Muslim Cultures Today: A Reference Guide [Hardcover]

There is strong demand for current, accurate, and objective information about Islamic societies and Muslims around the world. This is the first survey for a general audience of key current topics in 16 countries with significant Muslim populations. Each chapter covering a country contains the following narrative elements: Overview (statistics, demographics of followers, brief history of their life there); Political Impact; Women's Status; Special Issues in the News; Notable People (biographical profiles); and Resource Guide, with Suggested Reading, Films/Videos, Websites, and Organizations. The content ties in to World History standards to help analyze connections between globalizing trends in culture in the late 20th century and dynamic assertions of traditional cultural identity and distinctiveness, as well as to the Global Connections part of Social Studies standards.

This will be essential reading for those desiring a one-volume resource about hot spots in the news today. Countries profiled include Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia and Herzogovina, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. Photos and maps help to put the narrative in perspective.

Kathryn M. Coughlinis president of Global Research and Analysis, a nonprofit organization dedicated to research and analysis on the broader Islamic world and to projects that promote social justice in the developing world's transition to market economies and global integration. She has taught, lectured, and given papers on a wide range of subjects including religion and gender, Islamic law, religion and modernity, and U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East.

Similar in substance to Islam in World Cultures, ed. by R. Michael Feener (CH, Apr'05, 42-4397), this work covers several different nations and has a useful standardized reference format. The essays feature a diverse collection of 16 contemporary Muslim majority and minoril£U