Manzoor Hussain, an American Muslim, looks over the present landscape of the United States and sees his fellow Americans laboring under many misconceptions about Islam, what he calls the most misunderstood religion in the West. His response is to delineate Islam from its inception through its extraordinarily rich history, making transparent the religion's most seemingly opaque foundations. Hussain discusses Islam's wealth of achievements in subjects as far ranging as mathematics, astronomy, law, chemistry, physics, medicine, and philosophy, thereby showing how, at heart, we are all striving always to demonstrate the ways we want and value the same things. Scholarly in its clarity and thoroughness, Islam: An Essential Understanding for Fellow Americans does not shirk from tackling the thorniest issues of the day. Islam was not spread by the sword, Muslims are not anti-West, terrorism is not taught or condoned by Islam, the wave of Islamophobia in America--all these issues receive sober and thoughtful attention.

Islam: An Essential Understanding for Fellow Americans articulately and convincingly makes the case for Islam, as a religion, a way of life, a family system, a force for social justice, a code of conduct and potentially a healing force in the world.