Customer Reviews

Islam and the West: The Making of an Image

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This is a remarkable work, detailing the perceptions of Islam prevalent in the West since the birth of Islam in the 7th century. Daniel documents the medieval misconceptions and shows how they still exist in today's popular culture AND in modern scholarship. He displays his proofs in the context of discussing the particulars of Islam and how they were perceived by the West. I wish everyone would read this book. It would considerably aid Muslim-Christian relations in the world and especially this country.

Norman Daniel has done a fairly well job on "How Islam was misinterpreted by Western Orientalists in history". However, I wish he had used more Islamic references (works by Muslim scholars) rather than that of non-Muslims. There are sometimes things that are not correct in Islamic viewpoint and would contradict to religious techings of Islam, but I guess he has relied more on non-Muslim scholar's works in writing this book.

So my suggestion would be don't just read this book alone if you want to know about West's viewpoint on Islam. You should read other books to know more on this topic, to get the real idea.