Shattering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence [Hardcover]

Bruce B. Lawrence (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 16, 1998

Islam is often portrayed, especially in Western media, as an alien, violent, hostile, and monolithic religion, whose adherents are intent upon battling nonbelievers throughout the world. This text demonstrates that these conceptions more accurately reflect the bias of Western reporters than they do the realities of contemporary Islam. Westerners are barraged by images of violence that usually originate from armed confrontations in one small corner of the world. Islam, Bruce Lawrence argues, is a complex, international religious system that cannot be reduced to stereotypes. As Lawrence demonstrates, Islam is a religion shaped as much by its own postulates and ethical demands as by the specific circumstances of Muslim people in the modern world. The last 200 years have brought many challenges for Muslims, from colonial subjugation through sporadic revivalism to elitist reform movements and, most recently, pervasive struggles with fundamentalism. During each period, Muslims have had to address internal tensions, as well as external threats. Today Muslims in the post-colonial era, only some of whom are Arab and living in the Middle East, are playing ever greater roles in economic changes, both regional and international. As the impact of these changes has become evident in societies around the globe, new leaders have come into public view. The most remarkable emerging presence is that of Muslim women. Lawrence argues that it is the experience of Muslim women in particular that calls for a more nuanced understanding of Islam today. It is time, Lawrence believes, to replace inaccurate images of Islam with a recognition of the multifaceted character of this global religion and of its widely diverse adherents. Here he describes changes that are taking place throughout the world, particularly in Southeast Asia, enacted by governments and nongovernmental organizations alike. In a time of rapid international change, Lawrence suggests that it is time for our images of Islam to reflect more clearly the realities of Islam as it is lived.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Islamic scholar Bruce Lawrence shatters the myth of a monolithic and violent Muslim culture. Gazing down the corridors of the future, it's easy to see more of the same for Islamic nations: war, poverty, suppression. But Lawrence is optimistic, because he takes the long view, noting how Muslim nations have always been working for better futures, even though they have been shackled with a legacy of violence from Western colonialism and imperialism. Each Muslim society must be looked at from the details of its own history, he says, and from his acute observations of Muslim countries--from Tunisia to Malaysia--we see populations that are largely nonfundamentalist and ripe for advancement into democratic, humanitarian futures, most notably from the perspectives of women and capitalist-oriented Malays. Lawrence takes us beyond the veil of a uniform, violent, male Islam to a variegated and nuanced world that deserves more than the emblazoned headlines that define it now. --Brian Bruya

Review

"Bruce Lawrence's excellent analysis of Islam today brings together socioeconomic, historical, political, and religious elements, and sets these against the backdrop of global capitalism and high technology . . . . Shattering the Myth is an extremely well argued, well developed and well documented book that serves as a basis for further studies of Islam and the images held about it." -- Middle East Journal

"In Shattering the Myth, Bruce Lawrence takes us beyond the headlines and CNN broadcasts and shows us an Islam that is not quite as neat and tidy as popularly presented." -- Ethnic Conflict

"In this thought provoking and informative work, the author ... seeks to dispel the misconceptions and fears about Islam which are too often held by those with an incomplete understanding of what Islam is and what its followers believe and seek.... Anyone wishing to develop an accurate understanding of the subject should read this book." -- Virginia Quarterly Review

"Shattering the Myth is an important book. . . . It is a brilliant example of applied religious studies." -- History of Religions

"The book makes the commonsense yet often overlooked argument that Islam must be understood, in its variety, as a complex and developing religious system not separated from the everyday and global concerns of Muslims.... Insightful analysis." -- Religious Studies Review

A timely contribution to an ongoing debate on the relationship between Islam and violence, a debate that has shed more heat than light. It cannot afford to be ignored by anyone interested in the relations between Muslims and people of other faiths. -- Review

A timely contribution to an ongoing debate on the relationship between Islam and violence. -- Islamic Studies

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press; First edition. edition (March 16, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691057699
• ISBN-13: 978-0691057699
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,416,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not an Easy Read, November 14, 2001

By 

Randall L. Daut (Wauwatosa, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shattering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence (Hardcover)

I first heard of this book during a public radio program on which the author, Bruce Lawrence, was one featured guest. I read the professional reviews and figured it would be a good book. I did wonder why no lay reader had reviewed it. Having now finished the book on Nov. 14, 2001, I wonder if I'm the only person outside the academic world who has ever managed to get through it.

I began by reading the introduction; that was almost a fatal mistake. The writing style was difficult to follow, and the language was arcane, sprinkled with words like "postmodern," "metanarrative" and "perspectivist." After bogging down in the introduction for several days, I moved on to the first chapter. Fortunately, the book became somewhat easier to follow at that point, but the author continued to use uncommon words where common ones would suffice and to use common words in uncommon ways. He also had a tendency to begin sentences with "If." The clause that followed the "If" typically referred to an argument that was not spelled out, but which the reader needed to infer from the context. The author also made frequent use of qualifying phrases that contributed to the difficulty of the reading without adding much to the meaning.

In the book, Bruce Lawrence surveyed the Muslim world, focusing on the role of fundamentalism in various Muslim countries, then turning to the role of women in parts of that world. He ended with a consideration of Jihad and corporate culture in Malaysia. His sections on fundamentalism and Muslim women were the clearest sections. In the last section, he tended to lapse into a more arcane use of language again.

I cannot criticize the content of the book, because I have been quite ignorant of the Muslim world until very recently, but I have the sense that the author had a comprehensive and subtle understanding of the material he covered. Though it certainly wasn't easy, I believe I learned a good deal from this book. In the current world context, I think many educated readers would appreciate and benefit from the author's knowledge. Alas, I doubt that most people will do so unless he can write something that is clearer and more accessible.

5 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Islam is... Islams, April 28, 2002

By 

John C. Landon "nemonemini" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shattering the Myth (Paperback)

... This work explodes the myth in reverse, of the alien,hostile, and monolithic Islam, and is both a corrective to a corrective and useful as a reminder of the dangers of one-dimensional reduction of any socio-historical complexity, most especially Islam where the journalist impressionism of accounts of terrorism lose sight of the endless rooms in a large labyrinth. There many things, like the legacy of Sufism, are not even visible to the naked eye. We seem left to repeat, 'Islam is this, or this'. The scale alone of Islam is tremendous, and the Middle East is but one star in this constellation, one should retell the tale of the blindmen and the elephant. There is an irony to world history that the world of Islam suffers the abstract cunning and mathematically economic jihad of westernization turned globalization, and as bedouins all we might note the curious genaeology of inheritance in both systems.
This book was reviewed alongside Paul Fregosi's Jihad.