Invitation to World Religions

Contents xvii

The Umayyads and the Abbasids 530 Later Islamic Empires: The Ottomans, the Mughals, and the Safavids 531 Islam and Nationalism 532 Islamic Reform Movements 534 Varieties of Islam: The Sunni and the Shi‘a 538 Muslims in North America 540 Islam and Political Conflict in the World Today 542 Islam and Social Justice 543 GLOBAL SNAPSHOT: Muslims in the West 545 VOICES: An Interview with Dola K. and Taslima S. 546 The Qur’an in Daily Life 548 What Is Jihad? 549 The Islamic Year and Holidays 550 The Shari‘a: Islamic Law 551 Sufism 552

ISLAM AS A WAY OF LIFE 546

Marriage and Family 556 Gender and Sexuality 558 Islam and the Natural Environment 561 ISLAM IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 563 CONCLUSION 564 14 New Religious Movements 569

WHAT IS “NEW” ABOUT NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS? 570 Modernization, Globalization, and Secularization 571 Theoretical Models and Social Typologies 573 ALTERNATIVE CHRISTIANITIES AND THEIR OFFSHOOTS 575 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 575 GLOBAL SNAPSHOT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Africa 578 Christian Science and New Thought 578 Adventism 580 Jehovah’s Witnesses 582 The Family (Children of God) 583 The Unification Church 584 Rastafarianism 585 THE REDISCOVERY OF EASTERN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 587 The Theosophical Society 587 ISKCON: The International Society for Krishna Consciousness 588 Transcendental Meditation 589 Falun Gong 590 PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS