Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World

In Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World, Shadi Hamid has dared to go where few scholars have ventured, as he courageously examines the political nature and history of Islam. The enduring conflicts of the Middle East, the social cleavages of the Persian Gulf, even the constrictive rule of Central Asia and the Indus Valley can find their roots, Hamid argues, in the nature of Islam itself. In every state that has tried to infuse Islam in its secular laws, an inevitable and perhaps irresolvable tension has emerged between divine inspiration and constitutional liberalism. Hamid shines a light on how fundamentally challenged the universal ideals of the 20th century may be in the Islamic world today.