Can we understand a religion without believing and practising it? Can we have knowledge about faith? Can people understand those different from themselves? Can outsiders ever understand the world of insiders? Examining different positions of knowledge - insider and outsider - Bryan S. Turner explores what understanding Islam entails. He argues that understanding Islam has in recent years been dominated by political events - the Iran Hostage crisis, the fall of the Iranian Shah, 9/11, Afghanistan and the foreign policy of Donald Trump - leading to western intellectuals and public figures, many of whom know nothing about Islam, suddenly becoming experts. Turner asks how they, or how anyone, can have the authority to speak on this subject. He brilliantly elucidates the questions and problems involved in the challenge of understanding - as opposed to explaining - religion. Bryan S. Turner is Professor of Sociology at Australian Catholic University. He is one of the world's leading sociologists of religion and has written, co-authored or edited more than 70 books in the field.