Controversies in Contemporary Islam

The title of the book suggests an overview of various Muslim and non-Muslim viewpoints regarding controversial topics. This is not what the book actually is. Much of it consists of Leaman's own opinions on these topics and his interpretations of Islamic scriptures. Even where one can guess from the context that Leaman is summarizing Muslim perspectives rather than his own view, the linguistic form of his presentation often makes it unclear which Islamic current held or holds the perspective he is describing. On the positive side, this approach lets him cover many topics in a short book using a conversational style of writing. On the negative side, the reader won't get much out of this book besides a sampling of opinions without a clear understanding of their significance in the real world. Even more problematically, Leaman's focus on his own reading of the Quran at times seems to hearken back to an essentialist methodology pursued by earlier of generations of Orientalists, according to which an understanding of Islam can be obtained by a careful reading of Islamic scriptures, instead of examining the spectrum of actual Muslim viewpoints, as modern scholars generally try to do. I'm adding an extra star for the sections that deal with philosophy. This is Leaman's area of expertise, and his treatment of it doesn't suffer from the same problems.