Scholar of Islam Thomas Bauer challenges both Islamophobes and Muslim fundamentalists who advocate a conservative, intolerant image of this religion. The task of this book is to reveal the culture of ambiguity, openness to new meanings that is inherent in Islam, as opposed to the approach that is characteristic of modern discussions about the religion of Muslims. Opponents of Islam, reformists, fundamentalists, all argue about the true essence of Islam, the exact meaning of the Koran, they do not see the space in which different points of view can coexist. Thomas Bauer shows that such an unambiguous approach to religion was perceived by Muslims in the West, and in classical Islam a tolerance for alternative views was developed.