The author’s thesis “Crisis of Modern Islam” is taken in new directions in this book. He provides a critique of Islam as a cultural system, arguing that cultural patterns within Islam – especially in the areas of law, language and education – retard its capacity to accommodate rapid social change. Exploring the links between culture and religion, Tibi perceives the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism as a defensive cultural response to structural changes in the global political and economic order. He contends that before Islamic countries can participate on an equal footing with Western industrialized countries, Islam must be de-politicized and must accept the concepts of intellectual pluralism and secularism.