Since South-East Asia was the world's fastest-growing region throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s, it was particularly susceptible to an Islamicrenaissance.
The book romps through history at a terrific rate: from ancient Greece through the Islamic empire of the 13th century, 15th-century China and Renaissance Europe to 20th-century America.
Although political Islam has largely been barred from politics, the Islamist renaissance has prompted governments to take seriously their role as guardians of Islamic practice.