Berkley Center

In this book Jocelyne Cesari uses the question "Are Muslims threatening the core values of the West?" to inspire an unprecedented exploration of Muslims' religious and political life, based on several years of field work and resulting in first-hand testimonies of Muslims in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Through a methodic investigation, she explains that burqa, hijab, and minarets are threatening because Islam has become the external and internal Enemy of the West, especially since 9/11. Her book explains how Islam in the West has been connected to the War on Terror, how the presence of Islam in secular spaces has triggered a western politics of fear, exacerbated by the prominence of some intolerant Islamic interpretations of women, sexual minorities and non believers. The book's interdisciplinary scope provides unique insights into the reality of Muslims in Europe and in the USA and unveils how western liberalism and secularism have been deeply transformed since 9/11.