Political Islam, World Politics and Europe: Democratic Peace and Euro‐Islam versus Global Jihad

One idea that stretches throughout this book and was mentioned in the opening sentence is that, among the many political systems that died and were never resurrected, only democracy and the Islamic state are living their rebirths. This would, on first glance, have a positive sense, but throughout the book there is an evident tendency to superimpose democracy as a yardstick. Here we might ask: who sets that standard? If only democracy and the Islamic state are reemerging, does that not mean that democracy might have a contesting partner? One can immediately notice a vast space for argument here. Indeed, answering such, and many similar questions, would have taken away from the main theme of the book, which could more precisely be stated as ‘How will the reemerging Islamic state differ from its predecessor?’ This explains the author’s choice on not wanting to dilute the text with too much digression, and most certainly that precise conciseness is what keeps the book together. Also to his credit, the author has managed to skillfully present an enormous account of the historical development of Islamic law. Good knowledge and understanding of the ‘how-it-works’ of the Islamic legal system and its bearers is shown in this text. What is more important, the reader will not, in this summary that Feldman has written, be overwhelmed by a vast amount of historical references and footnotes. Although Feldman’s language in this book is approachable by any reader, his target audience is probably academicians of the social sciences. To the end, this book might be recommended to anyone interested in gaining a good understanding of the legal system in the Islamic state, but does not want to swim through a vast sea of historical documents. This book proves that not all legal analyses have to be monotonous and lengthy.