This book presents a new approach in understanding Islam, as the author tries to discuss the roots of deviations in the understanding of political Islam. For this purpose, he reveals the factors that have led to an incomplete understanding of Islam among the western thinkers, and offers a more realistic image of Islam. Bryan Turner reminds the readers that in recent years understanding Islam has been dominated by political events, and one cannot gain an understanding about the Muslim world through approaches based on insider and outsider knowledge. The main question he proposes in this work is based on comprehending sociology, in other words; can we understand a religion without believing and practicing it? Can we have knowledge about faith? Can people understand those different from themselves? Can outsiders ever understand the world of insiders? Bryan first elaborates the approaches founded on oriental studies in two complementary sections, and then describes Islamophobia to be the outcome of partial views. He makes an attempt to discuss Islamophobia and its factors in great detail. In this line, the purpose of the author in writing the present work is to encourage the western thinkers to approach life in the world of Islam with more intelligence, and impact their prejudice about political Islam. The author challenges prejudiced perceptions about Islam and Islamic communities. Furthermore, by applying Weber’s methodology he questions the outsiders and unsympathetic positions about Islam and Islamophobia, showing that by being empathetic and an insider, one can gain a better understanding about life in the world of Islam.