Margins of Islam

Like probably a lot of people, I assumed that most Muslims had pretty much the same religious culture—even though at some level I knew that couldn’t be true. After all there are Shiites and Sunis, and there are obviously some differences or there wouldn’t be two different groups. 

                I’m familiar with different denominations in Christianity, so I think I must have at least suspected that within Islam there were probably  the same types of different interpretations. I have long been interested in missions, and have actually worked with Muslim converts in the past, so the title Margins of Islam: Ministry in Diverse Muslim Contexts (Gene Daniels and Warrick Farah, editors, William Carey Publishers, 2018) was especially intriguing.

                The reader is asked to ponder who it is that represents Islam, and how Muslims shape and use Islam. And then a number of different writers and missiologists describe Islam in various parts of the world, and how the different cultures influence how Islam is practiced in that particular part of the world.

                The final chapters talk about what we can learn from the ‘Margins’ as discussed in the preceding chapters, and how we can apply it in the context of contemporary missions.  

This book was a real eye-opener for me, and I highly recommend it for anyone who dares go beyond the stereotype of Islam—that is anyone interested in a more comprehensive view of the people who practice the religion

5/5