This interesting volume is edited by two experts of Muslim public sphere in the Middle East, and it is the outcome of two summer workshops held in July 2001 and August 2002 (funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and administered by the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin). The study focuses on the debates about “Public Islam”, intended by the editors as ‘the highly diverse invocations of Islam as ideas and practices that religious scholars, selfascribed religious authorities, secular intellectuals, Sufi orders, mothers, students, workers, engineers, and many others make to civic debate and public life.’ In this “public” capacity, “Islam”, as much as secular ideologies, makes a difference in configuring the politics and social life of large parts of the globe. Religion makes the difference not only as a template for ideas and practices, but also as a way of envisioning alternative political realities and, increasingly, in acting on both global and local stages, thus reconfiguring the established boundaries of civil and social life (p. xii).