bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Policy of the Dutch Government Towards Islam in Indonesia
Authors: Goksoy Ismail Hakki
Published: October 2020

This paper aims to examine the policy of the Dutch colonial government towards Islam in Indonesia, especially during the period of 1945-49 in which the lndonesians struggled for their independence from the Dutch. However, the attitudes of the Dutch East Indian Company towards the Indonesian Muslims in the 17th and 18th centuries and that of the Dutch colonial gov­ernment in later periods were also included in order to indicate the changes in policy. The government's policy towards Islam during the indepen­dence period was determined largely by its immediate aim to gain the support of the Muslim people for the reestablishment of the Dutch rule in fndonesia after the war. Therefore, the Dutch authorities in Jakarta tried to show a tolerant attitude towards the Muslim leaders, especially the ulama who had great influence upon the people, and they were inclined to give them more help in religious, social and educational fields, but without endangering the principle of the separation of religion and politics. In this respect, the attempts to establish close con­tact with the Muslim leaders and their organizations as well as the stimulation of ulama conferences and establishment of regional Islamic councils were discussed in detail. Based largely on the archival materials, the paper concludes that the Dutch needed to pursue a liberal policy after 1945 in contrast to a neu­tral one in previous times.
The Contribution of Interfaith Dialogue toward a Culture of Peace
Authors: Nielsen Jorgen S.
Published: October 2020

Dialogue among the adherents of the major world religions has alwaystaken place, especially, but not only, among the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism,Christianity and Islam. Excellent examples of this may be found in themidst of shared histories where we are more often presented with a recordof conflicts. The high points must be the enormously rich and creative interactionswhich took place in medieval Islamic Spain and southern Italy andat various times in places as far apart as Central Asia, Baghdad, Delhi,Cairo and the Ottoman Empire.As a movement with its institutions and full-time professionals, andnetworks of activists, interreligious dialogue is primarily a phenomenonof the twentieth century. It is the pressures of this century which havedemanded that we mobilize the resources of the great religions for dialogueand peace, purposes which have historically often seemed marginal.In India, the realization that a reasonably unified independence wouldonly be achieved if religions could work together, actually provides asignificant impetus towards the cooperation of religious leaders andinstitutions.The horrors of Nazi genocide in Europe spurred post-war generationstowards a radical review of traditional Christian attitudes towards Judaism.Out of regional tragedies, like the wars in Lebanon and in the formerYugoslavia, have come strengthened efforts across the social spectrum todisarm religious hatreds. The resurgence, in the last couple of decades, ofpolitical radicalism motivated by religion and expressed in religious terms, ...
Culture, Science, and Technology
Authors: Abu Sulayman AbdulHamid
Published: October 2020

The Case The Ummah was built on the foundation of tawhid, istikhla! the pursuit of knowledge, and personal and communal responsibility. Although it was once a leading creator of and contributor to human civilization, over the last few centuries it has become weak and backward to the point of crisis. The awareness of the Ummah's regression is almost 1,000 years old, dating back far beyond the challenges of European colonization and west­ernization. We can trace this back to Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's lhya' · Ulum al-Din (Revival of the Knowledge and Sciences of Religion) and Tahafat al­Falasifah (The Incoherence of the Philosophers). Since then, the Ummah has produced dozens of revivalist personalities and movements, such as Ibn Hazm, fbn Taymiyyah, fbn 'Abd al-Salam, fbn 'Abd al-Wahhab, the Muwahiddun, the Murabitun, the Mahdis of Sudan, the Sanusis of Libya, the Ottoman sultan Salim lll, Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi, Muhammad 'Ali, Jamal al-Din al-Afgani, Rashid Rida, Muhammad 'Abdu ofEgypt, Shah Waliullah and Muhammad Iqbal of India, Amir 'Abd al-Qadir and Ben Bad is of Algeria, and many others. All of these individual efforts and movements helped minimize and slow down the Ummah's deterioration, and without them the Ummah's condition and chances of survival could have been much worse. Despite ...
Globalization, Gender, and Religion
Authors: Mazid Nergis
Published: October 2020

Globalization, Gender, and Religion: The Politics of Women's Rights inCatholic and Muslim Contexts began at the 1995 United Nations FourthWorld Conference on Women in Beijing (FWCW). At this event, Jane H.Bayes and Nayereh Tohidi witnessed conservative Catholic and conservativeMuslim groups unify around issues of sexuality, sexual orientation, andthe control of women's bodies. To understand the spectrum of opinions andbetter strategize the globalized women's movement in Catholic and Muslimcontexts, the editors brought together feminists from seven countries andone region to detennine how religious Catholic and Muslim women dealtwith their beliefs in equal rights, and contradictions in their religions and inthe official policy of their religious authorities.This book is divided into 10 chapters and contains an appendix that surveysthe historical expansion of Catholicism and Islam. The introductionprovides valuable information on how, since 1992, the Vatican has soughtto unify with conservative Muslims to counter challenges to their sharedreligious ideals of women's social roles. The following chapter, "WomenRedefining Modernity and Religion in the Globalized Context," is structuredto answer three fundamental issues about Catholicism and Islam:How they regard women, what historical similarities and differences existin their responses to modernity, and what is the position of women's religiosityand spirituality in social change and their agency in reshaping theparameters of modernity and religion. Ultimately, it gives a useful overviewof how Catholicism and Islam perceive women and especially gives a fairtreatment oflslam's uniqueness. Unlike Catholicism, Islam's lack of a singular,central, organized body makes it difficult to pinpoint the ideal femalearchetype. To find this ideal, the editors point to the Qur'an's prominenceas the word of God and refer to 4:34 which, by calling women the "charges ...
States and Women's Rights
Authors: Babana-Hampton Safoi
Published: October 2020

In her preface, Mounira Charrad traces the genesis of her study to her concerns as a sociologist regarding the inadequate analytical models used to account for the origin of political organization in the "predominantly classbased and capitalist societies" Maghribi societies. Charrad proposes "kinship" and tribal ties as more appropriate sociological categories for acquir­ing a good understanding of the foundations of social relations in Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. She focuses on three distinct historical periods: pre­colonial, colonial, and post-independence. Her investigation centers on documenting the historical relationship between the process of nation­building and state-formation, and the codification and articulation of a uni­fied family law that replaced numerous (and sometimes conflicting) forms of customary law competing with Islamic law. The book combines historical, sociological, and geographical data and analytical concepts in order to frame the investigation's main subject. The subject is covered in three main parts divided into nine chapters, in addition to an introduction and a conclusion. The text is supplemented with tables and maps documenting linguistic and geographic features of the Maghrebi states under study. The book concludes with a useful glossary of transliter­ated Arabic words, chapter notes, a selected bibliography organized conve­niently under five main headings, an author index, and a subject index ...
Muslim Renaissance
Authors: Safi Louay M.
Published: October 2020

The last three decades have brought profound changes to how we look atthe funadmental notions that define the modern world, such as culture, ideology,religion, reform, and progress. A drastic shift from a bipolar worlddefined by the rivalry betweeen the liberal West and the communist bloc inthe 1980s, to a globalization intent upon breaking both market and culturalbarriers in the 1990s, to a new form of polarization driven by religious andcultural exclusivism at the turn of the twenty-first century. Not only hascommunism succumbed and disappeared as a credible sociopolitical force,but liberalism itself is in retreat even in the United States, the most liberalsociety of all, giving way to a new tide of conservatism.Evidently, the tide of conservatism seeking to replace both progressiveand revolutionary movements does not bring new hopes of a betterfuture; rather, it seems to be bent on reclaiming old postures of selfrighteousnessand ethnicity that fueled hatred, international hostility, andwars. Secularist idedologies are giving rise to religious ideologies, as canbe seen clearly in almost every culture, whether in the United States,India, or Turkey.In Muslim societies, religious conservatism has cloaked the Islamicreform movement’s forward vision and threatens to roll back its achievements.The reform movement also has been suppressed by the overbearingpolitical regimes ruling the Muslim world. Many people questionwhether an Islamic renaissance – or a renaissance based on Islamic values– is even posible and, if so, how does it relate to rising conservativeand declining modernist ideologies? ...
The Vicegerency of Man
Authors: Sabet Amr G. E.
Published: October 2020

This short book deals with the seemingly perennial problem confounding the Muslim community: the nature of the relationship between reason and revelation. That the ultimate purpose of human existence is to serve the divine will, as expounded by the latter, problematizes this relationship in terms of how can humanity fulfill this purpose based on a dialectical nexus between the foundations of human belief and human rationality. The failure to address this question led to painful consequences and the historical emer­gence of communal intellectual polarities between text-oriented schools of thought and reason-oriented counterparts. According to Najjar, this apparently perpetual deep schism between both proponents called for painstaking attempts to articulate their rela­tionship. Najjar seeks to actualize such an articulation. He stresses the complementary link between revelation and reason, arguing that both are tools for revealing the truth and according to which humanity adopts par­ticular modes of thought and attitudes toward the universe in ways intended to accomplish the role of vicegerency (khilafah). In this frame­work, text and reason must be placed in an ideological context within which humanity's multidimensional existence is investigated. This includes humanity's position in the universe, significance, duties, and ultimate goals ...
Hizbu'llah
Authors: Kingston Paul
Published: October 2020

Amal Saad-Ghorayeb's recently published and extensively researchedstudy of the Lebanese lslamist group Hizbu'llah is a welcome addition tothe literature on lslamist groups, especially given the present global climatethat instinctively - but usually unsubstantially - associates Islamist groupswith antiwestern terrorist activities. Based as it is on a select number ofhigh-level interviews with senior Hizbu'llah leaders; numerous interviewswith local, regional, and, functional Hizbu'llah officials; and an extensiveanalysis of Hizbu'llah's publications in both print and television media,Saad-Ghorayeb offers us a rare but thorough glimpse into "the politicalmind of Hizbu'llah," one that its officials themselves must have endorsed,given the ready availability of the book in Lebanese bookstores.This is a work, first and foremost, about Hizbu'llah's political thought,which is designed to unravel the "central pillars of Hizbu'llah's intellectualstnicture." In addition to an introduction and a conclusion, there are eightchapters that examine several issues and moral precepts that feature prominentlyin the deliberations and pronouncements of Hizbu'llah officials. Thefirst four chapters focus on broader, more timeless questions that confrontIslamic - particularly Shi'ah Islamic - groups, such as the choice between ...
Muslim Europe or Euro-Islam
Authors: Gilliat-Ray Sophie
Published: October 2020

The chapters comprising this volume arise out of a conference held in 1998:"Islam and the Changing fdentity of Europe." The conference organizers,frustrated with what they regarded as the insular nature of European andMiddle Eastern area studies research, wanted to examine Islamic identityand citizenship from a broader interdisciplinary perspective. This volumetherefore brings together specialist contributors from the social sciences,political science, Middle Eastern studies, and international relations, toname just some of the disciplines represented.The editors set the scene by exploring changing realities and percep­tions of identity within Europe. They note that in some places, the fact ofreligious and ethnic diversity has yet to be fully acknowledged and accommodatedas part of a European identity that, historically, was forged largelyin opposition to ''the other" - especially the Muslim "other." As a consequence,Muslim populations in Europe find themselves part of, and to someextent a cause of, a complex process of European identity deconstructionand reconstruction from above and below. The presence of Islam withinEurope's borders is forcing a reexamination of what it means to beEuropean, and raising profound and challenging questions about issues ofcitizenship, participation in civil society, political recognition, inclusion,and exclusion.Each contributor approaches the discussion with a common desire toavoid reductionism, essentialism, and a view of Muslims as members ofhomogeneous monolithic communities. Indeed, the diversity within Muslimcommunities is seen as part of an important dynamic that will help to forgewhat Bassam Tibi calls "Euro-f slam," a form of Islam that is acceptable(without compromises) to both Muslim migrants (and converts) and secularEuropean societies. Just as there are forms of Islam - each absolutely"authentic" - that are distinctive in Africa, Malaysia, or the ArabianPeninsula, Tibi calls for developing a form of Islam that is adjusted toEuropean society and the values of individual human rights and liberaldemocracy ...
Calling the Shots
Authors: Kashif Imam Ghayth Nur
Published: October 2020

While many Americans are just becoming aware of the United States' extraordinary dominance over the UN, Phyllis Bennis has long been a "prophet," warning of the catastrophic consequences of its disproportionate influence over this international body. A prolific writer, whose published works include Beyond the Storm: A Gulf Crisis Reader and Altered States: A Reader in the New World Order (Interlink: 1999. Edited with Michael Moushabeck), Bennis' signature work, Calling the Shots(Interlink: 1998. Edited with Michael Moushabeck), was initially pubfished by Olive Branch Press in 1996 and revised in 2000. ''The latter edi­tion examines US-UN relations at the close of the 20th century and sug­gests possible ways forward for the world body," according to its back cover promotional endorsements. The 341-page book has 11 chapters: "The Founders," "The History," "Center Stage: The Role and Power of the UN in Washington's Gulf War," "Who Rules: The Struggle for UN Democracy," "Peacekeeping, Interven­tion, and a Whole New World Out There," "Washington Keeps Its Own Peace," "Peacekeeping Goes to War: Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti, Bosnia,""UN Sanctions: The Not-Quite Warfare," "To the World's Attention," "The Exception: The Middle East and Palestine," "Democratizing the UN," and "The Laws of Empire and the UN's New Internationalism." This is followed by a 19-page appendix entitled "The United Nations Charter and Principal Organs of the UN." ...
The Qu'ran Manuscripts in the al-Haram al-Sharif Islamic Museum, Jerusalem
Authors: Stewart Devin
Published: October 2020

Founded in 1922 and moved to al-Haram al-Sharif in 1929, the IslamicMuseum in Jerusalem houses artifacts covering nearly all oflslamic historyand originating in North Africa, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and theMiddle East.This beautifully illustrated volume, published with the support ofUNESCO in both English and Arabic, treats a small part of the Museum'scollection: a selection of its Qur'an manuscripts. The work, divided intothree parts, first introduces the Islamic Museum and its collection, thenprovides background information concerning relevant textual and art history,and finally presents 3 I Qur'an manuscripts in detail.Part One, "The Islamic Museum," gives an overview of theMuseum's holdings, including wood, metalwork, ceramics, glass, tex tiles,coins, stone inscriptions and architectural elements, and documents.Most of the artifacts are material salvaged from repairs to the haram areaor objects from the endowments of the Aqsa mosque and madrasahs inJerusalem, Nablus, and Hebron. The collection includes many exquisitepieces: Umayyad floral woodwork panels from the al-Aqsa Mosque, astriking glass mosque lamp of the Mamluk amir Tankiz from Hebron, andthe salvaged remains of Nur al-Din's pulpit, built in Aleppo in 564/1168and brought to the Aqsa Mosque in 583/1187 by Salah al-Din after hisconquest of Jerusalem. (Unfortunately, the ornate wooden pulpit wasnearly destroyed by arson in I 969.)Part Two, "Background," treats Arabic calligraphy, illumination,bindings, and the textual history of the Qur'an. Kufic, an old, squarescript said to derive from stone inscriptions, is used for the text of the old estQur'an manuscript in the collection and for headings and panels inlater manuscripts.The bulk of the manuscripts are written in the more cursive Naskhiscript, which became popular by the tenth century, and the similar buttaller Thuluth and Muhaqqaq. A number of the collections manscriptsfrom North Africa are written in Maghribi script, which derives fromKufic and differs significantly from the common eastern scripts. This volumeallows the reader to view some stunning examples of illumination ...
Holy Land, Whose Land
Authors: Lstrabadi Zaineb
Published: October 2020

Dorothy Drummond's book was born at the dawn of the third millennium,when the author was in Jerusalem. She had taken notes throughout hertravels in the Holy Land, which she defines not only as the land of historicPalestine, but also the lands of present-day Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq,and Egypt (i.e., where the Patriarchs, Prophets, and the Holy Familyroamed). Rather than write a travelogue, she decided to write a book aboutthe Arab-Israeli conflict while interspersing her personal comments (initalics) about her journeys. Her intent is not to "answer the question posedin the title of this book. Rather, by shedding light on dark corners, itattempts to bring understanding," as she explains in the prologue.The book is divided into three parts: a discussion of the IsraeliPalestinianconflict in the present, a discussion of the roots of the conflicttraveling 4,000 years into the past, and a brief discussion of how negotiationis the only way to resolve the conflict. There are maps and pho tographsthroughout the book, as well as a 40-page glossary of the HolyLand's people and places. Drummond has written the work in the presenttense, because of the immediacy of all that has happened in the MiddleEast, but the discussion ultimately centers on the area between theMediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.Her book promises to be a good, balanced account written in a wonwonderfullyaccessible style. However, early on it runs into problems. Forexample, when she talks about the 1956 Israeli attack on Egypt, she fails ...
American Jihad
Authors: Senzai Farid
Published: October 2020

"Terrorism expert" Steven Emerson has done it again. With his usual exaggeratedstyle and hate-mongering rhetoric, Emerson has painted allMuslims with the same broad brush. While trying to assure his readers atthe outset that not all Muslims are terrorists, the bulk of his new book,American Jihad, is filled with brazenly over-simplified attacks on the entireMuslim American community. This biased and heavy-handed portrayal ofMuslims is characteristic of Emerson's work - most notably his 1994 PBSvideo "Jihad in America." In American Jihad, Emerson again presents a terrifyingpicture of American Muslims as fanatical, violent people lurkingand plotting against the United States. It is thus hardly surprising that he hasgained a reputation, reminiscent of his friend Daniel Pipes, for advocatinggrand Islamic conspiracies without any credible evidence.In a rush to get to press, his latest book is a quick tabloid-style read.The book is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter deals withEmerson's "discovery" of"militant Muslims" and the subsequent makingof his PBS video "Jihad in America." The next six chapters attempt touncover the inner working of such groups as the Council on AmericanIslamicRelations (CAIR), Hamas, and al-Qaida. He also spends oneentire chapter on the terrorist infiltration of American academic institutions.Finally, in his concluding chapter, Emerson tries to encourage individualswithin the Muslim community to "fight back" against the threatthat he feels is facing the country.The book is large on print and short on analysis. For a decade,Emerson has been issuing dire, over-the-top warnings that Muslims in theUnited States pose a catastrophic threat to the country, and in this book ...
On the Edge of Empire
Authors: Ouis Soumaya Pernilla
Published: October 2020

In the preface of her On the Edge of Empire: Hadhramawt, Emigration,and the Indian Ocean 1880s-1930s, the author explains that a westernercould conduct research in the Hadhramawt region only after the unificationof North and South Yemen in May 1990. Hence, we can concludethat Boxberger’s work is an effort to add to our knowledge of this underresearchedarea. I have seldom read such a wonderfully detailed book,clearly written and polysonic in its application of diverse researchmethodologies, such as archive studies and oral stories collected fromanthropological fieldwork. It gives several important insights into a complexhistory of one of Arabia’s most fascinating regions.One often encounters the notion that Arabia has been isolated fromforeign influence, and thus left alone with its own traditions and lifestyles.This understanding particularly applies to Yemen, as being a mythical landthat has not changed since ancient times. However, this is far from thetruth. Since Yemen could be viewed as what the rest of Arabia would havebeen without oil, one could conclude that petrodollars have actually conservedcertain cultural values and social organizations. Yemen, on theother hand, has experienced communism, civil war, and recently democratization,unlike other parts of the Arabian peninsula.Boxberger’s study covers Hadhramawt’s Qu’ayti and Kathiri sultanatesduring 1880-1930, a period that is crucial for understanding modernYemen. Her study focuses on the British influence, as these sultanatesbecame British protectorates; the emigration of natives to other parts ofthe Indian Ocean region; and the development of modern communication ...
Lebanon’s Second Republic
Authors: Kingston Paul
Published: October 2020

It has now been over a decade since Lebanon’s long civil war ended.Indeed, the new constitutional structures that emerged from the war –Lebanon’s second republic – will soon have a longer life than the waritself. This book examines both the depth and sustainability of Lebanon’snew-found stability and brings together both academics specializing incontemporary Lebanese affairs as well as several Lebanese professionals.It is divided into three sections: Lebanon’s future in the context of theMiddle East peace process, questions of sectarianism and identity withinLebanon, and selected questions relating to social justice and economicperformance in the postwar world. The book is also flanked by an introductionand an epilogue written by Ellis.The volume first examines the regional and global contexts in whichLebanon finds itself. Modern Lebanon has always been vulnerable toexternal interference in its affairs. Hafeez Malik argues that in the nineteenthcentury, it was the competition between the great powers that led to ...
Martyrs
Authors: Willoughby Jay
Published: October 2020

Davis seeks to present a balanced view of terrorism vs. martyrdom, moderatevs. radical, the Muslim world vs. the West, and why 9/11 happened.The author is deputy foreign editor at Knight Ridder newspapers and is aregular contributor to her company’s 32 newspapers.In chapter 1, “A Minister’s Question,” Davis, an African-Americanpracticing Christian, wonders why African-Americans mainly have chosennon-violence, while the self-professed Muslims held responsible for 9/11chose violence. As both groups ground their struggle for justice in theirrespective religions, this gives rise to a paradox: Can God provide “superior”and “inferior” revelations? Muslims are told to “fight injustice” (e.g.,8:39, 22:39), while Christians are called upon to “turn the other cheek”(Matthew 5:39). Matthew 10:34-37, about Jesus “bringing a sword” is alsoinstructive. Moreover, if “Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, and today,and forever” (Hebrews 13:8) and Jesus is God, what is one to make of theOld Testament’s record of divinely sanctioned slaughter?She defines martyr according to the religion’s general view(Christianity: “generally a pacifist who suffers and dies but not kill” [p. 8];Islam: “everyone who dies in the midst of battle defending his homelandor fighting evil” [p. 9]), but does not define militant, extremist, terrorist,or moderate – a curious omission, since there are no agreed-upon meaningsfor them.Chapter 2, “The Innocents,” discusses the deaths of Palestinian andIsraeli children, how both sides exploit their martyrs (“anyone who diesin the midst of battle” [p. 27]), and mutual charges of deliberate childendangerment. She interviews parents and surviving siblings, and statesthat this has become a vicious circle of revenge, and relates the variouspsychological impacts as charges of western indifference to Palestiniandeaths, and Israel’s continued defiance of UN resolutions.Chapter 3, “The Child as Soldier-Martyr,” opens with her visit to Iran’sMartyrs Museum. She wonders if Iran might turn this “ultimate” weaponon itself as “stridently” conservative mullahs and the “freedom-hungry andangry” youths move closer to violence. After explaining Shi’ism’s originsand key events, she mentions the martyrdom of a 12-year-old boy who ...
Islam Our Choice
Authors: Khattab Huda
Published: October 2020

This book is a delightful read. The somewhat unoriginal title (compilationsof conversion accounts under the title Islam Our Choice have been aroundfor several decades, including stories that date back to the mid-twentiethcentury) belies the original and unique stories told within. However, thesewords might be rather startling for many non-Muslims, and thus piquetheir curiosity enough to pick up the book and inquire further.Islam Our Choice, aimed primarily at non-Muslim Americans, tellsthe stories of fellow Americans who have chosen to follow a different pathbut who are still Americans. The authors express the hope that “each non-Muslim American reader will probably be able to relate to and identifywith the pre-Muslim background of at least one of the authors” (p. 2). Theinclusion of family photos and illustrations adds to the book’s visualappeal and shows the contributors as ordinary Americans who are at homewith their new identity as Muslims.Although the contributors cover a wide range of geographical locations,levels of education, and career paths, their ethnic and religious backgroundscover a narrower range. Most of the respondents were former Christians ofvarying denominations, and most are white; one African-American womanalso contributed her story. It is now well known that there are Jewish,Latinos/Latinas, and Native American converts, and, hopefully, their storieswill be told in the near future in order to present a fuller picture of how Islamis reaching all sections of American society.The book opens with a brief overview of Islamic faith and practice, Islamin America, and a comparison between the position of women in modernAmerica and in Islam. This sets the scene, as it were, for readers who may beunfamiliar with the Muslim world and with Muslim communities in the West.Written according to the introduction’s general outline, each chapterrelates the story of an American woman who has come to Islam. All contributorsoffer insight into their childhood worlds, whether they were cozyand relatively uneventful, or dogged by poverty and such family troublesas alcoholism. Debra L. Dirks introduces the Mennonite culture fromwhich her family comes, and Khadijah R. Beruni sheds light on the twoworlds of her childhood in an extended African-American family: living ...
The Flame of Sinai
Authors: Afzaal Ahmed
Published: October 2020

The current surge of attention and sensitivity to Islam in western academiaand popular culture often boils down to the question of Islam’s compatibility– or lack thereof – with modernity. The issue is by no means a simpleone, and is further complicated by the fact that both “Islam” and “modernity”are made to carry a heavy load of multiple definitions that are alsosusceptible to ideological uses and abuses. Such influential American commentatorsas Francis Fukuyama, Daniel Pipes, and Bernard Lewis havebeen unanimous in their diagnosis that while Judaism and Christianity havecome to terms with modernity, Islam has so far failed to take that necessaryand crucial step. In the larger context of modern Muslim history, however,the question is almost two centuries old; it was repeatedly grappled with inthe past and continues to occupy a prominent place in the Muslim consciousness.Sheila McDonough’s new book on Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) can be approached with reference to this particular discourse, for thequestion of Islam and modernity was perhaps the most important factor thatmotivated and shaped Iqbal’s creative output – a body of ideas whose revelancehas tremendously increased in the six decades since his death.While Iqbal’s poetic and intellectual genius has been greatly celebratedand widely acclaimed, both within the Indian subcontinent and abroad, it canbe safely contended that his true potential as the twentieth century’s mostimportant post-critical Muslim philosopher is yet to be discovered. In view ofhis work’s creativity, depth, and visionary reach, the number and quality ofEnglish-language studies on Iqbal’s thought leave much to be desired. In thiscontext, McDonough has done a remarkable service by making the intellectualand imaginal contours of Iqbal’s consciousness accessible to a new generationof Muslim and non-Muslims readers, many of whom have been recentlysensitized to the question of Islam’s relationship with modernity. Mixing herserious erudition with a loving sensitivity and an almost artistic gift for discerninginterconnections, McDonough skillfully blends together the accountsof the vicissitudes of Iqbal’s personal life, his turbulent socio-historical context,and his sometimes shocking ideas to paint a colorful picture of his life,times, vision, and struggle. The Flame of Sinai is sure to become a classic,alongside a similar work by another Western admirer of Iqbal, namely, the lateAnnemarie Schimmel’s book Gabriel’s Wing. Incidentally, both of thesecharming titles come from Iqbal’s own symbolic imagination ...
Arab Diasporic Writing
Authors: Fadda-Conrey Carol
Published: October 2020

The panel entitled “Arab Diasporic Writing: Figurations of Space andIdentity” was held on Friday, February 27, at the 2004 Twentieth CenturyLiterature conference at the University of Louisville, Kentucky. Organized by Carol Fadda-Conrey, the panel featured presentations by Professor SyrineHout and Lisa A. Weiss on two Arab diasporic writers, Rabih Alameddineand Leïla Sebbar, respectively.Syrine Hout, an associate professor of English at the AmericanUniversity of Beirut, presented a paper entitled “Lebanon ‘Revisited’:Memory, Self, and Other in Rabih Alameddine’s The Perv.” Singling outAlameddine as an example of Anglophone novelists of the Lebanese diaspora,Hout’s presentation handled complex themes of memory, nostalgia,the homeland, and relationships that generate binding ties in her analysis ofthe short stories featured in The Perv. Published in July 1999, this isAlameddine’s second work of fiction. Comprising eight short stories, ThePerv presents in-depth portrayals of characters in various states of exile anddisplacement, both mental and physical, cultural and psychological.In her analysis, Hout presented the cogent case that Alamaddine shows,by way of his characters, all of whom have been affected by the Lebanesecivil war, how homesickness is more of a “sickness of home,” manifested bywhat Hout defines as “critical memory of the immediate past of the civilwar.” The presentation’s overriding argument, systematically upheld byHout, shows how the notion of “being at home,” as represented in this work,“is not about belonging to a piece of land but about having a peace of mindwhich can be enjoyed anywhere.” In her reading of the first story, “ThePerv,” and the subsequent stories, Hout arrived at an interesting conclusion:Sammy, the title story’s main character, is actually the creator of the othercharacters in the collection to such an extent that he and Alameddine becomeone and the same person. Hout’s analysis of “being at home” in The Perv asbeing engendered “by an emotional reality [more] than a spatial one” bringsto the forefront significant concerns in the study of diasporic literature.Such thematic concerns were also addressed and probed by Lisa Weissin her presentation entitled “‘Arab’ Paris: Reinterpreting the City-Centerthrough the Writings of Leïla Sebbar.” Weiss, a Ph.D. candidate in Frenchand Francophone literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz,lived in Paris during 2003, teaching at the UC Paris Study Center andresearching “Beur” cultural production. She identifies “Beur” as a “colloquialidentification-term from the 1980s used for second- and third-generationFrench citizens born in France to North African immigrant parents.” ...
Enemy Aliens
Authors: Ahmad Imad A.
Published: October 2020

David Cole, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, is a brilliantconstitutional attorney and an outstanding advocate of civil liberty. InEnemy Aliens, he articulates the case that Attorney General John Ashcroft’sabridgements of the civil liberties of non-citizens and alleged “enemy combatants”in the name of the war on terrorism is at once part of an old strategyof establishing such constitutionally questionable actions against thosepeople least politically able to defend themselves and, at the same time, thefirst step to expanding such incursions against civil rights into the populationat large.Cole writes with the meticulous care appropriate to a legal mind ofthe first caliber and with a graceful and literate rhetorical style. “The linebetween citizen and foreigner, so natural during wartime,” he writes (p.5), “is not only easy to exploit when restrictive measures are introduced,but also easy to breach when the government later finds it convenient todo so.” Cole writes with authority on facts of which too many Americansare completely ignorant: selective detention and deportation based onreligion or national origin, secret trials (or no trials), prolonged interrogation“under highly coercive, incommunicado conditions ... and withoutaccess to lawyers,” and “indefinite detention on the attorney general’ssay-so” (p. 5).Cole presents the historical precedents that justify his thesis. In 1988,President Ronald Reagan signed a bill apologizing for the appalling detentionof Japanese-Americans during World War II. However, that internmentwas an extension of the Enemy Alien Act of 1798, “driven by nativist fearsof radical French and Irish immigrants” (p.7), but still on the books. The“Palmer Raids” of the early twentieth century, wherein thousands of for ...
Islamic Peril
Authors: Bonnefoy Laurent
Published: October 2020

At the junction of history, international relations, political science, andcommunication studies, Karim H. Karim’s Islamic Peril provides seriousand in-depth research on the media coverage of violence involving Muslimindividuals and groups. This updated edition of the book, first published in2000, adds a preface and an afterword that briefly account for 9/11 and itsaftermath. While studying the construction of Islam as the primary “Other”in Canada’s main print media since the beginning of the 1980s, the authorargues that the numerous (mis)representations and stereotypes of Muslimsare based on a lack of religious, sociological, political, and historicalknowledge rather than on what Karim calls a “centrally organized journalisticconspiracy against Islam” (p. 4).The author concentrates on the construction, flow, and reproductionof globally dominant interpretations through relations of power and dominationbetween the North and the South, but also inside the North’s media.His focus on journalism’s internal mechanisms (e.g., dependence on alimited number of sources, the need for simplification, and the clash ofinterests between information and business) and the wider sociopoliticaldomination processes (e.g., the end of the cold war or unipolarity) preventsthe analysis from being overtly simplistic and adopting a victimmentality. The author does not just highlight the (mis)representations; healso tries to analyze them. His approach is optimistic, for it implies thereis no fatality in reproducing stigmatization and stereotypes.Karim studies what could be called the “Islamization of representations”:the social construction of the linkage between facts of violence thatare historically and sociologically rooted and the notion of Islam as anessence. His analysis does not revolutionise the approach toward discourseson Islam, for one can feel how much he was influenced by the ...
Caravanserai
Authors: Bullock Katherine
Published: October 2020

A cavaranserai was an inn where travelling Muslim merchants would gatherat night to relax after a hard day’s journey, share meals, and tell stories toeach other. These themes of travelling and storytelling set the scene forHanifa Deen’s wonderful book about these people, who, originally travellersthemselves, arrived on the continent around the eighteenth century.Moreover, the book is a story of Deen’s journey around Australia to collectthe stories of her fellow Muslim compatriots.Caravanserai was originally published in 1995. The impetus behindthe book was Deen’s sense during the first Gulf War (1991) that Muslimsin Australia did not have a human face – they were known by the generalpublic only through negative stereotypes. She sought to tell some of theirstories to show that Muslims, just like any other group, were human beings who “mow their lawns, are preoccupied with losing weight, worryabout their jobs and mortgages, play sport, swap jokes or tell their childrenbedtime stories” (p. 8). She set out across Australia to collect theirstories.At the time, Deen found that Muslims were making their way inAustralia, becoming more accepted by the wider community and establishedas one of many others in Australia’s multiethnic, multireligious society.The 9/11 tragedy changed all that, and Muslims in Australia, as in otherwestern countries, found themselves treated as “enemy aliens.” Believingthat the clock had been set back, the author felt an urgent need to retraceher steps to find out how her country’s Muslim communities were faring.The result of the second journey appears as part 4, and its three long chaptersmake up nearly one-third of the book.Deen writes that she was asked time and again what kind of book shewas writing and, surprisingly, found that answering this question wasrather difficult. As she travelled, met people, and collected their stories, thestyle of Caravanserai emerged: part storytelling and part commentary.This combination has served her well, for her renditions of her interviewees’stories are beautifully written. She describes the people she meets, thescene and ambiance of their meeting, and her thoughts and emotions as sheretells their stories. She writes so well that I often felt that I was in theroom with her, interacting with the people around her. This was all themore poignant for me, since I am an Australian from Perth, like her, butwho became Muslim only after emigrating to Canada. Deen’s stories connectedme with the Muslim community in Australia that I have neverknown ...
Brick Lane
Authors: Meddour Wendy O’Shea
Published: October 2020

Monica Ali’s debut novel Brick Lane has been met with critical acclaim.Not only was Ali selected as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists,her novel was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Brick Lane centers onthe life of a young Bengali Muslim woman, Nazneen, who moves toLondon in order to live with her new husband, Chanu. At the beginning ofthe novel, Nazneen is a devout but docile and uninspiring character. By theend of the novel, she has journeyed “towards self-realisation,” had an affair,separated from her husband, and decided to bring up her two daughtersalone.Much of the praise that Brick Lane has elicited focuses on its “authenticity.”Reputable critics have praised Ali for her “timely insights,” and hernovel has been judged to offer a “terrifically subtle portrait” of a Muslimmarriage and provide “an insight into a religion that people often find confusing.”Articles that commend Ali for her “honest” and “preciselyobserved” descriptions of Muslims attest to her perceived status as a “nativeinformant.” Although literary critics frequently warn that texts should not beread as transparent mediums through which you can drag “the real,” this isfrequently forgotten when the author is someone from an ethnic or religiousminority. Those critical of the current trend to read Brick Lane as a “window”through which to view the Muslim “Other” have been dismissed withalarming efficiency. Despite recent concurrent developments in literary theory,challenges to this assumed “transparency” have been dismissed as theopinions of “mullahs,” “Islamic fundamentalists,” or people who have“probably never read the book.”Unfortunately, cliché-ridden characterization and clumsy stylisticweaknesses have been overlooked in the rush to applaud Ali for her “fascinating”depiction of what has been referred to as a hitherto “invisible”Muslim community. So why should we be concerned that her Muslim charactershave been judged to be authentic? One could look at the dark holethat is Bangladesh, in which, according to the novel, Muslim men do littleelse but beat, pimp, or rape women. Or, one could focus on the centralfemale character’s journey toward “self-realisation.” This journey pandersto a 1960s style of western feminism. The fatalistic and passive Nazneen,having spent years praying in a “drugged”-like fashion and tending to her ...
Of Silk Saris and Mini-Skirts
Authors: Nazim Zabeda
Published: October 2020

Using articles from Canadian mainstream media, discussions withCanada’s South Asian community, and interviews with young second-generationSouth Asian women about their relationships with school and familyduring the early to mid-1990s, Handa sets out to contest the dominantculture clash model that has been used to explain how South Asian adolescentsare “torn” or “caught” between the values of “traditional” (SouthAsian) and “modern” (Canadian) culture. Handa argues,... that women and youth have become symbols of the sets of values thatare seen to be in need of protection from the process of modern socialprogress … certain notions of women and youth are mobilized in order tomaintain and assert specific notions of identity and belonging. (p. 19)Also, she points out that “South Asian cultural identities rely on particulardefinitions of womanhood in order to assert a distinct Eastern identity visà-vis the West” (p. 19).The book is organized into seven chapters. The first chapter situates thecentral issues and questions she raises in her book amidst recollections ofher past experiences in Canada and her reflections on present-day changesin Canada’s South Asian community. The bulk of this chapter focuses oncritiquing the dominant “culture clash” model in an effort to underscore itsinadequacies. This critique hinges primarily on theoretical discussions ofculture and identity, which become the theoretical framework for her work.In the following five chapters, the author shares her findings, analyses,and arguments. Each chapter focuses on developing one particular aspectof her central argument, although many common subtexts and themesthread their way through them. Some of the main themes and subtexts arethe invisibility of whiteness in relation to the ethnicity of browness; the centralityof a white Canadian identity and the maintenance of white power andprivilege; and the positioning of young South Asian women by discoursesof East/West, modern/traditional, and brown/white, as well as their continuousnegotiation of identities. In the last chapter, Handa plants the seeds ofpossibility for a collective political voice of opposition to racism built onblack and South Asian diasporic voices ...
The Crisis of Muslim History
Authors: Quadri Junaid
Published: October 2020

A host of recent events – well known to all and not in need of rehearsal here– have had, among a variety of other consequences, the unexpected effect of focusing the world’s attention on the diversity of Muslims and the Islamic tradition.The constant talk of “Sunni triangles,” “Shi`ite clerics,” and “Wahhabiradicals,” however, raises important questions about what precisely dividesthe Muslim community along these lines. For Ayoub, the roots of this sectarianismcan be found, at least in part, in the crucial historical time periodknown as the Rashidite (or “Rightly Guided”) caliphate. It is the “politicaland socio-religious crisis” (p. 4) of this era (stretching from the death of theProphet until `Ali’s assassination) and its implications for subsequent generations,that form the subject matter of this book.Ayoub envisions his work as filling a void found in most general introductionsto Islam, which for all their other merits, often fail to provide a clearaccount of this formative period of Islamic history. As for those who haveventured to write in the area, Ayoub considers the works of both Muslim andwestern scholars to be fraught with the political and theological biases oftheir authors. His desire to avoid this pitfall motivates him to adopt thenovel approach of letting the “primary sources of Muslim thought and history”(p. 4) speak for themselves, a tack not unlike the one he uses in hisimportant contribution to tafsir studies: The Qur’an and Its Interpreters.Using this methodology, Ayoub seeks to construct and present a balancedaccount of the major historical events of the Rashidite era in an effortto explore the interaction between considerations of religion and politics inearly Islamic understandings of the nature of authority. His analysis of thevarious claims to the caliphate advanced by Abu Bakr, `Umar, `Uthman,and `Ali, as well as by less successful contenders, is aimed at supporting hiscentral assertion that because “the Prophet died without leaving a clearpolitical system” (p. 22), the Companions did not agree – indeed they vehementlydisagreed – on answers to questions of political authority: ...