Viewing Islam

The volume of works published about Islam has greatly multiplied since the terrorist attacks on US targets in September 2001. At first view there may appear to be an over-abundance of such studies, with the vast number of such works representing dramatically different points on an ideological spectrum.Scholarly red linesNevertheless, there are gaps in this vast literature. In the latter years of the first decade of the 21st century, major academic publishers have been increasingly reluctant to publish works that present critical views of Islam as core arguments. The more common output from academic publishers are the kinds of works that, while extremely valuable in many ways, tread very carefully in their portrayal of core dogmas of Islam, especially relating to scripture and prophet.