Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought (Book Review‪)‬

Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought. By MICHAEL COOK. Cambridge: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2000. Pp. xvii + 702. $85.00. As I write this review newspapers are reporting that "vigilante groups" are bursting into Tehran dormitories and homes searching for VCRs and satellite-TV receivers to smash, attacking couples holding hands in the street, and burning down movie theatres. They are storming into restaurants in search of women wearing their scarves too loosely. According to such reports, the command to enforce Islamic social values is fiercely enacted by these groups who seem to have no doubts about the answer to the question, "Am I my brother's keeper?"