Jonathan Lyons, author of Islam Through Western Eyes takes the Page 99 Test

This week our featured book will be Islam Through Western Eyes: From the Crusades to the War on Terrorism, by Jonathan Lyons. In conjunction with the publication of his book, Lyons took The Page 99 Test in which he read page 99 from his book and explains how it fits in with the larger arguments and narrative from his book.

As Jonathan Lyons explains, in page 99 he examines the West’s failure to take seriously the accomplishments in philosophy and science from the Muslim world. This, he argues, has been one of the West’s most persistent and ultimately damaging misunderstandings about the Muslim world. The other two relate to Islam and women and Islam and violence.

Jonathan Lyons writes

The Western narrative of Islam and science, like those of Islam and women and Islam and violence, is part of a 1000-year-old discourse that shapes what we say – and more importantly, what we cannot say – about Islam and the Muslims. This, in turn, has left us intellectually unprepared and politically unable to respond to some of the most significant challenges of the twenty-first century: the global rise of Islamic political power; the more narrow emergence of religious violence and terrorism; and clashes between established cultural values and multicultural rights on the part of growing Muslim immigrant populations.