"It is difficult to generalize about Islam. To begin with, the word itself is commonly used with two related but distinct meanings, as the equivalents both of Christianity, and Christendom. In the one sense, it denotes a religion, as system of beliefs and worship; in the other, the civilization that grew up and flourished under the aegis of that religion. The word Islam thus denotes more than fourteen centuries of history, a billion and a third people, and a religious and cultural tradition of enormous diversity."

You may also like:

• 

  Daniel Pipes
  Historian

• 

  Edward Said
  Professor

• 

  Fouad Ajami
  University Professor

• 

  Francis Fukuyama
  Political scientist

• 

  Noam Chomsky
  Linguist

• 

  Samuel P. Huntington
  Political scientist

• 

  Tariq Ramadan
  Writer

• 

  Christopher Caldwell
  Journalist

• 

  Gilles Kepel