Mullahs on the Mainframe

My reading has surely taken a backseat lately but recently I read a book generously loaned by a friend titled 'Mullahs on the Mainframe'. It is a brilliant study by a young American social scientist who delves into the world of Daudi Bohras, a unique Muslim denomination in India whose religious beliefs and practices are largely compatible with modern ideology. It is a resounding example of how a community can live in peaceful co-existence while practicing orthodox religious practices and still maintaining liberal political and secular views and modernization of tradition. The book starts out with the historical background around the roots of the faith and then delves into day to day rituals of a Daudi Bohra life, religious festivals and their code of celebration, insight into domestic life, status of the religious leaders and royals and ultimately maintenance of spiritual and political hegemony. The study is a wonderful introduction of a peace-loving modernistic Islamic community that is often confused with the values of their more aggressive and violent counter-parts in the middle-east. We are used to living in our little cocoon of comfort constantly soaking in information as they are broadcast by the news channels and thereby creating a rather faulty image of certain people or groups of people, and until you read a book like this that completely dispels all your preconceived notions and broadens your mind to wonders and varieties of outside world.