What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam John L. Esposito 2nd Edition., 2011, xx + 268 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-979423-2 (ebook) New York: Oxford University Press Reviewed by: Arnis Silvia (arnis.silvia@gmail.com) English Department – UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta In the aftermath of 9/11 incidents, Islam was on the ‘most wanted’ religion to investigate, both in positive and negative way, but mostly the negative one. International people, US citizens in particular, keep questioning what makes Muslim so violent that such a terror killing almost 3000 people. Islamophobia (discrimination against Muslims because of their faith or race), hate speech, and violence were addressed to Islam no matter which ocnum was responsible. As an expert of Islamic studies and as a founding father of Christian-Islam relationship at Georgetown University, Esposito feels a ‘call’ to answer these critics and questions through his book “What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam”. As the title says, this book provides the most pressing questions people consistently ask about Islam. This second edition of What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam covers 257 pages including 6 major discussions (Faith; Islam and Other Religion; Customs and Culture; Violence and Terrorism; Society, Politics and Economy; and Muslim in the West). The chapters are organized in Question-Answer format explaining most common and critical questions about Islam like Why do Muslim women wear veils and long garments?, How can Islam be used to justify terrorism, hijacking, and hostage taking?or What contributions have Muslims made to world civilizations? and many more. The overview of the chapters is presented below. 1 The first chapter, Faith, features some basic common questions the Western often ask about Islam. There are 42 questions regarding what Muslims believe, how Islam originates, how Muhammad plays role in Muslim life, how Mecca and Kaba means to Islam, how Muslims worship, what the difference between Sunni and Shii Muslims, What is Wahabi and Salafi, and Sufi, how Islam competible with modernism, and so on. The author adds 7 new questions from the first version of the book, they are Why do Muslim object to images of Muhammad?, How do Muslims view the Day of Judgement?, What are Muslim women promised in the afterlife?, Do Muslims believe in sin and repentance?, What is a madrasa?, Who is Aga Khan?, and What is Salafi Islam? In this chapter, the author puts a brief explanation for each questions, enriched with some historical facts and supported with analogy from Christian belief. For example, when the authors explain Jumah Prayer in Islam, he correlates it with Sunday Prayer in Christian. Another example, when he elaborates Sunni and Shii, he also correlates it with diverse sects in Christian. The second chapter, Islam and Other Religions, the authors addresses eight questions about how Islam correlates with other religions and how Islam views the other religions such as Christian and Jewish. The authors tries to figure out some questions like: Do Muslims believe Islam is the only true religion?, What about Muslim religious intolerance?, How is Islam similar to Christianity and Judaism?, How do Muslims view Judaism? Christianity?, Why do Muslims persecute Christians in Muslim countries?, Haven’t Jews and Christians always been enemies of Islam?. The author adds two questions from the first edition, namely: Who won the Crusades?, and Are Muslims involved in interfaith dialogue?. In this chapter, the authors smoothly narrates how Islam is similar to other religions in terms of its basic purpose to create peace and kindness. He also points out how Islam views differently than those religions based on the authenticity of the book (Quran) and the faith towards God and Muhammad (Muhammad is not the God). Discussing about the toleration and conflict, the author stated that at the early ages, Islam was more tolerant than other Judaism and Christians, however, it became deterioted after some millitant leaders of Islam spread the terror. Yet, he states that there is no preaching in Islam to spread the terror, it is more likely political and economic 2 rather than religious as what happened in Israel-Palestine, civil war in Lebanon, Jamaah Islamiyah in Egypt and so forth. The third chapter, Customs and Culture, points out the issue of Islamic culture, such as: clothes, men and women interaction , women’s role in Islam, marriage and divorce, pet and animals, music and dancings, burial and cremation, and also the view of Islam towards environment. Five new questions were added from the first edition of the book, they are: What do Muslims say about women’s rights?, Is the practice of Muslim arranged marriages changing?, What is Muslim hip-hop?, How does Muslim handle burial and cremation?, And What does islam say about the environment?. In this chapter, the authors compare the traditional view to the modern view of Islam towards those issues, by providing some examples as well as the Quran sayings. The fourth chapter, Violence and Terrorism is probably the most anticipating chapter as these issues are mostly discussed in Western society. The author defines how Islam views violence and terrorism, and how those issues uncorrelate at all with Islam. None of Islamic teaching urges its followers to do such violence or terrorism by any means, except of defensing self from outer attack. The authors also points out some ayahs from Quran that are missinterpreted (taken separatedly) by the Muslim terrorists to justify their action along with the whole interpretation the ayahs should be. There is no major difference with the first edition, but the author puts three new questions, those are: Is there a global jihad today? Who are the “moderate” Muslims? Why haven’t Muslims denounced terrorism? Fifth chapter, Society, Politics and Economy poses 30 questions including 14 new questions regarding Shariah law, fatwa, Muslims in America, Islam and internet, and contribution of Islam to world civilizations. Sixth chapter, Muslims in the West What is jihad? 133 Is there a global jihad today? 134 Is Islam a primary cause and driver of terrorism? 137 How can Islam be used to justify terrorism, hijacking, and hostage taking? 140 Does Islam permit suicide bombers? 142 Why are Muslims so violent? 145 Who are the “moderate” Muslims? 147 Why haven’t Muslims denounced terrorism? 148 3 Do Muslims have a martyrdom complex? 151 Why do they hate us? 153 Why was Salman Rushdie condemned to death? 155 (-) jihad as the sixth pillar? On what base? (+) islam towards environment (-) chapter 3: although Muslim women are now working and studying along with men, but they are obliged to follow some basic rules of women in Islam in correlation with her clothes and her way of interaction with different sex. Some laws to follow, for example, she doesn’t appear her aurat, she doesn’t use too much make up, she doesn’t use perfume, she keeps her sight from any lust or sex attraction to men, and many more. (-) chapter 3 p.97: equality and balance (misses to mention here that this equality and balance does not mean 50:50, but this equality means that men and women has the same rights and responsibilities in front of God in term of ibadah. However, there are some aspects of live where emancipation could bring more harm than good. Working mother, for example, could bring negative effect to her children as they lack of education and good examples from their mother. Misses to explain ayah (-) dog that was kept by Muhammad was the one for Siapa yang menjadikan anjing –kecuali anjing penjaga ternak, atau anjing pemburu, atau anjing penjaga tanaman- niscaya berkuranglah satu qirath pahalanya setiap hari” [1] [1]. HR Al-Bukhari dengan seumpamanya dalam Adz-Dzba’ih dan Ash-Shaid (54805482), Muslim dalam Al-Musaqat (1574) (-) 121: belly dancing and folk dancing have long been part of celebrations, particularly weddings. (+) chapter 3 p.97: states clearly that Islam promotes the rights of women. Why does Islam separate men and women? 95 Are women second-class citizens in Islam? 97 What do Muslims say about women’s rights? 101 What kinds of roles did women play in early Islam? 104 Why do Muslim women wear veils and long garments? 105 Why do Muslim men wear turbans or caps? 109 Why do Muslim men wear beards? 109 Does Islam require circumcision? 110 4 Is the practice of Muslim arranged marriages changing? 111 Can Muslim men have more than one wife? 112 Can Muslims marry non-Muslims? 113 What does Islam have to say about domestic violence? 114 How does Islam treat divorce? 116 Why are Muslims rHow do Muslims feel about pets, or petting animals? 118 What is Islam’s attitude toward alcohol and pork? 119 Why are Muslims against dancing? 121 Why are some Muslims opposed to music? 122 What is Muslim hip-hop? 123 How do Muslims greet each other, and why? 127 Why do Muslims say “Peace be upon him?” What does PBUH mean? 128 How does Islam handle burial and cremation? 128 What does Islam say about the environment? 129eluctant to shake hands? 118 (+) In both title and substance the book reaches out to the intelligent but uninformed person who has a genuine interest in Islam but doesn't know where to start. "Begin with me," declares the title. "Look no further." The entire text is then structured as a question and answer session with the author, making specific areas of interest very accessible, even for casual perusal. (-) in chapter two, the author misses mentioning the toleration in Islam is applicable for muamalah terms, such as: trade, education, health, etc. But NOT in aqidah terms, such as: celebrating christmast. He also misses to mentioned (-) he style works for most issues, but in areas where Esposito's own politics enter in—and therefore he chooses the facts selectively—things go sour. Among the more glaring examples, all Palestinian suicide bombings are said to result from Baruch Goldstein's 1994 massacre of twenty-nine Muslims in a mosque, despite suicide bombings in 1992 and 1993, and much text is given to describe the Arab-Israeli conflict in this light without elaboration. Esposito blames sanctions for starving children in Iraq, without mentioning that Iraq can sell all the oil it wants under the United Nations Oil-for-Food program and that nobody is starving in northern Iraq where that program is administered by someone other than Saddam. He reduces the important question, "Why do they hate us?" to America's support for Israel. "America's record of overwhelming support of Israel … has proved to be a powerful lightening rod for Muslim anger over injustice." 5 This is true as far as it goes, but it misses the many other sources of Muslim hatred for the United States, starting with the facts of American power, wealth, and influence. (-) Prominent Muslim scholars maintain that the Islamic law on apostasy, which prescribes the death penalty, was not based on the Quran but was a man-made effort in early Islam (-) Can a person who is Muslim choose a religion other than Islam?” responded, “The answer is yes, they can because the Quran says, ‘Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion’ [109:6], and, ‘Whosoever will, let him believe, and whosoever will, let him disbelieve’ [18:29], and, ‘There is no compulsion in religion’ [2:256].” many people today have specifi c questions and are looking for quick, brief, and direct answers, ones not easily found in historical and religious histories. What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam is meant to meet that need. Its primary purpose is to communicate what Muslims believe and why they do what they do. General i 6