Description
Book SynopsisOver 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.
Trade ReviewAn outstanding and timely, original and highly focused analysis of the theories and prospects of an Islamic Reformation — a refreshing, intimate, well-informed and insightful account of the most significant current debates among Muslims everywhere. -- Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, Emory University School of Law
Table of ContentsPart 1 Introduction: Comparing Reformations Chapter 2 Who Speaks for Islam? Inside the Islamic Reformation Chapter 3 Islam and PoliticalSinn: The Hermeneutics of Contemporary Islamic Reformists Chapter 3 Changes in Modern Islamic Legal Theory: Reform or Reformation Chapter 5 Critics Within: Islamic Scholars' Protests against the Islamic State in Iran Chapter 5 The Politics of Historical Revisionism: New Re-readings of the Early Islamic Period Chapter 6 In Search of the Counter-Reformation: Anti-Sufi Stereotypes and the Budshishiyya's Response Chapter 7 Primitivism as a Radical Response to Religious Crisis: The Anabaptists of Münster in the 1530s and the Taliban of Afghanistan in the 1990s Chapter 8 Islamic Fundamentalism and the Trauma of Modernization: Reflections on Religion and Radical Politics Chapter 10 Conclusion: An Islamic Reformation? Some Afterthoughts
