Status: read in Czech

During the last a few years, Islam has become, from being a distant and exotic, a subject of discussion by experts and columnists and even a national issue indeed. Discussions about Muslims often represent only part of broader clashes, without whose media and political overlaps we can hardly imagine current events. Today, over and above this great personal issue, the urgency and not infrequent escalation of it attracts the attention of a large part of our fellow citizens.

The book Shadows of minarets: Islam and Muslims, as objects of Czech public polemics by editors Ondřej Beránek and Bronislav Ostřanský, scientific staff of the Oriental Institute of the AV ČR, wants to give some testimony of the times, while offering readers a series of inspiring reflections on key areas of conflict and misdirection here with regard to Islam. It presents the reflections of twenty-two figures (academics, journalists, politicians, Muslims and non-Muslims, among others) on the issues that, in practice, generate the most frequent disagreements, attempting an inspirational insight into this turbulent and ambiguous issue.

Rating: Quite an interesting book bringing together many, sometimes contradictory, views in one place. I would select at least three reflections as excellently written describing current and acute xenophobia in the Czech Republic around 2015. It is interesting how society has moved on this topic in five or six years (2021).