Are Muslims Distinctive?: A Look at the Evidence 1st Edition

by M. Steven Fish (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0199769216

ISBN-10: 0199769214

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Are Muslims Distinctive? represents the first major scientific effort to assess how Muslims and non-Muslims differ--and do not differ--in the contemporary world. Using rigorous methods and data drawn from around the globe, M. Steven Fish reveals that in some areas Muslims and non-Muslims
differ less than is commonly imagined. Muslims are not inclined to favor the fusion of religious and political authority or especially prone to mass political violence. Yet there are differences: Gender inequality is more severe among Muslims, Muslims are unusually averse to homosexuality and other
controversial behaviors, and democracy is rare in the Muslim world. Other areas of divergence bear the marks of a Muslim advantage: Homicide rates and class-based inequities are less severe among Muslims than non-Muslims. Fish's findings have vital implications for human welfare, interfaith
understanding, and international relations.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is a profound achievement. Reading it has been an eye-opening experience to the point that I feel that I will never be able to approach my own work and scholarship in the same way. As far as I am concerned, this book will be mandatory reading for all of my students. This book deserves to
be widely read and debated by every student of Islam, by every reader who believes that he or she knows what Islam and Muslims are about, and even by every person who might have the most casual interest in the contemporary Muslim realm."--Khaled Abou El Fadl, Professor of Law, University of
California-Los Angeles School of Law

"This book constitutes a major milestone in moving beyond stereotypes and anecdotal evidence, and identifying the ways in which Muslim-majority societies actually are distinctive from other types of societies, utilizing a huge base of empirical cross-national evidence. Many of the findings are
surprising. The next step is the more difficult task of explaining why such differences exist."--Ronald Inglehart, Research Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan

"There's no book to my knowledge that does what Fish accomplishes here. Using a reliable dataset, sound scientific methods, and objective frameworks of analysis--Fish puts together an extremely important and valuable book on the political orientations and behaviors of Muslims across the globe. This
book should have been written at least five years ago! It provides us with the most comprehensive and scientifically rigorous study of the political, social, and religious attitudes of Muslims in cross-national perspective."--Amaney A. Jamal, Assistant Professor of Politics, Princeton University

"A refreshingly brash book. Skilled in empirical analysis, Steven Fish has avoided the temptation to define questions narrowly. Instead he investigates whether Muslim politics are systematically different in a variety of broad areas, ranging from political violence to corruption. He does find that
'Muslim' is a politically relevant category in some areas but not in others. Fish insists on following the data wherever it leads him, informed by past scholarly work but not bound by its conventions. He seeks neither to challenge nor confirm popular prejudices. As a result of this sweeping,
data-centered approach, both scholarly and non-scholarly audiences will find the book by turns comforting and unsettling."--Nathan J. Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University

About the Author

M. Steven Fish is Professor of Political Science at the University of California-Berkeley. He has served as a Senior Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Professor at the Airlangga University in Indonesia and the European University at St. Petersburg in Russia. His books include The Handbook of National
Legislatures (coauthored with Matthew Kroenig) and Democracy Derailed in Russia.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (February 9, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 385 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0199769214
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199769216
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.19 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,882,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #625 in Islam (Books)
- #1,671 in Islamic Social Studies
- #3,137 in International Relations (Books)

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M. Steven Fish

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M. Steven Fish is a comparative political scientist who studies democracy and regime change in developing and postcommunist countries, religion and politics, and constitutional systems and national legislatures. Originally from Kentucky, he now makes his home in the San Francisco Bay Area and serves as a professor of political science at the University of California-Berkeley. He has conducted extensive field research in Eurasia, East Europe, and Southeast Asia. He served as a Senior Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Professor at the Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia, in 2007 and at the European University at St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2000-2001. In 2005, he was the recipient of the Distinguished Social Sciences Teaching Award of the Colleges of Letters and Science, University of California-Berkeley.

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religioprof

Vast amount of information

Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2013

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A long and highly fraught battle has waged for decades over the alleged propensity of Muslims toward violence, misogyny, tyranny, and fatalism. Given the fact that Islam is the second largest world religion, with 1.6 billion Muslims in more than 200 countries, any attempts to characterize its influence are not only vitally important but also a daunting task. That is why this book is important to read. Fish sets out a practical if wildly ambitious scheme for measuring the global Muslim population's opinions about matters of social and economic inequality, political violence, democracy, and so forth, relying on data provided by the World Values Survey. Well worth a read, and a very good pedagogical tool because it raises many provocative questions about methods and data validity, as well as challenging the usual presumptions many secular Westerners have about Islam. Also helpful is the preface to the book which explains how to read social scientific data. My only misgiving about this tome is that it might encourage the reader to move from the larger concepts of aggregate data analysis provided by the author (e.g., what large pluralities of Muslims think) to more precise observation about who Muslims are at the individual level. In other words, the reader should not be led to believe that a single cause (Islam) can account for the effect (e.g., what Muslims say and do), which is something this author tries to avoid by providing multivariate analyses. Let's hope that the reader appreciates the nuances and caveats

17 people found this helpful

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Daniel Hummel

Excellent

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2015

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Cuts to it and lets the data do the talking not the politics. So much better than the demagoguery of typical books on this subject.

5 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2015

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Excellent book with a very deep and scientist analysis.

2 people found this helpful

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Alphonse

A well researched book on a timely topic

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2011

The author is considered an expert in the field. The book is well researched and well written. If you believe that Muslims are somehow inferior human beings and you are looking for evidence to justify your prejudice, then you will not like this book. Otherwise it is well worth your time. It is an excellend companion to John Esposito's "Who Speaks for Islam" which was based on a large Gallup poll. The author is very objective in his treatment, whether the conclusion is positive or negative regarding Muslim attitudes he simply lets the data speak. Although one can criticise certain aspects of his data selections and interpretations, there is no question that this is a sincerely pursued social science study presented in a readable way. Highly recommended.

20 people found this helpful

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A. Michelin

Excuses

Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2011

The author is trying to demonstrate that most followers of the Koran and Islam are law abiding citizens living normal lives. The same could be said about the Germans during Hitlers rule. There are a lot of sheep in the Muslim world that are being lead by true followers of the Koran who want to kill the Jews and Christians - just like their god did - Mohammad - when he was alive.

12 people found this helpful

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Simon

Impeccably researched.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 22, 2012

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This is a brilliant piece of scholarship. Dense and fair, and not afraid to be provocative.

Another reviewer has written that this book makes an excellent companion piece to Esposito's book "Who Speaks for Islam?", which was based on the largest ever gallup poll of the middle east. I couldn't agree more. I would, however, add that this book is far more even-handed and challenging than Esposito's. Esposito bends over backwards to rationalise and downplay many unpleasant facets of Muslim culture; the same can't be said for Steven Fish, who never descends into apologetics. That's not to say that this book is a polemic against Muslims though. It's very fair, and allows the statistics to speak for themselves. We learn that Muslims do appear to have a strong propensity towards homophobia and intolerance in general, but we also learn that Muslims are, on average, less likely to commit violent crimes or murders. As the author puts it "any way you slice it, more Muslims spells less murder" (P10).

This book won't sit well with either apologists or anti-Muslim polemicists, but for those who are sincerely interested in finding out the truth behind the headlines, this book is essential.

3 people found this helpful

Stefan Voigt

Simple - but useful

Reviewed in Germany on May 19, 2014

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Fish asks whether Muslims are in distinctive regarding a number of different dimensions. Not very original but thoroughly carried out and useful

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Are Muslims Distinctive?: A Look at the Evidence 1st Edition

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