A Concise Encyclopedia Of Islam
I suppose if a single individual sets out to write an encyclopedia, it had better be “concise.” Gordon D. Newby’s book is pretty trim. One of the things I’ve noticed about such books, or rather felt about them (this is just my opinion), is that they give too little information to help the otherwise uninformed person gain a complete (not exhaustive, but whole) perspective, while the person who is more knowledgeable can only see the entries as tantalizing hints of what there is to know. The one review to be found on Amazon.com is, I think, mostly accu

Islam: Empire OF Faith
This 2000 AD (1420 A.H.!) PBS Home Video is narrated by Gandhi/Ben Kingsley. It is about as benign a production as one could imagine. Some have found it “fair” others claim it is “biased.” Mostly I found it beautifully filmed by fairly uninformative for its 2 hours and forty minutes. For one thing, watching it in 2000 would give no indication of the remotest possibility of the events of 2001. It was largely funded by Iran; one sees little Saudi influence in it. PBS still has a website for it. Posted in Islam Tagged: DVDs, Iran, PBS

Revolution Number 5
In this chapter Khomeini quotes his Imam Ali as declaring that the leaders of the Jews and the Christians do not speak against or avoid wickedness, and that their handiwork is evil. This is to be a lesson for the Muslim leaders, who must avoid doing the same thing. The idea is that if the merchant breaks Allah’s law there is nowhere near as much harm as a result than when the ruler of people does the same thing. In a sense, Islam is not so “grassroots.” If the government is in order, then the others will naturally fall in line or be disciplined by that ordered government. Posted in Islam Tagged: clergy, Islamic state, Khomeini, rulers, sermons

Revolution Number 4
The fourth sermon is, “The So-Called Scholars are the Tools of the Wickeds [sic]. Disunity is the Main Cause of Disgrace of Muslims.” For the outsider, it is important to know that these scholars are not merely academics generally, but the specific scholars of Islam whose hierarchy leads up to the title of “Ayatollah.” It is the ayatollah’s and those aspiring to be one who are failing, in Khomeini’s eyes. These are thought to aid and abet the “designs” of the westerners against the very thing that they were meant to protect. There are a number of interesting passages in this chapter, including, “If, somehow, the gove

Revolution Number Two And Three
In the chapter, “The Nature of the Islamic State and the Qualifications of the Head of State,” in “Khomeini Speaks Revolution,” the Ayatollah writes, “…Law is the real sovereign of the human society” and “…Islam is the name of the Law which is incumbent upon the whole [sic] mankind to follow.” The next chapter, “The Main Aim of Islam is to Create Just [sic} and Welfare State.” Aside from that sounding like the program of certain western political parties, this chapter begins with a focus on how the scholars of Islam, which should be “forts” defending Islam, are instead of defending it at home re