Islam

This book provides an overview and analysis of the recent history of Christian-Muslim dialogue in the United States, and the ways in which it has been furthered and enriched since September 11, 2001. Starting with a brief history of Christian-Muslim relations, the text deals with Islam in America, models of dialogue, problems that can occur in interfaith engagement, pluralism as it is understood by Christians and Muslims, and new avenues for dialogue. The specific examples cited suggest to the reader some of the kinds of cooperative events that are taking place, as well as the variety of thinking on the part of both Christians and Muslims as to what it means to be in dialogue and to take seriously the elements of faith held by the other.

This study of the origin and development of the IbādΔī imāmate ideal into its medieval Arabian and North African articulations traces the distinctive features of the IbādΔī imāma to precedents among the early Khārijites, Rashidūn Caliphs, and pre-Islamic Arabs. Using the four “states of religion” (masālik al-dīn) as an organizing principle for its chapters, the book examines the four associated Imām-types that are appropriate to such states—the Imām al-ZΔuhūr (Imām of Manifestation), Imām al-Difā‘ (Imām of Defense), Imām al-Shārī (the “Seller” Imām) and Imām al-Kitmān (Imām of Secrecy)—and locates each Imām-type within a trajectory of IbādΔī development. Some distinctive features of the IbādΔī imāmate tradition, such as the shārī Imām who selflessly fought for the establishment of the IbādΔī polity, are shown to be rooted in the early Khārijite martyrdom narratives that were appropriated by the IbādΔiyya and later transformed into systematic doctrines. Still others, such as the “weak” Imām who accepted provisional authority under the control of the ‘ulamā’, hearken back to pre-Islamic patterns of limited authority that subsequently found their way into early Islamic political norms. Working from a perspective that challenges the “exceptional” interpretation of Khārijite and IbādΔite doctrine and practice, this study seeks to root much of IbādΔī political theory in the same early traditions of Islamic political practice that later provided legitimacy to Sunnī Muslim political theorists. The result is a historically grounded and complex presentation of the development of political doctrine among the sole remaining relative of the early Khārijites.

This book offers a new translation of a large extract from the book I’lam al Muwaqqi’in ‘An Rabb al ’Alamin, by the thirteenth-century Islamic scholar, Ibn Qayyim al Jawziyya. The I’lam comprises an in-depth discussion of the subject of taqlīd, or legal imitation, and is one of the most comprehensive treatments of Islamic legal theory and serves as a manual for mujtahids and muftis. In this translated portion of the I’lam, Ibn Qayyim first introduces the nature of taqlīd and divides it into several categories. It then provides an account of a debate between a critic of the view that taqlīd of a particular school or a scholar is a religious duty and this critic’s interlocutor. Among the topics discussed are the different kinds of taqlīd, the differences between taqlīd and ittibi’, the infallibility of religious scholars, the grounds on which one legal opinion might be preferred over another, and whether or not laymen can be expected to perform ijtihad. Ibn Qayyim’s legal theory is a formidable reformulation of traditionalist Hanbalism—a legal-theological tradition which has always maintained a distinctive character in Islamic history—and which is now growing more influential due to modern interest in the Wahhabi movement and in Ibn Taymiyya, whose legal and theological thought was best edited and refined by his student, Ibn Qayyim. The introduction to this book critically reviews the scholarship on taqlīd and outlines Ibn Qayyim’s legal theory and the importance of taqlīd within it. Taqlīd continues to generate controversy amongst educated Muslims and particularly academics, as Salafi interpretations of Islam, which are generally “anti-taqlīd,” come into conflict with the generally “pro-taqlīd” stance of traditional schools such as the Hanafis.

This book challenges conventional wisdom by arguing that tectonic movements and subterranean shifts that underscore the gradual politicization of Islam and the rise of an Islamism in political and popular discourse based on conservatism and orthodoxy have long been at work in Malaysia, despite popular media representations of Malaysia as the epitome of moderate, progressive Islamic governance. While the opposition Islamist party is widely regarded as the main Islamist player in the drama, the book suggests that the ruling regime has proven equally strident in its Islamist predilections, at times to the extent that there is little differentiating the two. The net result of this “Islamization race” has been the increasing alienation of Malaysia’s non-Muslim population from mainstream politics that has increasingly come to be defined with decidedly Islamist referents. The book also explores two previously underexplored dimensions of Muslim politics in Malaysia. First, it investigates the role of Islamic civil society movements in negotiating and redefining the parameters of Islamism. This dimension has greater salience today given that Islamic civil society movements and coalitions have located themselves at the forefront of major debates over religious freedoms, civil liberties, constitutional rights, the sanctity of shari’a, and the nature and manifestation of the Islamic state. Second, it investigates Islamism as expressed in “netizen politics.” Both these dynamics underscore the rise of Muslim conservatism in Malaysia in general, and constitute major challenges to our traditional understanding of the nature of politics and political compromise in the country.

Islam is spreading rapidly in sub‐Saharan Africa, home of more than 150 million Muslims. African Islam is local Islam, responsive to local histories in cultures as diverse as the countries considered in this study – Nigeria, Sudan, Senegal, Kenya, and South Africa. Islam provides a source of communal identity to those experiencing rapid change, populations affected by secularization, unemployment, corrupt and ineffectual governments, and the intrusions of global media. The spread of Islam ascends as respect for the state declines. Ironically, the same Muslim believers who rail against Western materialism are keen on adopting the most modern technologies to communicate with members, and to find access to employment and economic opportunities in the West. As for Islamic fundamentalists (Islamists) the danger is that given Africa's porous borders and weak state structures, such groups can move about easily, feeding on popular discontent. Often more political than theological in aspirations, there is no certainty that the Islamist position will advance in Africa. Opposition includes central governments, many of them with Muslims in key positions, and numerous traditional Islamic rulers and brotherhoods, more moderate in outlook. The extent to which imposition of Sharia, traditional Islamic law, is introduced in a country can be a barometer of the extent of Islamic influence. This timely study is based on extensive field research, including oral interviews, the study of contemporary local sources, and historical research by two scholars with long familiarity with the subject.

By way of an analytical and critical study of the life and thought of Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the proscribed Ennahda political party in Tunisia, this book seeks to address the obstacles that hinder democratization in the Arab region.

Inasmuch as democracy is seen as a set of procedures that serve collectively to empower the people to freely elect governments and make them accountable and to make sure that basic human rights and civil liberties, the rule of law and equality before the law, and the rights of minorities are protected, then democracy is fully compatible with the Islamic value of shura.

Islam may have a problem with the philosophical underpinning of liberal democracy because of the notion of secularism.

Despite objections to democracy from certain Islamic circles, the formidable problems facing transition to democracy in the Arab Muslim region are neither religious nor cultural.

The attempt to impose secularism first by the colonial authorities of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and second by postcolonial governments led to undermining civil society and doing away with the minimum protection needed for individuals and groups to be politically involved.

The modern Arab territorial state, which is the product of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the twentieth century, has by design been antidemocratic.

The world order that brought about the creation of all these artificial territorial states, and that today exerts all it can to preserve the status quo has no interest in the success of democracy anywhere in the region.

This book tackles head-on the rulings of Islamic jurists that make Islam seem incompatible with modern, scientifically, and technologically advanced, democratic societies. The book argues that it is crucial to find theoretical and practical solutions that will enable Western Muslims to remain faithful to Islamic ethics while fully living within their societies and their time. It notes that Muslim scholars often refer to the notion of ijtihâd (critical and renewed reading of the foundational texts) as the only way for Muslims to take up these modern challenges. But, the book argues, in practice such readings have effectively reached the limits of their ability to serve the faithful in the West as well as the East. This book sets forward a radical new concept of ijtihâd, which puts context—including the knowledge derived from the hard and human sciences, cultures, and their geographic and historical contingencies—on an equal footing with the scriptures as a source of Islamic law. This global and comprehensive approach, it says, seems to be the only way to go beyond the current limits and face up to the crisis in contemporary Islamic thought: Muslims need a contemporary global and applied ethics. After setting out this proposal, the book applies a new methodology to several practical case studies involving controversial issues in five areas: medical ethics, education, economics, marriage and divorce, culture, and creativity.

This book discusses the role of Islam in the political and social developments in the Balkans after the end of the Cold War. With the newly-gained religious freedom, and in the context of multiple structural and cultural transitions, Muslim communities there underwent remarkable transformations. They sought to renegotiate their place in formally secular legal and normative environments, mostly as minorities in majority-Christian societies. They reclaimed their Islamic faith, practices and identities in a complex geopolitical situation dominated by anti-Muslim sentiments, particularly after 9/11. The rising political and cultural self-awareness of Muslims in Southeast Europe was frequently expressed by recourse to two frames of reference: the national and the transnational. Despite a certain level of tension between those two perspectives, they were closely intertwined. Transnational Islamic influences often reinforced Muslim ethnonational identities rather than prompting a radical redefinition of religious allegiances in the key of a “universalist” Islam. The study explores comparatively the transformations of Muslim identities in the region under the influence of various national and transnational, domestic and global factors, while also looking at the historical legacies that inform present complexities. Furthermore, it examines the evolving status and roles of Muslim women both in their religious communities and in the larger societies. It challenges representations of Islam and Muslims as external and alien to Europe, which overlook the fact that Europe has considerable indigenous Muslim populations in its southeast part and societies that have developed certain models of negotiation of differences. The book thus adds detail and nuance to ongoing debates about “Islam in Europe.”

The current ecological crisis is a matter of urgent global concern, with solutions being sought on many fronts. This book argues that the devastation of our world has been exacerbated, if not actually caused, by the reductionist view of nature that has been advanced by modern secular science. What is needed, the book states, is the recovery of the truth to which the great, enduring religions all attest; namely, that nature is sacred. The book traces the historical process through which Western civilization moved away from the idea of nature as sacred and embraced a world view which sees humans as alienated from nature and nature itself as a machine to be dominated and manipulated by humans. The book's goal is to negate the totalitarian claims of modern science and to re-open the way to the religious view of the order of nature, developed over centuries in the cosmologies and sacred sciences of the great traditions. Each tradition, the book shows, has a wealth of knowledge and experience concerning the order of nature. The resuscitation of this knowledge, it argues, would allow religions all over the globe to enrich each other and co-operate to heal the wounds inflicted upon the Earth.