Favorite color pink, sex tips from ancient texts: No Muslim scholar challenges more stereotypes than Ali Ghandour. Nabila Abdel Aziz, NEON. Veiled women, aggressive young men: The relationship between Muslims and the opposite sex is puzzling. Has something gone wrong? Absolutely! Ali Ghandour shows that love and sex in the Muslim tradition are enjoyed as a gift from God, yet have been strictly regulated under modern Western influence. It is high time to shed light on the suppressed erotic heritage of Muslims. Three ascetics wanted to do something commendable: the first to pray every night, the second to fast during the day, and the third not to marry. When the Prophet Muhammad heard about this, he admonished them: "Sometimes I pray, and sometimes I sleep, and I marry women. This is my way of life. Whoever rejects it does not belong to me." In line with the Prophet's teachings, for pre-modern Muslim scholars, desire was part of nature that must be fulfilled. Especially in cities, one could maintain "pleasure relationships." However, with colonialism, Western ideals of marriage and prudishness were increasingly imposed on Muslim countries. What appears to us today as "typically Islamic" is partly the legacy of clan societies and partly a reflection of puritanical morality. Ali Ghandour brings the rich Muslim heritage of love and sex back into consciousness. His groundbreaking book should provoke thought not only among bearded Islamists and grim Islam critics.