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Book Review
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Extract
Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought.
Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought. By MICHAEL COOK. Cambridge: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2000. Pp. xvii + 702. $85.00.
As I write this review newspapers are reporting that "vigilante groups" are bursting into Tehran dormitories and homes searching for VCRs and satellite-TV receivers to smash, attacking couples holding hands in the street, and burning down movie theatres. They are storming into restaurants in search of women wearing their scarves too loosely. According to such reports, the command to enforce Islamic social values is fiercely enacted by these groups who seem to have no doubts about the answer to the question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The value of Michael Cook's book is to put these kinds of actions into their historical, social, and legal perspective. The manner in which Cook has accomplished this will leave his readers in awe of not only the scope and depth of his research and understanding but also the eloquence, precision, and detail with which the results are presented. At seven hundred pages, t...See the full content of this document
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