An Islamic Reformation?Michaelle Browers, Charles Kurzman Over the last two decades we have seen a vast number of books published in the West that treat Islamic fundamentalism as a rising threat to the western values of secularism and democracy. In the last decade scholars began proclaiming an existent or emerging "clash" between East and West, Islam and Christianity, or in the case of Benjamin R. Barber, "Jihad and "McWorld." More recently, some western scholars have offered another interpretation. Focusing on the work of contemporary Muslim intellectuals, these scholars have begun to argue that what we are witnessing, in Islamic contexts, is tantamount to a Reformation. An Islamic Reformation attempts to evaluate this claim through the work of emerging and top scholars in the fields of political science, philosophy, anthropology, religion, history and Middle Eastern studies. The overall goal of this volume is to question the impact of various reformist trends throughout the Middle East. Are we witnessing a growth in fundamentalism or the emergence of an Islamic Reformation? What does religious practice in this region reflect? What is the usefulness of approaching these questions through Christian/Islamic and West/East dichotomies? Unique in its focus and scope, An Islamic Reformation represents an emerging vanguard in the discussion of Islamic religious heritage and practice and its effect on world politics. |
Contents
Who Speaks for Islam? Inside the Islamic Reformation | 18 |
Changes in Modern Islamic Legal Theory Reform or Reformation? | 28 |
Islam and Political Sinn The Hermeneutics of Contemporary Islamic Reformists | 54 |
Critics Within Islamic Scholars Protests against the Islamic State in Iran1 Charles Kurzman | 79 |
The Politics of Historical Revisionism New ReReadings of the Early Islamic Period | 101 |
In Search of a CounterReformation AntiSufi Stereotypes and the Budshishiyyas Response | 125 |
Primitivism as a Radical Response to Religious Crisis The Anabaptists of Minister in the 1530s and the Taliban of Afghanistan in the 1990s Ernest Tu... | 147 |
Islamic Fundamentalism and the Trauma of Modernization Reflections on Religion and Radical Politics | 159 |
An Islamic Reformation? Some Afterthoughts | 178 |
Selected Bibliography | 185 |
Index | 199 |
| 206 | |
Common terms and phrases
Abd al-Karim Abdolkarim Soroush Abduh Abu Zayd Ahmad al-Din al-Kitab Anabaptists analogy anti-Sufi argued Arkoun Budshishi Budshishiyya Cairo Cambridge University Press Charles Kurzman Christian civilization concept Contemporary Islam context counter-reformation critical cultural debate Democracy divine early Egypt Egyptian Eickelman elite emergence established Europe European Reformation Guénon Hamza Hanafi hermeneutical History of Islamic human ijma ijtihad intellectual interpretation Iran Iranian Islamic fundamentalism Islamic law Islamic legal theory Islamic Reformation Islamic Republic Islamic world Islamist Journal jurist-ruler jurists Kadivar liberal Luther Mahmud maslaha modern Moroccan Morocco movements Muhammad Shahrour Münsterites Muslim societies Muslim world nineteenth century Oxford University Press period pluralism political Prophet Protestant Reformation Puritanism Qimni Qur'an Quraysh radical Rashid Rida reformist religion religious authority religious scholars religious texts revisionist Revolution Saints secular seminary shari'a Shaykh social Soroush Sufi Sufism Taliban taqlid thinkers thought traditional transformation twentieth century ulama Ulema Walzer Western writings York Zayd's
Popular passages
Page 16 - Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).
Page 13 - Norman Daniel, Islam and the West: the Making of an Image (Edinburgh...
Page 4 - ... thenceforth free and independent, it seems to advance rapidly on the road of progress and science, whereas Muslim society has not yet freed itself from the tutelage of religion. Realizing, however, that the Christian religion preceded the Muslim religion in the world by many centuries, I cannot keep from hoping that Muhammadan society will succeed someday in breaking its bonds and marching resolutely in the path of civilization after the manner of Western society, for which the Christian faith,...