{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.024929178470254956, 'fraction_numerical': 0.006798866855524079, 'mean_word_length': 5.089655172413793, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Book Review: Revolutionaries and Reformers: Contemporary Islamic Movements in the Middle East

September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, the authors present the beliefs and practices of Islam. Their perspective is one-sided. Even though they acknowledge that Muhammad improved the conditions of women in his own day, they cite a passage in the Qur'an in which Muhammad advocated wife beating. They conclude that Islam is inadequate in terms of the twenty-first century in relation to the treatment of women (56-57). Similarly, they view militant Islam as normative. Followers of Muhammad in a world searching for peace are following the life of a warrior who brings about bloodshed (64). Faced with "an insider's look at Muslim life and beliefs," a reader can hardly be expected to understand, after reading this harsh presentation ofIslam, that many women find the attitudes of some contemporary Christians toward women no less problematic than the authors' views of Muhammad's treatment of his wives. Similarly, many leading Muslims condemn terrorism done in the name of Allah, just as many leading Christians condemn terrorism done in the name of Jesus. The greatest strength of the book is the authors' fair presentation of factors Christians must consider in dialogue with Muslims, including the specifically Muslim understandings of God, Jesus, and the Bible. The authors correctly identify cultural hurdles and historical potholes Christians must maneuver when they seek to witness to Muslims. Nevertheless, I would not recommend this book to anyone seeking to lift the veil from unfamiliar beliefs, customs, or practices, or to move beyond the culture war by which Islam supplanted Communism as chief enemy to the West and to Christianity.