What Everyone Needs To Know About Islam Summary

“What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam”

By: John L. Esposito

What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam is an informative book by John L. Esposito. It is a great introduction to Islam. With terrorist attacks constantly talked in mainstream media, Islam gets a bad reputation. Many people perceived Islam as a violent religion and misunderstand Muslim beliefs. As with any other religion, culture, or society, there is always a diversity of different types of people despite belonging to the same group. For somebody like myself who knows very little about Islam but wants more information regarding this religion, this is a perfect book to start with. Esposito wrote this book in a question and answer format. He stated he intentionally wrote the

On this part of the book he talked about what is the Islamic law and his answer is direct. According to him, “Islam means submission to the will of God.” Most other religions and countries, there is a law that separates the state and church. However, in Islam, laws are based on making sure they are following what is written in the Quran. As mentioned earlier, Islam is a patriarchal society. This means that even though men are women have equal in the eyes of God, they have different primary roles. This might seem sexist to the new generation Westerners but the roles they (Muslim) portray are very similar to the western gender roles few generations ago. Men’s primary role is to protect and support the family while women’s primary role is making sure the household is running smoothly. Additionally, it is a woman’s role to ensure the children are religiously educated. In the eyes of society, women seem to have lesser power because of their primary role. I have wondered if divorce was allowed in Islam and Esposito talked about this topic in his book. According to him, divorce is permissible. However, it is important to understand that a woman cannot initiate divorce. Only men can initiate divorce proceedings, which is a contradiction to equality. Muslims are more evident now than they ever been in the West. In America, according to Esposito, there are about four to six million Muslims. Some estimates state that there are up to twelve million Muslims in the United States. Islam is the third largest religion in America after Christianity and Judaism. It is thought that the Islamic religion is soon to be the second largest religion in the united states, surpassing Judaism. This shows just how relevant the Islamic religion is in the