Understanding Islam A Guide for the Judaeo-Christian Reader

Lena Winfrey Seder grew up with a loving Christian family in the Virginia countryside. As a shy young woman, she sought to expand her horizons and fly, like a butterfly. At first, her focus was on worldly success and fame, but when she found herself unable to obtain satisfactory answers to her doubts about her religious traditions, she began a spiritual quest for the truth. She emerged from her cocoon with Islam at her side, to guide her in her life and travels. In this autobiographical account, the author uses a series of flashbacks to weave back and forth among important events and places in her life, before and after she embraced Islam. She explains what attracted her to Islam and describes the effects of her choice on key relationships in her life. Her narration is laced with personal anecdotes and heart-felt advice about being patient in the face of adversity. Her experiences are woven together to create more than just a simple narrative; this is a unique account of the Metamorphosis of a Muslim.

This book is a highly relevant piece of research for our turbulently chaotic world today. The heavy baggage of mutual distrust and detestation from the days of ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Spain through to the Crusades and Colonialism has left behind a fuzzy and muddled image of Islam and Muslims in the eyes of others; Muslims too, have been seeing the West as the primary cause of all their woes and vilification.

Many conflicting narratives exist regarding women in Islam and this subject is the cause of much criticism from the West leveled against Islam as a religion. The discrepancies between Islamic religious discourse and the practice of Muslim communities are often disregarded. Women In Islam – Challenging Narratives intends to address certain misconceptions about women in Islam and dispel some common myths. At the same time, this book also challenges the accepted narrative that women in modern Western cultures are emancipated. The chapter titled ‘Women in Islam’ provides a more accurate representation of the lofty position conferred to women within the Islamic tradition, which is often illusive in Muslim communities around the globe. A final analysis of feminist discourse scrutinizes the impact of the feminist movement on setting new ideals for women that negate their roles within the family and home, and assesses whether this has created greater challenges for women in the modern era. Ismail Adam Patel is a writer and campaigner. He is chairman of Friends of Al-Aqsa, a UK based NGO dedicated to campaigning for a free Palestine. He has lectured widely on a number of political and social issues affecting Muslim, and has authored books and articles on an array of subjects. He also acts as an advisor for several other organizations including the Conflicts Forum and Clear Conscience. A graduate of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and technology, he is an Optometrist by profession.

In The Cross and The Crescent, Dr. Dirks, a former ordained minister (deacon) in the United Methodist Church, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and with a doctorate in clinical psychology, reaches out to the Christians and the Muslims for an interfaith dialogue. Drawing on his seminary education and thirty years of interaction with Muslims in America and overseas, the author digs deep into the roots of Christianity to bring out obscure information that highlights what was once common between Christianity and Islam. He envisioned that, “In writing this book, I would like to touch the lives of those Christians who have not been given the knowledge that I have gained both about Islam, from my direct contact with Muslims, and about Christianity from my seminary education. I want to share with those Christians, who are willing to listen, what is so often known by their clergy and church leaders, but seldom finds its way into their knowledge of their own religion. Likewise, I would like to reach out to the Muslims, in order to help them understand the religious commonality that they share with Christians”.

The Bible is the basis for the teachings of Christianity, and the Quran.