bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Future of Islam
Authors: Parray Tauseef Ahmad
Published: October 2020

For John L. Esposito, writing on Islam and Muslim politics has been both a“profession and a vocation” for over three decades. Thus this book is a “culmination”of his work and experience, wherein one finds a sea change injust few decades, as “Islam and Muslim politics have moved from offstageto center stage” (p. 4). Thus one witnesses “an explosion of interest in andcoverage of Islam” (p. 4) and Muslims because both are now political aswell as religious matters of interest. In fact, Islam is considered “not only afaith … [but] also an ideology and worldview that informs Muslim politicsand society” (p. 4). The Future of Islam is about “all of our future,” andthrough this book Esposito wants to tell the story of “how we got to wherewe are and what we need to understand and do to create … ‘a new way forward’”(p. 6).This new edition seeks to understand the struggle for reform in Islam andMuslim societies in order to “explore the religious, cultural, and political diversityof Muslims facing daunting challenges in Muslim countries in thewest, to clarify the debate and dynamics of Islamic reform, to examine the attemptto combat religious extremism and terrorism, and to look into the futureof Muslim-West relations” (p. 3). Divided into four main chapters, it is precededby Karen Armstrong’s foreword, a preface, and an introduction. It endswith a precise but perceptive and discerning conclusion ...
Psychological Reflections on Ismail al-Faruqi’s Life and Contributions
Authors: Badri Malik
Published: October 2020

Perhaps I am one of the few persons who can contemplate deeply upon thepsychosocial factors that shaped Ismail al-Faruqi’s life and helped transformhim into a great Muslim thinker. First, as a psychologist, I could clearly seefrom his career, as well as from his matchless linguistic ability and long personaldiscussions with him, that he was a highly intelligent and creative personwith a rare gift for perceiving a holistic picture of seemingly unrelatedaspects. Second, I am now an old man who lived in Lebanon and Jordan fromthe early 1950s until the late 1960s, interrupted only by the two years I spentin England pursuing my doctorate. I earned my BA and MA at the AmericanUniversity of Beirut (AUB) and then taught there after obtaining my doctorate.I am therefore well acquainted with the culture of Lebanon, Syria, andJordan, as well as with AUB’s academic and social life, during those years.Al-Faruqi joined AUB at an early age and was greatly influenced by what ithad to offer.Third, I was privileged to have long discussions and friendly talks withhim during my visits to the United States and his visit to Saudi Arabia. I firstmet him in Indianapolis in 1976 at the international annual conference organizedby the Muslim Students Association (MSA) and the Association of MuslimSocial Scientists (AMSS). We had long academic discussions onIslamization and the future of Islamic psychology. It was his idea that Muslimpsychologists in North America should form a psychology branch within theAMSS. I spent three months in Indianapolis, sharing the same house with therenowned scholar Taha Jabir al-Alwani. During these months I was asked to ...
English Literary Studies
Authors: Willoughby Jay
Published: October 2020

On January 15, 2014, Md. Mahmudul Hasan, assistant professor in the Departmentof English Language and Literature at the International Islamic UniversityMalaysia, addressed an audience at the IIIT headquarters in Herndon,VA. He spoke on how Muslims have tended to associate English studies withwestern value systems, secularism, and anti-Islamic practices.He opened his talk with some background information. He was educatedat a madrassa and then chose to study western (English) literature, much tohis father’s disappointment – he firmly believed that his son, whom he hadalways envisaged as an Islamic scholar, would come out of the university asa secularist, an atheist, or an agnostic. Although this may not be the case today,at his father’s time people could actually see their university-enrolled childrenundergo some changes or adopt the various western lifestyles uncritically atthe expense of their traditional Islamic upbringing.Reflecting further on the context that had given rise to this attitude, Hasanpointed out the tendency at that time, and based solidly upon the Subcontinent’scolonial experience, to associate English literature studies with bothcolonialism and western Christendom. In response to this, contemporaryscholars of postcolonial studies employ the twin strategies of abrogation andappropriation to dismantle the original intent behind introducing English literarystudies and, simultaneously, to create platforms of self-assertion and resistance.Those who support the Islamization of English literary studiespropose a similar approach to English literature in order to counterbalance theun-Islamic cultural influences as well as to present the Islamic worldviews inrelation to the life-worlds that these literary texts are reputed to promote.He said that many Muslims find it difficult to reconcile “Islam” and “Englishliterature,” for how can there be any relationship between them? This isnot as illogical as it may seem, however, for the British introduced Englishliterature into the Subcontinent long before they introduced it into the UnitedKingdom itself. It was offered in the former in 1830, but only ninety yearslater in the latter. In fact, according to Hasan, the subject itself has a colonialbackground, for it, along with Christian missionary activity, was designed to ...
Islam and Interfaith Dialogue
Authors: Willoughby Jay
Published: October 2020

On March 21, 2014, Seyed Amir Akrami, a visiting Iranian scholar at the EasternMennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA, visited the headquarters ofthe International Institute of Islamic Thought. He holds a PhD in the philosophyof religion (McGill University), as well as a BA and an MA in Islamictheology and mysticism (University of Tehran).In his opening remarks he stated that with the end of the Cold War, thecloser relations between politics and religion necessitates interfaith relations.Realizing this, the West (especially the United States) has undertaken an unprecedentedstep: establishing centers for religion and diplomacy. Akrami considersthis a very positive development. Another reason for this new approachwas Samuel Huntington’s (d. 2008) “clash of civilizations” theory, which upsetmany Muslims. What is often forgotten, however, is that Huntington alsocalled for dialogue. President Mohammad Khatami of Iran responded to thisby launching his 2001 “dialogue of civilizations” initiative. Akrami maintainsthat political and economic polarization is being replaced by cultures, of whichreligion is a very important part. Given that Islam and Christianity are theworld’s two largest religions, it is more practical to focus on them than tryingto start a dialogue with all religions at this time.The second part of his presentation consisted of several historical observationsrelated to Christian views of Islam, Muslim views of other religions(especially Christianity), and how best to approach/view these two religions’relationship. John of Damascus (d. 750), an early Christian scholar of Islamnoted for his largely polemical works, viewed Islam as a Christian heresy.Centuries later, the Crusades poisoned Muslim-Christian relations. But, importantly,part of the reason for this military onslaught was the great schismof 1054 that split Christendom between the Catholic Church (Rome) and theOrthodox Church (Constantinople).Normal Daniel’s Islam and the West: The Making of an Image (Oxford:Oneworld, 1993) is a very good source for these negative views. Among themare the following: (1) Muhammad was a cardinal who wanted to become thepope. When he failed in this attempt, he became a heretic; (2) Muhammadtrained a dove or a bird to sit on his shoulder in order to deceive/delude hisfollowers into thinking that he was being inspired; and (3) Dante, in his DivineComedy, called Muhammad an imposter and liar and therefore placed him inthe eighth circle of hell ...
The Study of Islam in African Universities
Authors: Ibrahim Zakyi
Published: October 2020

Although not as comprehensive as the articles featured in this special issue,this editorial presents my comments and the results of my survey conductedamong professors and lecturers who teach Islamic studies in Ghanaian universities.For a comparative perspective, similar questions were also sent tocolleagues in Nigeria. I undertook this preliminary research to prepare myselffor a roundtable discussion that was held at the annual African StudiesAssociation meeting (Philadelphia, November 29-December 1, 2012) on“The Study of Islam in African Universities: Is it a Priority?” Based on my ownon-the-ground knowledge and what I gathered from my survey’s respondents,this topic does not seem to be a priority for Ghana’s university administrators(viz., the presidents, vice chancellors, and deans all the waydown to the department heads and their administrative support), students,parents, or policymakers.In general terms, Ghana’s university administrators see no value in supportingthis stream of study because it does not “produce” graduates who canmake constructive contributions to the national agenda of industrial development.The study of religion (or religious studies) in general suffers from thisbias internationally, and religion itself is becoming less popular among youngpeople. Other indications of this low priority are the courses offered in religiousstudies departments and the lack of “suitable” experts. After my presentation,one audience member who had earned a PhD in Islamic studies from a MiddleEastern university, pointed out that he could not find a teaching job in a Ghanaianuniversity. He seemed to believe that his situation had a lot to do with discriminationand bias; however, I was not so sure. He is now an adjunctinstructor in Islamic studies at a local junior college in the Philadelphia area.Of Ghana’s 8 public and 48 private universities,1 only 5 or six 6 have departmentsthat include Islam in their courses listings.2 Apart from the newlyestablished Islamic University College, which is not included here because itis an Islamic university, none of the leading universities offer a major or aminor in Islamic studies. The University of Ghana (Accra) does come close, ...
The ‘Alids
Authors: Inloes Amina
Published: October 2020

How did the descendants of the Prophet, known as the ‘Alids, become the“one indisputable nobility in Islam” (p. 1)? What did they do to attain and extendtheir influence? Is ‘Alid-ness only for men? And, how did their status influencethe Jews? Teresa Bernheimer answers these questions, and more, inthis first detailed study on their sociopolitical history in early Islam.This study is distinguished by a cross-sectarian and holistic approach, inthat the author examines the ‘Alids independent of whether they were Sunnior Shi’i, rich or poor, or rebellious or quietist. While the study focuses on ‘Alidsfrom the Abbasid to the Saljuq eras, as well as those in the eastern part of theIslamic empire, she presents her conclusions in the light of this social phenomenonthroughout the Islamic world, both past and present. In doing so, Bernheimerhighlights how members of this group saw themselves and were seenby others as a single body that transcended sectarian or cultural boundaries.After introducing the main question – how the ‘Alids attained and extendedtheir influence – the author explores it from four angles, each in a separatechapter. She begins with chapter 2, “Genealogy, Money, and the Drawingof Boundaries.” Here, she argues that ‘Alid genealogies do not merely continuethe pre-Islamic Arab genealogical tradition. Instead, while those genealogieslooked to the past, ‘Alid genealogies focused on the present – namely,the need to determine inclusion in and exclusion from the group because of“tangible and intangible” benefits, such as gifts (p. 31), as recorded in an illustrativeaccount of a wealthy but stranded ‘Alid hajji. In that regard, she sees‘Alid genealogies as being more akin to the dīwān instituted by Umar ibn al-Khattab (which Tabari felt had origins in Byzantine custom) in that both practicesassigned social rank along with financial benefits based on tribe.Chapter 2 also addresses the topic of false claimants. Bernheimer does notattempt to sift out false ‘Alids on the grounds that “[w]hat matters is that […]the sayyids themselves as well as the rest of society believed that they were ...
The Spirit of Tolerance in Islam
Authors: Shafi Sophia Rose
Published: October 2020

This monograph challenges the notion that Islam is, at its core, an intolerantreligion. Through a careful reading of the Qur’an, the Hadith literature, andextra-canonical texts, as well as examples from history, Reza Shah-Kazemiargues that Islam is rooted in an inclusivist ethic that permeates the founda-tions of Islamic belief and practice. He provides numerous examples of howMuslims have behaved in accordance with the Islamic values of unity(tawḥīd), mercy (raḥmān), and compassion (raḥmah) elucidated in theQur’an and the Hadith, and illustrated in history from the early Islamic periodto recent centuries. This volume provides an academic and sophisticated readingof tolerance in Muslim history that is accessible to the scholar, student,and layperson interested in how Islam deals with religious minorities.The introduction begins with the proposal that Islam is, at its foundation,committed to the principle of religious pluralism. Backed by eminent thinkers,including Wilfred Cantwell Smith (d. 2000) and John Locke (d. 1704), Shah-Kazemi describes this principle in terms of the “inalienable dignity” of allhuman beings as cited in Q. 30:30 and Q. 17:70: “We have bestowed dignityon the progeny of Adam [and Eve]” (p. 12). Examples of this principle are seenin the behavior of the Prophet as well as in that of his cousin and son-in-lawAli ibn Abi Talib, individuals who, in the author’s perspective, communicatedthe rule of compassion (raḥmah) throughout their lives. At the conclusion ofthis chapter, the author suggests that this practice be revived, for it accords withwestern secular principles that are not “an expression of its own specificallyreligious traditions,” but rather a result of the intra-religious wars that accompaniedthe Reformation. Shah-Kazemi uses the rest of this volume to elucidatethis spirit, which is best expressed in Q. 49:13: “O humanity, We have createdyou male and female, and We have made you into tribes and nations in orderthat you might come to know one another” (p. 19) ...
Discipline, Devotion, and Dissent
Authors: Mahmud Aruba
Published: October 2020

During the 2007 provincial election campaign, Conservative party candidateJohn Tory proposed extending government funding to all faith-based schoolsin Ontario. This was met with strong public and media opposition due to fearsof radicalization and indoctrinating students in religious beliefs considered outdatedand a threat to Canadian norms (particularly with Islamic schools). It iswith this anecdote that editors Graham P. McDonough, Nadeem Memon, andAvi L. Mintz introduce Discipline, Devotion, and Dissent: Jewish, Catholic,and Islamic Schooling in Canada. As they note, the impassioned debate surroundingTory’s election promise, as well as his ensuing loss, indicate that religiouseducation is a particularly contentious topic in an increasingly secularsociety. And yet there is surprisingly little scholarly literature on this topic.The editors seek to address this gap through this excellent and muchneeded contribution to the field. Focusing solely on Catholic, Islamic, and Jewishschools, which make up the vast majority of Canada’s full-time religiousschools, the editors seek not to provide an overview of religious education, butto address three issues: The schools’ aims and practices, how they “negotiatethe tension between the demands of the faith and the expectation that they educateCanadian citizens,” and how they “respond to internal dissent.” ...
Ibn Khaldun
Authors: Miharja Nurhidayahti Mohammad
Published: October 2020

Syed Farid Alatas’ Ibn Khaldun is a welcome addition to an emerging Khalduniansociology. It represents one of the few socio-historical studies of histhought that pays attention to this North African thinker’s historical milieuand life. Regarded by many scholars as a precursor of sociology, Ibn Khaldun(1332-1406) is also known for his contributions to the philosophy of history.His pioneering work, Kitāb al-‘Ibar, is more than just a historical account ofthe Arabs and Berbers. Popularly known as the Universal History, it containsthe important Muqaddimah (Prolegomenon) that details his “science of humansociety” (‘ilm al-ijtimā‘ al-insānī) or “science of human social organization”(‘ilm al-‘umrān al-basharī).This six-chapter book opens with “Ibn Khaldun’s Autobiography and HisCharacter,” which outlines his life and presents other biographies that providethe socio-intellectual context of his thought. The second chapter, “Ibn Khaldun’sScience of Society,” focuses on his founding of the science of humansociety and is followed by “Ibn Khaldun on Education and Knowledge,”which examines his modern educationist views of pedagogy and knowledgein terms of its social, political, and economic aspects. Alatas shows that IbnKhaldun’s perspective on education, as seen through the various lenses of historyand sociology, was refreshingly different from the then dominant perspectivesof philosophers, theologians, moralists, and jurists.The ensuing chapter, “The Reception of Ibn Khaldun,” situates him in theevolution of Islamic thought and contemporary social sciences, whereas thetwo final chapters, “The Significance of Ibn Khaldun for the Modern SocialSciences” and “Further Reading and Works Cited,” encapsulate Alatas’ suggestionsfor developing a Khaldunian sociology and include a list of furtherreadings, alongside discussions on works ranging from Ibn Khaldun’s biographyto critiques of his methodology.In the introductory chapter, which provides the context for the formationof Ibn Khaldun’s thought, readers are better able to appreciate his empiricallyoriented scholarship. Embedded in the politically fragmented Maghrebian society,his political career as a judge and government official required him toshift his political loyalties consistently. This played a determining role in developinghis ideas on how states rise and decline. Alatas highlights Ibn Khaldun’spolitical involvement as instrumental in his systematic uncovering of theflaws in existing historical works. Ibn Khaldun himself identifies seven causal ...
The Reckoning of Pluralism
Authors: Hart Kimberly
Published: October 2020

At the time Tambar wrote The Reckoning of Pluralism, there was a briefopening in Turkish political life during which ethnic and sectarian pluralitywas both imaginable and debatable. This opening, initiated by the ruling AKP,attempted to create an official conversation about the Alevis and the Kurds.This move indicated that those who have state power were willing to acceptthe suggestion that Turkish nationalism could encompass sectarian and ethnicdiversity. The opening, however, was brutally closed via the violent attackson peaceful protestors during the Gezi Park events of 2013. Turkishpolitics changes rapidly, and what was a moment of optimism among thosewho hope for a greater freedom of expression in Turkey may be revived.This means that Tambar conducted his research when Turks were beginningto discuss religious and ethnic difference, the ongoing war with the Kurdsand possible solutions, and a troubled national memory avoided by nationalisthistorians. Only further research can tell us if the Alevi community feelsthere is a possibility of greater religious expression. But even within thecontext of this brief opening, Tambar’s work contributes to the question ofhow the Turkish government locates, defines, and confines religion, in thiscase Alevism, in the national imaginary via nationalist historians.Tambar’s work contributes to a growing body of ethnographic and sociologicalliterature on Turkey’s powerful if obviously constructed ideologicalworldview, in which the state ushers into existence self-evident “truths” forits citizens. In this case the truth is the origin, meaning, and role of the nation’sAlevis. The author describes how their history has been domesticated (chap.3), how public performances of religiosity are self-contained by the Alevis,who are now burdened with the need to perform national unity and forget aspectsof ritual that appear “irrelevant” to contemporary, urban, political, andideological issues (chaps. 2 and 4), and how ritual has become intellectualizedand historicized (chap. 5). Chapter 6, the final chapter, discusses a non-stateAlevi mosque run by imams trained in Iran.The book will be useful for specialists, for whom lingering questionsabout this group’s oft-repeated “shamanistic” origin is a puzzle. Tambar forcefullyilluminates the origins of this nationalist fiction and the related denial ofany possible connection with Shi‘i Islam. Naturally, for those with some backgroundin Ottoman history, the denial of the Alevis’ sectarian connections to ...
New Ventures into the Field of Interreligious Dialogue
Authors: Dastmalchian Amir
Published: October 2020

Books Reviewed: Catherine Cornille, ed., The Wiley-Blackwell Companionto Inter-Religious Dialogue. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2013;Daniel S. Brown, Jr., ed., A Communication Perspective on Interfaith Dialogue:Living within the Abrahamic Traditions. Plymouth, UK: LexingtonBooks, 2013; Daniel S. Brown, Jr., ed., Interfaith Dialogue in Practice: Christian,Muslim, Jew. Kansas City, MO: Rockhurst University Press, 2013.These three volumes represent fifty individual contributions to the topic of interreligiousdialogue. In this essay I will concentrate on providing a flavor ofthe approach taken in each volume and, where possible, on those contributionswhich relate closely to the study of Islam and Muslims. I will discuss the threetitles in the order they have been cited above and then offer a short conclusion.The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Inter-Religious Dialogue represents auseful introduction to both the theoretical and the practical issues raised by interreligiousdialogue as well including a number of case studies of interreligiousdialogue. Ten chapters comprise the focal topics of part 1 and seventeen chapterscomprise the case studies of part 2. The topics covered by the chapters arequite wide ranging and show a good deal of originality in that they do not featurewidely in the extant interreligious dialogue literature. For example, in part1 there is a chapter on art and interreligious dialogue and another on interreligiousworship; and in part 2, of the various possible religion combinations,there are chapters on Shinto-Buddhist dialogue and Confucian-Jewish dialogue.All of the chapters of part 2 give some space to outlining the history of the interreligiousrelations which they discuss and all (with one exception) are acknowledgedto be written from one side of a relationship rather than the other.Turning to some of the chapters of the volume we can begin by notingLeonard Swidler’s history of interreligious dialogue in chapter 1. Swidlercharts the rise of interreligious dialogue and the increasing awareness of itsneed, postulating that we are now facing a significant new era in human ...
Ali A. Mazrui, IIIT, and the Muslim Experience in the United States of America
Authors: Ibrahim Zakyi
Published: October 2020

This editorial is dedicated to paying a tribute to Professor Ali A. Mazrui, whopassed away in Binghamton, New York, on October 13, 2014. From 2009(AJISS 26:1) until his passing, Professor Mazrui was the editor-in-chief forthis journal. In years to come, we may consider dedicating a special issue tohim and his general intellectual contributions. But for now, we present the followingtribute penned by his friend and colleague, Professor Sulayman S.Nyang (Howard University, Washington, DC), as published in IIIT “SpecialIssue: Farewell Professor Ali Mazrui” (October 2014).Professor Ali A. Mazrui, the celebrated scholar, author, and public intellectualfrom Kenya came, performed, and departed gracefully. Certainly, those whoknew him well gladly fared him well, knowing beyond reasonable doubt thathe had the nerve and the verve to represent both Islam and Africa faithfullyand effectively. It is against this background that one can examine a profile ofthe man and his legacies within many domains in America, the Islamic world,and in the larger world ...
Media Framing of the Muslim World
Authors: Bullock Katherine
Published: October 2020

A succinct and accessible book, with many chapters that can stand alone asreadings for undergraduate or graduate classes, Media Framing of the MuslimWorld: Conflicts, Crises, and Contexts is a welcome addition to the literatureon Muslims and the media. The authors build on three key concepts: the ideathat the media should function, but often does not, as the fourth estate (an independentand critical press); Edward Said’s Orientalism(the West as the perpetuallysuperior Other who must represent the Orient, which is incapable ofdoing so itself), and in its modern form, Islamophobia; and the importance ofhistory and context in understanding key events in the Muslim world (as distinctfrom religious determinism).The book is divided into eight chapters with an introduction and a conclusion:“Islam and the Muslim world,” “Media-Generated Muslims and Islamophobia,”“Image and Reality of Reporting War and Conflict in the Muslim World,” “Asylum Seekers,” “Covering Terrorism Suspects.” “The ArabSpring,” “A Clash of Civilizations?” and “Moving on from 9/11?” The chaptersare not an extended study of a singular type of media representation of Muslims,but rather a bringing together separate elements into a whole so that wecan look at the issues from several viewpoints. I will mention three of thosethat cover topics not often found in academic studies of Muslims and the media.Chapter 3 relates the personal experiences of John Martinkus, a professionaljournalist trying to cover the Iraq war over the last decade for a bookand later on SBS (Special Broadcasting Service), an Australian broadcast company.His story highlights how the increasingly dangerous on-the-ground situationeventually interfered with proper reporting. Not only did it become veryexpensive to hire security, but western journalists were largely confined to reportingfrom safe hotels and subcontracting to local Iraqis or being embeddedwith the military. Martinkus notes that the only Iraqis they could interviewwere those employed by the US military/media or who had a US military gunpointing at them. Journalists living in fear tended to support Washington’s viewas to why they were there and the efficacy of the mission itself ...
Islamic Geometric Design
Authors: Gaber Tammy
Published: October 2020

The subject of Islamic geometric design has been described in numerous ways:Keith Critchlow’s Islamic Patterns and Syed Jan Abbas and Amer ShakerSalman’s Symmetries of Islamic Geometrical Patterns, both highly esotericinterpretations; Owen Jones’ Grammar of Ornament, Emile Prisse d’Avennes’L’Art arabe d’apres les monuments du Kaire, and Jules Bourgoin’s ArabicGeometrical Pattern and Design, all descriptions of drawing collections; andeven as a theme for countless “coffee table” books resplendent with glossyphotographs of exotic patterns and colors.Is it fair to evaluate this book without tending to imagine the previouscategories of this study? Years ago I led a course on this topic and desperatelytried to juggle the beautiful, historic, and hands-on practical manifestationsof the sacred through drawing particular geometric patterns over and over again. For this course I needed to select chapters, or portions of the abovementionedtexts in addition to the comprehensive works of K. A. Creswellin Early Muslim Architecture, Doris Behrens-Abou Seif’s Mamluks of Cairoand Minarets of Cairo, as well as other architectural studies, and interpretand reconstruct the designs in order to teach them. It was a research projectof sorts where the outcome was not textual but pedagogical.While reading this text by Eric Broug, I felt that he had gone through asimilar but far more prolonged process. His book stands alone for severalreasons: the author (1) weaves knowledge of the historical, recognition ofthe beautiful, and reconstruction of the practical regarding patterns. The succinctexplanatory text, incredible detailed photography in situ, and clear stepby-step diagrams converge to elucidate this rich material; (2) outlines theinfluence of other artistic traditions and the development of a clear type of“Islamic geometry” that is easily recognizable; and (3) concentrates on thedesign approach of craftspeople, which was separate and concurrent with thescientific study of geometry. This difference is important: craftspeople appliedgeometric patterns to various surfaces and were concerned with aestheticcompositions; whereas scientists contemplated the complex patternsin terms of mathematical geometries ...
Reflections on the Aftermath of the Arab Spring
Authors: Willoughby Jay
Published: October 2020

On November 18, 2014, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, founder and board member,IIIT; leader of the Malaysian opposition; and former deputy prime ministerof Malaysia, shared his “Reflections on the Aftermath of the Arab Spring” withthe general public at the IIIT headquarters in Herndon, VA.He opened with “O you who believe! Obey Allah and obey the Apostleand those in authority from among you” (Q. 4:59), which he considers one ofthe Qur’an’s “most used and abused verses.” In addition to being used to supportdemocracy, it is abused by many others to demand the masses’ supportfor dictators, authoritarian, and military junta rule regardless of how they aretreated. This verse also highlights an issue that has rocked the Arab world eversince December 17, 2010, when Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi sethimself on fire to protest the continued abuse and harassment inflicted uponhim by the Tunisian police force: the issue of governmental legitimacy, whichis a problem in both the West and the Muslim world. Anwar stated that thegovernment must represent a majority consensus, respect some process (e.g.,democracy), and allow people the freedom of expression so that they can expresstheir support, disgust, or opposition.The Arabs’ demand for legitimate governance has been on the mind ofIIIT as well, for its leaders have spent the last decade addressing this concernfrom the point of view of the maqāṣid. Anwar traced this concern back to along-ago meeting when several of the IIIT founders were discussing why therewas no Muslim equivalent of the “Western canon,” the “Great Books,” a “greatintellectual tradition.” This was the start of an ongoing process to fill this gapin contemporary Muslim literature.The outbreak of Arab Spring clearly revealed that there is still a need todeal with ethics in governance, for lasting reform can only be actualized inthe form of systems. The ongoing abuse, corruption, repression, and brutalityinflicted upon the people by their own leaders is, according to him, something ...
Un-Islamic or Non-Muslim
Authors: Ibrahim Zakyi
Published: October 2020

The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attractedpsychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffectedpopulations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preachedby its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretationsof Islam.”1This editorial analyzes the phenomenon of violent extremism and its identificationand association with Islam by analysts and critics. In my 29:1 editorial“The Stigma of Extremism on Muslims,” I suggested that the violent elementsin Islam are no more than “a fraction of the 7 percent of global Muslim populationconsidered to be ‘politically radicalized,’ including [non-violent] sympathizers”2 and “an inescapable nuisance and … regrettable stigma [to] thelarger Muslim majority.”3 I stand by these points, the iteration of which, in thiscurrent editorial, gains its prime relevance.Here, I argue further that despite the Prophet’s prohibition of labeling otherself-confessed practicing Muslims as “non-Muslims”4 regardless of their actions(i.e., takfīr), extremists nevertheless use it to give themselves the licenseto kill other Muslims, a fact that makes their actions “un-Islamic.” I also maintainthat the peace-loving Muslim majority has the moral right and intellectualprerogative to denounce this violent minority and to get their denunciation appreciatedand deemed supreme.
Historiography in the Twenty-First Century
Authors: Gada Muhammad Yaseen
Published: October 2020

Books Reviewed: Thomas F. Madden, The Concise History of the Crusades,3d ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014); Paul M. Cobb, The Racefor Paradise (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014); Jonathan Harris,Byzantium and the Crusades, 2d ed. (London: Bloomsbury, 2014).

During the last six decades, historians have adopted various approaches tostudying the Crusades. Unfortunately, few contemporary Muslim scholarshave dealt with this topic at all. In the aftermath of 9/11, however, this seriesof European military invasions of the Middle East began to reappear in themedia as analysts, historians, and academics posited that they were a precursorof the region’s present sociopolitical disorder as daunting as the current East-West discourse and relations between the Christian and Muslim worlds.1 Someworks deconstruct the perception that there is no connection between them,whereas others view the Crusades from the Islamic perspective in an attemptto balance the general triumphalist western narrative.2This essay focuses on three recent works that, although dealing with differentstandpoints, are explicitly interwoven. Thomas F. Madden’s The ConciseHistory of the Crusades “is an attempt to illuminate the complex relationshipof the past to the present” and narrates the Crusades in a “concise, understandable,and engaging manner” (pp. vii, viii) based on modern scholarship; PaulM. Cobb’s The Race for Paradise shows how medieval Muslims perceivedthe Crusades and is based on his research primarily from original Islamicsources (p. 6); and Jonathan Harris’ Byzantium and the Crusades concentrateson the relations between Byzantium and the Latin West during the Crusades.Madden’s book comprises ten chapters. Chapter 1, “The Call,” discussesthe crusading movement’s background as primarily an act of piety despite anunderlying current of selfish/secular desires, a fact that western scholars oftenoverlook. He also criticizes historians who believe that many Crusaders weremotivated by medieval Europe’s policy of “castoffs,” wherein only the firstson could inherit his father’s estate, by stating that the majority of crusading ...
The young Turks and the Ottoman Nationalities
Authors: Gökçek Mustafa
Published: October 2020

This volume, short and rich in primary source material, focuses on the relationshipbetween the Ottoman central government (Istanbul) and the empire’svarious nationalities during the fateful 1908-18 period. Istanbul’s struggle toaddress enormous political and military challenges, European involvement,and the rise of nationalism and ethnic/religious resentments are duly covered.The book is well organized with a dedicated section for each nationality. Exceptfor the Greek and Armenian struggles through WWI, which is coveredin a single chapter, each nation’s history is covered in two periods: 1908-14and 1914-18 (except the Albanians). Ahmad impartially re-constructs thesenationalities’ history in order to detail all aspects of the challenges that theyfaced and posed to Ottoman governance.In the chapter on the Armenians, Ahmad discusses the political interactionsof such Armenian organizations as Dashnak with the Committee ofUnion and Progress (CUP) and their coalitions with various political groups.The Kurdish-Armenian “land question” tensions, which dated from the SultanAbdulhamid period, continued to rise. Ahmad’s portrayal also gives us aglimpse of British and French involvement in the Armenian community’s issues.Russia’s policy would change in 1912 from one of keeping good relationswith the CUP to supporting the Armenians and Greeks against Istanbul.The Balkan Wars and the Ottoman defeats revealed its vulnerabilities as wellas the weakness of the CUP’s centralization policies.Istanbul was aware of the problems in Anatolia, especially between theKurds and the Armenians, and understood the necessity of resolving the ...
Martyrdom in Modern Islam
Authors: Dar Showkat Ahmad
Published: October 2020

Meir Hatina, associate professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies anddirector of the Levtzion Center for Islamic studies at the Hebrew Universityof Jerusalem, explores the evolving perceptions of martyrdom in modern timesand their relevance on past legacies in both Sunni and Shi‘i milieus. He alsomakes comparative references to Judaism, Christianity, and other non-Islamiccultures. The book is divided into eight chapters, an introduction, a conclusion,a bibliography, and an index.In the introduction the author discusses the manifestations of martyrdomthroughout history, its definitions, socio-political implications, and importancein various world religions. In order to present this concept’s historical evolutionand notions and how it is an effective tool for forming and reinforcinggroups, Hatina has framed his book in a series of well-arranged chapters.In the first chapter, “Defying the Oppressor: Martyrdom in Judaism andChristianity,” the author traces the historical and theological foundations ofthis phenomenon in both religions. He relates how traditional Jews were readyto sacrifice their life and viewed martyrdom as the highest degree of their lovefor God. However, he argues that with the advent of the Zionist movement,this readiness was replaced “by an activist approach to self-sacrifice for thenational revival.” Christians, on the other hand, considered martyrdom “thekey for salvation.” By quoting the remarks of Quintus Tertullian (d. c. 240),the father of Latin Christianity, namely, “your cruelty is our glory” and “theblood of the martyrs is the seed of the church” (p. 26), Hatina seeks to expressthe early Christians’ readiness to embrace their non-violent and defensivedeaths at the hands of the pagan Romans.In chapter 2, “Dying for God in Islam,” Hatina delineates the evidence ofmartyrdom in Islamic texts and its diverse interpretations by renowned scholars.He mentions the two types of death in this regard – death for the cause of Allahand self-inflicted suicide – and cites the relevant fatwas of both Sunni and Shi‘ischolars. Denouncing any sort of self-inflicted suicide, including murder withreference to shar‘ī texts, he nevertheless appreciates the soldiers’ wish for deathon the battlefield against their enemies. He presents martyrdom in Islamic legalthought as an exalted form of death and argues that theologians stressed that asoldier who desires such a death eventually finds a greater reward ...
Violent Muslim Extremism Flagrantly Dares the World
Authors: Ibrahim Zakyi
Published: October 2020

This editorial reflects on an aspect of the root causes of the current refugeeand migrant influx into Europe: Can the Muslim world’s extremist elements,who brazenly continue to dare the international community, be decisively defeatedso that peace and tranquility can be restored to the Middle East and theworld at large? I contend that this menace can be decisively eliminated. However,and most importantly, the international community – all of its potentials,commitments, and declarations notwithstanding – lacks a genuine unity ofpurpose and a strong will to defeat it.A Brief ClarificationThe definition of a terrorist is simple and clear, and yet there is no consensusor objectivity on whom and how to apply it.1Although any individual or groupthat terrorizes others can be described as terrorist, people tend to ascribe it onlyto those with whom they disagree (mainly Muslims). Thus when their “kind”or allies engage in similar acts they are not terrorists.2All those who use violenceto terrorize others need to be labeled terrorists, regardless of their politicaland religious affiliations. I employ violent Muslim extremists here because itaccurately describes the people I have in mind: Those Muslims who are violentand extremist, and nobody else. But terrorist can – and should – be applied toanyone who uses violence against others ...
Dr. Jamal Barzinji
Authors: Family IIIT
Published: October 2020

It is with deep sadness that the International Institute of IslamicThought (IIIT) announces the passing of Dr. Jamal Barzinji, its presidentand founding member, on Saturday, September 26, 2015, aftera long-standing illness.“Among the believers are men [and women] who have been true to whatthey have vowed before God” (Qur’an, 33:23).Dr. Jamal was born on December 15, 1939, in Mosul, Iraq. Onthe night of his birth his father, Imam Muhammad al-Barzinji, madethe following entry in his diary: “It was a bitterly cold night, and ason was born to me. I have named him Jamal al-Din.” His father instilledin his young son a deep and abiding love for Allah and Islam,a profound appreciation for Arabic, and a heartfelt respect and devotionfor truth and values – and young Jamal carried these passionswith him throughout his life, translating the strength of his convictionsinto action until the very last day of his life.Despite his acute and protracted illness Dr. Barzinji continuedto display his usual unwavering commitment, as well as his strengthof will and dedication, in whatever project he was involved. Withstandingchronic pain he would come to the office; when unable todo so he would work from home. He met with colleagues, oversawIIIT work, and remained engaged with the Institute until his finalhours. So engrained were these practices that the thought of not welcomingthose scholars and students who participated in the annualIIIT Summer School and Institute for Scholars never entered hismind. This life-long proponent of serving Islam expanded his work asthe years passed. He used his exceptional organizational talents andskills to help found many major Muslim institutions, among them ...
The Oxford Handbook of American Islam
Authors: Tottoli Roberto
Published: October 2020

Shortly after publishing Jocelyne Cesari’s edited Handbook of European Islam(Oxford University Press: 2014), Oxford University Press more or less roundsoff the topic of Muslims in the western world with this volume on the UnitedStates. The editors, Yvonne Y. Haddad and Jane I Smith, have made amplecontributions on this topic during the last twenty years at least. This volume,to some extent, updates their previous works that have followed the evolutionand changes seen by the country’s Muslim communities (e.g., Muslim Communitiesin North America [Albany: SUNY Press, 1994], edited by both, andThe Muslims of America [New York: Oxford University Press, 1991], editedby Haddad). This may not be the last step in this direction, but it is certainlythe most comprehensive and ambitious one so far.The titles of their previous works, and indeed of this volume, touch on apreliminary problem. As a matter of fact, the volume should have borne thetitle Islam in the USA, since Central and Latin America and even Canada arenot mentioned. Many reasons, in any case, justify this circumscribed focus.As rightly pointed out in the “Introduction” (p. 4), American Islam is the mostheterogeneous in the world and no doubt constitutes the main issue when dealingwith Islam in North, Central, and South America. It is also the most heterogeneousand the most complex. As a matter of fact, these complex lines ofevolution of the West’s Islamic communities are exemplified by a simple comparisonbetween the two handbooks. Whereas Cesari’s edited European Islamwas described with an extensive first part that introduced the history and evolutionof Muslim communities in European countries plus some thematicchapters, in this book the approach is different.The thirty chapters deal with a number of specific topics identified assignificant, not to say fundamental, and are, furthermore, organized in three ...
Al-Ghazālī’s Moderation in Belief
Authors: McBrayer Gregory A. , El-Rayes Waseem
Published: October 2020

Al-Ghazali (Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Tusi al-Ghazali,1058-1111) is one of the most important thinkers in the history of Islamic andArabic thought. He lived and wrote at the height of the intellectual ferment ofIslam. Originally from Tus (in modern day Iran), he traveled extensivelythroughout the Muslim world. Al-Ghazali was a leading religious intellectualduring his lifetime; he was a jurist (faqīh), a theologian (mutakallim), as wellas a Sufi. Three of his most famous works are: The Incoherence of the Philosophers,Deliverer from Error, and Revivification of the Religious Sciences. Thefirst work contains al-Ghazali’s famous and devastating attack on philosophy,and while it deals in large measure with theology and theological claims, it isprincipally a refutative work. In this book, al-Ghazali investigates philosophicaldoctrines and criticizes philosophers for holding many heretical opinions,especially for three blasphemous views that are deserving of death: the beliefin the pre-eternity of the world (in effect denying God’s creation of the world),the denial of God’s knowledge of particulars, and the denial of the resurrectionof bodies and their assembly at the Day of Judgment. This work is largely ...
Muslims in the Western Imagination
Authors: Newlon Brendan
Published: October 2020

Through research spanning 1,300 years, Sophia Rose Arjana presents a historicalgenealogy of monstrous representations of Muslims that haunt thewestern imagination and continue to sustain the contemporary bigotry of Islamophobia.The central question introduced in the first section, “Introduction:Islam in the Western Imagination,” is “How did we get here, to this place ofhijab bans and outlawed minarets, secret renditions of enemy combatants,Abu Ghraib, and GTMO?” (p. 1).To answer this question, Arjana highlights connections between historicalrepresentations of Muslims and monstrosity in imagery, literature, film, andpopular culture to produce a volume she describes as “an archive of Muslimmonsters” and “a jihad – an effort – to reveal Muslims as human beings insteadof the phantasms they are often presented as” (p. 16). This work is a timelycontribution that will benefit scholars researching anti-Muslim sentiment, Islamophobia,postcolonial and subaltern studies, the psychology of xenophobiaand genocide, or who are interested in historical manifestations of Islamophobia,antisemitism, and racism in art, literature, film, and media.In the first chapter, “The Muslim Monster,” the author argues that cultural“ideas of normativity are often situated in notions of alterity” and thatmonstrous representations of Muslims have functioned as an enduring signifierof alterity against which the West has attempted to define itself sincethe Middle Ages. Through the production of dehumanized and monstrousrepresentations, Muslims became part of a mythological landscape at theperipheries of Christian civilization that included dragons, giants, and dogheadedmen. The grotesque and uncanny attributes of monsters reveal theanxieties of the society that produces such images, and chief among thoseis the fear of racial contamination and the dissolution of culture through interminglingwith the foreign and the strange. Each of the following chaptersfocuses on depictions of Muslims as monsters in visual arts and literaturewithin a particular era or context.The second chapter, “Medieval Muslim Monsters,” introduces Muslimmonsters of the Middle Ages, many of which survived as tropes used to vilifyMuslims, Arabs, Jews, and Africans for centuries thereafter. This chapter introducesmonsters such as “the giant, man-eating Saracens of medieval romancesand the Black Saracens, often shown in medieval art executing saints,harassing and killing Jesus, and murdering other Christian innocents” (p. 19) ...