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Islam in America . By Jane I. Smith. New York: Columbia University Press1999. Pp. xvi, 251. Price not available. ISBN: 0-231-10966-0.

During recent years several videos, books and numerous articles have appeared on the subject, Islam in America. Jane Smith's book is a welcome addition to this growing genre. She brings to the task a wealth of knowledge, scholarship and long experience of working with and befriending the Muslim communities. The book does little to provide clear answers to hard questions Christians and others often raise about Islam and Muslims. So it will not please people whose primary interest is to exaggerate often exaggerated headlines. Instead, the author lifts up for our consideration questions Muslims themselves are taking and issues with which they are struggling. In this way, she moves beyond headlines into the heartlines. Indeed, the strength of Smith's book is her ability to make the reader feel as though he or she is actually in the presence of Muslims, listening and conversing with them about a wide range of human interest stories. And the Muslims introduced represent a rather broad spectrum of opinion, leaving the impression that Islam in America is richly diversified and in some ways even fractured. She does this in a style that is interesting, informative and engaging. Once you start with the book, you want to continue. Her opening paragraph, for example, quotes a convert to Islam whose father is Jewish and whose Mother is Christian: