The author Ali-Karamali is the daughter of immigrants from India, a Stanford graduate, a corporate lawyer in America, and is trained Islamic Law. A patriotic American, she seeks to describe why modern Islam, in the main, is not a threat to American values. She attempts, and for the most part succeeds, to present Islamic (shariah) law as a peaceful force for universal social justice in world history.
Obviously, this is a politically laden topic in conversation with contemporary affairs. She directly addresses those towards the end of the book. However, in most of this writing, she simply attempts to educate us as to how Islamic practice works and has worked for over 1,400 years. She attempts to undercut many common antagonistic viewpoints against Muslims, but does not seek to convert readers. Rather, her goal is education, and her tone is much like an academic religion class in a secular American classroom.
Although she largely sidesteps Islam’s early militant days by correctly observing that the Christian West was likewise militant, she especially focuses upon the golden age of Islam (1000-1600 CE) before European colonization. Although she explicitly tries not to over-glorify the past, she tends to exalt this period as a model of Islam’s virtues. Islam’s problems, she admits, stem from engagement with modern Western culture, especially in the form of colonization. She portrays that colonization stripped the dignity, wealth, and well-being of those people who were colonized. The post-colonial (post-World War) environment has been admittedly unstable, and Islamic culture has not recovered from Western colonization. That is why the West and Islam continue today to work at cross-purposes.
Potential readers need to be open to non-Western views, but the potential audience consists of anyone interested in current affairs, world peace, and universal happiness – a wide swath of people! This work is not directed towards Muslims but especially towards American Christians and Jews, with whom Ali-Karamali shares American citizenship and patriotism. European affairs are addressed as well, but only at an angle; the main intended audience is Americans.
I am a white Protestant Christian American male. I am motivated towards learning about those who are around me in an attempt to “love my neighbor,” as the Torah and Jesus put it. I found this book to be challenging in that it stretched me, in a good way, to understand and trust how people view me. Inter-religious dialogue is always a challenge because people who are different can seem so, well, “other.” Nonetheless, it’s a necessary chore (if not sometimes a pleasure) in today’s world. Kudos to Al-Karamali for attempting to enlighten us!
Demystifying Shariah: What it is, How it Works, and Why it’s Not Taking Over Our Country
By Sumbul Ali-Karamali
Copyright (c) 2020
Beacon Press
ISBN13 9780807038000
Page Count: 238
Genre: Religion
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