What follows, and here I take my cue from Crone and Cook's caveat, is quite unabashedly a book written by an infidel, both religiously and academically, for those that I hope will be convinced of the merits of infidelity. My premise, initially stated in the baldest and most general terms, is that the regnant discourses both developed and borrowed by the academic study of Islam have largely proven to be ineffective and outmoded when it comes to explaining Islamic data. Although the academic study of Islam, in the aftermath of 9/11, is currently one of the most sought-after areas of expertise in universities and colleges throughout North America, the failure of nerve on the part of Islamicists to engage seriously reductionist and social-scientific approaches to the study of religion, their unwillingness to move beyond the safety of understanding to the messiness of explanation, has brought us to a critical crossroads.