Three Book Reviews

 

The assignment is to read and critically review the assigned books for the course, Edward Said’s Covering Islam, Farid Esack’s On Being a Muslim, and Amina Wadud’s Qur’an and Woman. You are required to read and review all three books in their entirety.

 

Maximum length: 1,000 words for each review (roughly 3 typed double-spaced pages)

 

Due Dates:

Monday, February 2 (Covering Islam)

Friday, March 5 (Qur’an and Woman)

Friday, April 9 (On Being a Muslim)

 

The reviews need to be submitted during class. Late papers will NOT be accepted.

 

Guidelines:

You should spend no more than the first page of your review summarizing the contents of the book. In this section, you could discuss what the author talks about, and what she/he does not discuss. As an example, what elements in the book are treated with priority and privilege? What is required in this section is more than just a simple synopsis of the book. Instead, you should give an accurate and balanced description of the book's relevant content.

The next section of the report should consist of your critical reflections on the book. What are its strengths? What are its weaknesses? Again, as an example, you might discuss the language that the author uses, and what this has to say about inclusivity, or her/his understanding of the role(s) of women, children and men. Remember that this review should be a contribution to scholarly discussion and, therefore, be free of purely personal polemic. In this section, you may also wish to examine the theoretical framework used by the respective author, and how that framework leads to the work that she/he has written.

Finally, you should have a conclusion in which you discuss the impact of the book for the academic study of Islam in particular, and religion in general. This conclusion could take any number of directions. For example, you might wish to discuss what the author presumes about the nature and contemporary function of religion.