Islam, Muslims and America

About the Book

Written in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, this book by Arshad Khan sets out to do something that was urgently needed but rarely attempted at the time: explain, in plain terms, why so many Muslims around the world feel alienated from America, and why Americans struggle to understand that frustration. Khan draws on a broad sweep of Islamic history, from the religion's origins under Muhammad and its Golden Age under the Abbasid Dynasty, through the Crusades, the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and the colonial era, to show that Muslim grievances did not begin on 9/11.

The book walks through pivotal modern flashpoints — the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine conflict, the CIA-backed overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mossadegh, four Arab-Israeli wars, the Gulf War, and the Bosnia massacres — and explains how Muslims interpret these events as evidence of Western double standards and a pro-Israel bias. Khan is careful to separate genuine political grievances from extremist ideology, arguing that the 9/11 attacks were a hijacking of Islam rather than an expression of it.

Crucially, Khan does not let the Muslim world off the hook either. He challenges the myth of Islamic unity, critiques Muslim leaders who dodge accountability, and calls out the retreat into seventh-century thinking as a dead end. His argument is that lasting change requires honest engagement from both sides — governments, religious organizations, and ordinary citizens alike. For anyone trying to make sense of Muslim-Western relations, this is a grounded and even-handed starting point.