The book also outlines the basic preachings of Islam, revealing that it is not so far removed from the other main monotheistic creeds of Christianity and Judaism.

Interesting items: All activities, from living in one's own house, to discussing business and politics, are included in the mosque, unlike Christ chasing the moneylenders from the temple; the prophet Muhammad (a Messenger of God, not God Himself) mended his own clothes and did his share of household chores; though Mohammad's wives were veiled to some degree, there is no requirement for the veiling of all women; women were equal in Islam "though later, as happened in Christianity, men would hijack the faith". (16)

"Salvation" for Muslims is "the achievement of a society which puts into practice God's desires for the human race", (24) rather than the personal saving from sin which marks the Christian faith.

The Crusades of the 1100s have been followed by the "neo-Crusade of Western imperialism." (95)

Dealing with the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, Armstrong notes the Mongol's administrative skill, an administration that moved with its armies, gave jobs to family members, and was at odds with "the egalitarianism of Islam." (98)

Later, the ruling class became complacent, enabling Tamburlaine to undertake a surge of destruction in the Muslim empire.

Gunpowder became available during the 15th century, which enhanced the abilities of Muslim rulers to control their subjects, (107 and 115) so that egalitarianism suffered.

Armstrong's summary of the effects of the industrialized Westıs encroachment in the 19th, 20th and now the 21st centuries deal with events new enough to be disputable. Although her notes are useful, the situation changes as we read.

Summary: Packed with information, so not an easy read. Armstrong has embedded her description of Islam into its historic and social context which is exactly what is needed for a new student of the faith.

It would be useful to have the Glossary of Arabic Terms on a bookmark, rather than constantly turning to the appendix.

Comments by Edna Toth

She left Iran in 1984, is now a professor of sociology and women's studies at York University, Toronto, which amply qualifies her to criticize feminist theorists in the West. But you need to have read other theorists to get full value from her book.

The Introduction provides a good summary of her thinking.

Moghissi's work is now four years old, and out of date in some aspects of current politics -- her work pre-dates 9/11 and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq-- but useful in its assessment of Western critiques of Islam.

She points out limitations and dangers in lumping together

• Islam as a faith
• Islam as an ideology
• Islam as a ruling system and
• trying to find one label for Islam, which spans continents, nations, tribes, cultures, stages of development, forms of government, levels of education, poverty and riches.

Moghissi opposes an apologist response to Islam -- trying to support Muslims in the West by ignoring the evils of theocratic rule (vii-viii) -- and she points out the dangers of the intelligentsia in the West who may "ease the pressure on fundamentalist regimes and movements in the name of respecting cultural difference and cultural authenticity." ( 6-7)

On hijab, she says that wearing it may empower Muslim women in the West. But that is not the case in the Middle East and Africa, where women are "persecuted, jailed and whipped" for non-compliance with a fundamentalist dress code. Westerners' promotion of "tolerance" of such ill-treatment aligns Western feminists with those who want no interference in trade relations -- including massive arms sales -- with Middle Eastern states.

Ch. 6 dealing with Iran is already out of date and about to become more so, but contains useful info and commentary.

Ch. 7 asserts that there is no "Islamic feminism", and that ideas have been pushed from the West. (126). "In Islamic societies, the majority of gender-conscious women ... who ... are active in the women's rights struggle, rarely choose to identify themselves as feminist." Moghissi refers to "The publication [since 1980] of a rapidly expanding literature on women and women's movements in the Middle East and North Africa..." In fact, says Moghissi, Islamic women in the Middle East may not consider "feminist ideas" as applicable in their homelands.

Questions are raised of religious or secular control in areas of human rights and family law, and the application of the Q'uran and its interpretations.

Comments by Edna Toth

Ahmed discusses family and women's talk in her home, conversations that pass as idle gossip, but which Ahmed understands as women's aural/oral tradition of applying and regenerating the teachings of the Quran, different from men's visits to mosques, the preaching of ayatollahs, and the study of classical Arabic (a "dead" language like Latin) which is pursued and translated only by men. The method of teaching about Islam is thus totally different for men and for women and the understanding that women have of Islam is also not fundamentalist. (Ch. 5)

Also worth a look, if you haven't time to read the entire book (307 pages) are Ch. 8, covering Ahmed's years at Girton women's college in Cambridge, U-K, which she describes as a harem of older women presiding over the young, similar to her childhood in Cairo. But different in that Cairo dealt with "real people's actual words and real people's characters, motives and intentions ... real people whose lives might well be profoundly affected as a result of the burden of their talk..." and Girton dealt in "fictional people, people in books and novels and plays, whose words and actions and motives and moral characters we analyzed endlessly..." (191). Ahmed also notes the flaw in the oral/aural tradition when it does not lead to change in the way women's lives are governed by men. An aunt commits suicide as the only escape from a bad marriage when her family will not permit her to divorce.

Ahmed continues: "The women of Girton no longer practiced ... in the age-old, traditional manner that women in their culture, too, once did -- orally and to sustain life. They practiced it in the manner and tradition of men ... in relation to written texts rather than living people, as a profession, and to earn money rather than to sustain life." (192)

Revisiting this theme in a chapter on Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates where she worked for a while, Ahmed notes "the profound gulf between the oral culture of the region ... and the Arabic culture of literacy..." (280). "Oral cultures are the creations of living communities ... their heritage of beliefs, outlook, circumstances... But the Arabic culture of literacy ... whose language nobody, no living community, ordinarily speaks... was not the product of people living their lives creatively and continuously interacting with their environment and heritage."

Other discussions: on being created as an Arab (243 and on); and the connection of this experience with Zionism and Palestine.

Ahmed wonders about feminism in her adopted America: "Betty Friedan ... recommends that the government subsidize university-educated women so that they can hire 'household help' -- of what color, I wonder, and what class in this classless society?... " (182).

Comments by Edna Toth