cloak?"

I would like to ask the author if he has considered this question in reverse form: "Would churches with ministers who consistently wear European-style clothing, only employ Euro-american musical styles in worship services, and portray Jesus and the disciples as caucasians produce churches that preach biblical truth? Or would people who attend these churches only be taught western ideas and culture falsely portrayed as being biblical?"

I bought this book thinking that it would give me an unbiased perspective on Muslim life in America. Instead, what I got was a very ethnocentric, biased, bogus book that promotes leading (misleading) Muslims into the Christian faith. I was dismayed at the dreadfully biased mis-information given. Unfortunately for these authors, I knew more about Islam than they gave me credit for. They are obviously banking on selling this book to those who have no background in Islam, because this book would not hold up to any educated scrutiny. Shameful!