By John L. Esposito Due to recent events (the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, September, 11), I decided that I should stop listening to what people in the media say about Islam and find out for myself what Islam stands for. In John L. Esposito's Islam: The Straight Path I found a fairly easy to read and informative guide to understanding the world's second largest religion. Mr. Esposito divides his book into three parts: The first consists of the early history of the Muslim community, the second part reports on Islamic beliefs and practices, and the third part deals with modern issues with Islam.
I love history, so the first section dealing with the history of Islam was quite interesting. Esposito begins with