This is a scholarly compelling, normatively considerate, and thought-provoking book. Not only does Daniel Philpott seek to address the obvious yet extremely complex empirical reality—the lack of religious freedom in the Muslim world—but also he offers explicit and innovative solutions for establishing such freedoms that policymakers and religious communities, both Muslim and non-Muslim, would find useful.

The central question that Philpott takes up in Religious Freedom in Islam is relatively simple at first glance. Why are a vast majority of Muslim nations worldwide not allowed what Philpott believes to be a universal right for all humankind: religious freedom. Answering this question turns out to be more complicated, however, especially when considered against the backdrop of ideologically polarized public debates between two opposing schools of thought, which the author calls “Islamoskeptics” and “Islamopluralists.” The former school is more cynical about Islam. It generally views Islam as a monolithic and backward religion, acting as the prime source of rampant sectarian and religious violence in the Muslim world. By contrast, the latter school has greater faith in Islam and its theological, intellectual, and institutional capacity to make the necessary adjus