Book Reviews 121 

Between Jihad and Salaam: Profiles in Islam 

Joyce M Davis. 

New York: St. Martin's Press, Inc., 1999. 339 pages. 

Today, politicians and political activists of every stripe recognize the power 
of the international media. From the most gilded generalissimo to the grulr 
biest guerrilla, there are few who would pass up a chance to plead their case 
on the world stage. This has given foreign correspondents, particularly 

those from first world countries like the United States, easy access to 
movers and shakers across the globe. Unfortunately, understanding does 
not always come with access. 

Nowhere has this lack of understanding been more pervasive- or more 

pernicious - than among those reporters covering the Islamic world. Joyce 
M. Davis, deputy foreign editor for Knight Ridder newspapers and former
deputy senior editor at National Public Radio, sets out to remedy this prolr
lem in her book, Between Jihad and Salaam: Profiles in Islam. Through

interviews with 17 "Islamic leaders," Davis endeavors "to help us under­
stand the intellectual vitality that is now igniting the Muslim world."
However, like too many of her colleagues, the author quickly becomes lost
in the surface realities of that world. In the end, her book does little to chal­

lenge the stereotypes and misconceptions she promises to shatter.
Davis begins the book with an introduction that outlines her mission 

while revealing the limits of her own understanding. While she deftly dis­
pels some of the more blatant misunderstandings about Islam, she also 

throws around technical terms like "lslamists" and "scholars" without 







124 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 19:1 

There seems to be a relationship between the incidence of religiously 

motivated violence against the state and the participation of Islamic 

groups in the political process. It is evident that in those countries where 

there is at least the semblance of a democratic system in which lslamists 

are allowed to participate, there are far fewer incidents of religiously 

motivated violence than in those countries where religious parties are 

banned. 

This is an observation that many countries, including the United States, 
would do well to ponder. In the final analysis, it is Davis' claim that her 

book contains a representative cross-section of contemporary Muslim 

thought that is its biggest shortcoming. However, while the repetitiveness 
of the responses obviates the need to study the book as a whole, individual 

interviews -placed in their proper context -would be a valuable addition 

to any reader on political Islam. 

Jamaluddin Hoffman 

Freelance Writer 
Hercules, California