This work has ventured to fill a vast gap in contemporary Islamic political thought. By relating relevant basic and secondary sources to contemporary contexts in different countries, it has attempted to determine the extent of harmony and discord between Islamic political theory and current praxis. Being the first English-language publication on this subject inevitably raises the expectations about its scholarly merit. The first paragraph of the introduction highlights the anomalous consequences of democratization in the Muslim world: reconciliation in some and heightened adversity in others. In principle, democracy can be reconciled with Islamic political thought. The editor then gives an historical outline of misconceptions toward the role of democracy in Islamic politics, which began with the Crusades and were reaffirmed during the Iranian revolution of 1979. Turning to the twentieth century, revivalism, which often has explicit political motivations, could be easily traced to the collapse of the Islamic caliphate. It has always welcomed ...