bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Beyond Turk and Hindu
Authors: Ahmed Nazeer
Published: October 2020

Beyond Turk and Hindu grew out of a collection of papers presented at a conferenceon "Islam in South Asia," held at Duke University in April 1995. Ithas 3 sections, 13 chapters, 8 photographs, 3 maps, 2 tables, a glossary, andan index. The book deals with the broad subject of civilizational interfaces inthe South Asian context. It belongs to the category of interfaith relations andis addressed to a general audience interested in the Hindu-Muslim dialectic.The authors do not accept the premise that interreligious differences inSouth Asia are set and irreconcilable. To quote the editor: "We vigorouslycontend that there is a larger point to make, namely, that the constant interplayand overlap between Islamic and Indic worldviews may be at least aspervasive as the Muslim-Hindu conflict ... " This position is a challenge tothose scholars who view India and Pakistan as embodiments of two separatereligious identities.Section One contains three essays on textual analysis to assess the samenessand otherness of identity formation. The authors do not avoid the controversiesthat are bound to emerge from the sometimes disparaging tennsused by Hindus and Muslims to refer to each other, or the animosities thathave emerged from the desecration of mosques and temples:Arabic and Persian use of the term Hindu had a range of meanings thatchanged over time, sometimes denoting an ethnic or geographic referentwithout religious content. Similarly, Indic texts referring to the invadersfrom the northwest used a variety of terms in different contexts, includingyavanas, m/ecchas,farangis, musafmans, and Turks. These terms sometimescarried a strong negative connotation, but they rarely denoted a distinctreligious community conceived in opposition to Hindus. In and ofthemselves, however, such terms tell us little. To understand the usage ofthese terms, one must move beyond the terminology itself- beyond Turkand Hindu - to analyze the framing categories and generic contexts withinwhich these terms are used.The authors illustrate the power of bidirectional cultural forces by offeringthe example of the Punjab's Bulle Shah and Bengal's mystical Satya Pir.Bulle Shah, a contemporary of Shah Waliullah of Delhi, lived in the late ...
Faith Schools
Authors: Messoudi Michele
Published: October 2020

Opening Speech: Lord DearingLorcl Dearing (C. of E.) gave an overview of the Dearing Report, publishedin June 2001. He reminded the audience that historically, education hasbeen rooted in faith. The influence of the state has been increasingly feltsince 1870. He raised the issues of what justifies faith schools and distinguishesthem from others. He covered the arguments of spiritual/moral educationprovision; and parental wish. He commented that parents look tofaith schools for their discipline, caring attitude and security of values.When discussing the academic achievement argument, he commented thatGCSE results in faith schools are 12% higher than in non faith schools,which still made them more attractive, if not spectacularly so.He stressed that recently, faith schools have been urged to be inclusive.They should respect people of other faiths and challenge those of no faith.Ultimately, the outcome of faith schools is measured by the quality ofhuman beings they educate.Faith Schools: Consensus or Conflict?Keynote Speech by Professor Richard Pring (University of Oxford)Richard Pring (Catholic) stated in his introduction that there was a paradoxin the fact that 33% schools in the UK are faith schools when 45% peopleclaim to have no faith. He reviewed the arguments for faith schools: higheracademic standards, including in disadvantaged communities, although theNFER research qualifies this evidence; diversity; choice: the issue is ratherwhat are the aims we seek to promote?; ethos/value system; equality of treatment,although this could easily be reversed and lead to the abolition of allfaith schools; parents v. State, cf.. "Education is too important to be put inthe hands of the State." Pring considers the argument of academic excellence ...
Editorial
Authors: Zine Jasmin , Bullock Katherine
Published: October 2020

Introduction Historically, the category of"Muslim woman" has been a malleable construct subject to constant redefinition to suit particular political, cultural, or ideo­logical purposes. Policing this category is done by errant religious groups like the Taliban as well as western secular feminists. Both groups inscribe com­peting and contradictory frames of reference on Muslim women's bodies. Located within this dialectical dynamic, the rhetoric of Muslim women's lib­eration is all too often caught up in the vast undercurrents of ideological extremism on the one hand, and racism and Islamophobia on the other. Tn the dominant academic discourses, the images of subjugated Muslim women persist, despite feminist movement away from essential ism and the increasing academic and political investment in polyvocality and personal narrative. Discourses of "Otherness" in feminist writing quite often begin with liberal notions of "letting women speak." However, these voices are often muted by the alterity of the oppressed or victim-centered tropes through which they are represented. This type of representational politics implicitly denies that Muslim women possess the political maturity to speak for themselves ...
The Veil Unveiled
Authors: Bullock Katherine
Published: October 2020

Finally, the study ofhijab has come of age. After Shirazi's book, no one willbe able to argue that "the" hijab means any one thing divorced from its context.In six chapters, Shirazi investigates the "semantic versatility of theveil" in western popular culture, Saudi advertising, Iranian and Indian poetryand films, and for Iranian, Iraqi, and UAE women soldiers. Not surprisingly,the veil means different things in different contexts, and Shirazi'sbook is a rich study of this diversity. She reinforces her arguments by thewealth of photographs that depict veiled women in multiple contexts.Just how different the veil's semantics can be is highlighted in chapter I:"Veiled lmages in Advertising." ln this fascinating comparative study of theveil's use in western and Saudi advertising, Shirazi shows that its meaning inan ad depends on the target audience. So when advertisers target westernmiddle-class male consumers, the veil is presented as an exotic and sexualizingpiece of cloth. In a 1996 commercial for Chrysler's Jeep Cherokee shotin Morocco, a veiled woman is seen smiling and admiring the Jeep-sendingthe message that "if he buys the Jeep . . . He may even win the admiration ofthe most inaccessible of women, the woman with the veil." Western exotica, ...
May Her Likes Be Multiplied
Authors: Stockdale Nancy L.
Published: October 2020

Marilyn Booth's remarkable study blends literary criticism with historicalresearch to better understand the construction of modem Egyptian womanhood.Booth analyzes hundreds of women's biographies that were writtenin the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and published in thepopular women's press. She situates this activity within the context ofEgypt's nationalist struggle and burgeoning feminist movement at a time offoreign economic, military, and cultural domination. With the publicationof biographies of women as diverse as the Prophet's wives, Jeanne d'Arc,Hatshepsut, Jane Austin, and Safiyya Zaghlul, Booth uncovers the diversi tyof the Egyptian women's press in its scope and vision of what Egyptshould expect of its women.Booth complicates our understandings of women's participation in thepublic sphere by illuminating the ethnic and religious diversity of theEgyptian women's press. She also delves deeply into the class issues motivatingthe construction of the ideal Egyptian woman as a selfless member ofher family - both nuclear and national - conforming her domestic sphere tothe mold of communal, nationalist needs. Revealing women authors as bothshaping and being shaped by contemporary ideas of successful femininity,Booth's study is perhaps the most potent analysis of Egyptian feminism publishedin quite some time. It is an indispensable guide to a literature steepedin the Arabic literary past as well as modem Egyptian society.In a complex prologue, Booth argues that any examination of authorshipcan only vaguely determine how audiences react to published texts.Thus, although she sets out to analyze the messages inherent in women'sbiographies, she cannot relay the manner in which the women's press wasreceived by its audience. Her book is an analysis of prescription throughexample, but only can hint at the resulting impact. Booth focuses on howthese biographies became part of a larger social project to define women asnational symbols situating the nation as the ultimate community, all thewhile maintaining patriarchal constructs in the home and other socialspheres. She declares the biographies she examines to be ultimately "feminist,"for, although they often maintain crucial elements of the status ...
Wholeness and Holiness in Education
Authors: Ibrahim Zeinab
Published: October 2020

Wholeness and Holiness in Education: An Islamic Perspective is a veryinteresting book. Although the book is a result of her experience as aMuslim graduate student in Canada, she does not mention any personal reasonsfor writing this book, but rather tackles it very lightly without mentioningthe hard experiences she faced when her faith was questioned. AMuslim who has taken her faith for granted for years and had had little orno communication with the West was questioned for the first time in her lifeabout many aspects of her faith and found herself unable to provide adequateanswers. Her book is the result of such an experience, one whichmany others in her circumstances and situation have faced and will have toface. Although the author frequently tackles abstract ideas, she always providesscholarly explanations and discussions by quoting and elaboratingupon many well-known figures in various disciplines.The book is divided into four parts and has a total of nine chapters. Thefirst part, “Reflection on Personal Experience,” includes two chapters. Inthem, she tries to take the reader from her own personal experience to thebook’s goal: preparing Muslim students in their homelands’ educationalsystems to think and question their faith so that they can stand on solidground. In chapter 1, “The Spiritual and Intellectual Journey,” she apologizesfor including her personal experience growing up as a Muslim.Actually, more elaboration upon such experiences and on the conflicts shefaced while studying in Canada would have been appreciated, as such atopic requires that personal experiences be shared, given that they are notlimited to one person but rather to millions of individuals. Chapter 2,“Spirituality: Woman’s Best-Kept Secret,” further analyzes the significanceof such experiences to women specifically ...
Revising Culture, Reinventing Peace
Authors: Hammer Juliane
Published: October 2020

In 1997, a group of scholars gathered at the University of Windsor to honorEdward W. Said and his lifetime achievements as a scholar and activist witha conference entitled “Culture, Politics, and Peace.” The present volume, a collection of the papers presented, show just how far reaching his influencehas been over the last three decades. While his profound influence on comparativeliterature and Palestine studies are well known, this volume revealshow his writings have prompted generations of scholars to question takenfor-granted postulations, discourses, and paradigms in literature, area studies,and politics. The papers also applaud his role as an advocate of thePalestinian cause and the way he has tirelessly and critically observed anddocumented the Palestinians’ fate.The three parts following Richard Falk’s introduction, “Nationalism,”“On Orientalism,” and “To Palestine,” address three dominant themes inSaid’s works. In “Empowering Inquiry: Our Debt to Edward W. Said,” Falkcelebrates Said’s work as a scholar of many interests and talents, and outlineshow his deeply humanist worldview, personal experience as an exile,and critical mind have produced the impressive oeuvre of a leading intellectualof our time. Falk is also the first to mention Said’s emphasis on secularismand his constant critique and warning against bringing religion intothe realm of knowledge and politics. This has not prevented Said fromdefending religious freedom and Muslims in particular, but might have ledhim to underestimate the moral and intellectual appeal of religious traditionsand a religious approach to knowledge. In the case of Palestine andPalestinian politics, his uncompromisingly secular and anti-sectarian viewsat times make his visions for the future seem incompatible with the region’srealities. Falk points out that Said’s rejection of religion relates to his rejectionof absolute truths, or the claim to it, and that he instead chose a “compassionateand engaged rationalism” as his worldview.The section on “Nationalities” starts with Lennard J. Davis’ fascinatingessay on “Nationality, Disability, and Deafness,” in which he convincinglyargues for the status of deaf people as a nation or community with nation-likefeatures. He explains his work with disability as influenced by Said’s workand engagement in political activism. Davis recalls his personal encounterswith Said as a teacher and scholar, and relates his own engagement in advocacyfor the deaf to Said’s influence ...
Authority, Continuity, and Change in Islamic Law
Authors: Haque Muhammad M.
Published: October 2020

This book traces the development of Islamic law from its earliest period tothe full formative period, when the major madhahib were established, toshow that institutionalizing Islamic law always involved a reasoned defenseand calculative move. Hallaq asserts that such processes were not an innovation;rather, they were embedded in the structure of the original legal traditionsthat allowed for continual social change and the maintenance of orderand stability in Islam’s social system. Throughout the ages, the Shari‘ah hasbeen subjected to a dialectical milieu and change as dictated by varying socialconditions. This further stimulated change to maintain the established order’svery essence, which was based on the logic of reasoning and calculation.The juristic structure of authority did not remain very rigid and conservativeas it seemed, except for a few cases. Rather, at a certain level, ...
Al-Qur’an
Authors: Afsaruddin Asma
Published: October 2020

Ahmed Ali’s book is a much welcome addition to the multiple editions nowavailable of Islam’s holy book in English rendition. As the dust jacket informsus, this translation of the Qur’an’s meaning was first published in the UnitedStates in 1988. Now reprinted and handsomely reproduced in a handy size,these factors and its esthetics and readability make this volume suitable forgeneral and classroom use. Educators who wish to assign a good translationof the Qur’an’s meaning, particularly for undergraduates, will find this workan obvious choice out of the plethora of choices currently available.Ali’s work avoids the linguistic archaism of Muhammad MarmadukePickthall’s otherwise excellent rendition, jarring to the ears of a typical 20-year-old today reared on television English. A. J. Arberry’s translation, celebratedfor its lyrical richness and its being supposedly (but not quite)evocative of the Arabic original, is stilted in parts and even inaccurate onoccasion. When I assigned it for my undergraduate class on Islam a fewyears ago, at times I had to stop and disentangle the occasional fracturedsyntax for my students and reconstruct the original Arabic in my mind toextricate the literal meaning, sometimes sacrificed for literary effect.My next choice was T. B. Irving’s rendition of the Qur’an’s meaning intowhat he called American English. Although largely accurate, the rendition’spedestrian nature, which bordered on the colloquial, was disappointinglyinadequate to the task. Although the meaning was clear, the majesty of transcendentalverbum dei was not evoked. N. J. Dawood’s widely used renditionis certainly adequate, but the prose is occasionally limp and uninspiring, andthus unsatisfying at a deeper level.Ali’s work straddles a happy medium between contemporaneity instyle and elegance of diction, both achieved without any sacrifice in ...
hikaayaat kaliila wa-dimna li-tulaab al-lughat al-carabiyya (Tales from Kalila wa Dimna for Students of Arabic [retold])
Authors: Roochnik Paul
Published: October 2020

The title Kalila wa Dimna first came to my attention long ago in my secondyear of Arabic language study. Ahmad Amin mentions Kalila waDimna in passing in his autobiography, Hayati (Cairo: 1952), an excerpt ofwhich I read in Farhat Ziadeh’s Reader in Modern Literary Arabic. Overthe years, I tried occasionally to read a bit of the original and found the classicalArabic intimidating. The task of reviewing Munther Younes’s retellingof these stories represented the opportunity to taste the stories’ flavor withoutthe drudgery of dictionary look-up. Among other accomplishments,Younes simplifies the grammar and lexicon to the point where intermediatestudents of Arabic will understand what they read without excessive struggle.This review will touch upon the structure and substance of Kalila waDimna itself and Younes’ approach to retelling the stories and their utilizationas an Arabic language teaching tool.In the West, most of us hear and then read Aesop’s Fables as children.These stories, which date back as far as 620 BCE, feature anthropomorphicanimals who play out their dramas and conflicts in order to teach a moral.Kalila wa Dimna, attributed to the Indian author Bidpai and written inSanskrit during the third century, does much the same, but also includes asmattering of human characters. As Younes tells us, the Sassanid KingKhosro Anoushrawan sent his physician Burzuwayh to India to collect andtranslate Bidpai’s fables into Persian. In the process, Burzuwayh added storiesby other authors. What had now become a book was then translatedinto Syriac in 570; 200 years later, Abdullah ibn al-Muqafac translated itinto Arabic. Since its Arabization some 12 centuries ago, Kalila wa Dimna
The 36th Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association of North America
Authors: Bokhari Kamran A.
Published: October 2020

The 36th annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association of NorthAmerica (MESA), was held at the Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC,November 23-26, 2002. This conference, possibly the largest gathering ofscholars and students of the Middle East, took place in an atmosphere saturatedby 9/11 and Washington’s plans for an all-out war against Iraq, aswell as considerable right-wing and pro-Zionist pressure applied by suchmembers of the epistemic community of scholars, journalists, and policyanalysts as Daniel Pipes (the Middle East Forum) and Martin Kramer, aone-time director and currently a senior research fellow at Tel AvivUniversity’s Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies.Both are behind Campus Watch (http://www.campus-watch.org), whichmonitors academic discourse that opposes American foreign policy towardthe Muslim world and its one-sided support for Israel, and which maintainson its website a list of “un-American” academicians and apologists for“militant Islam” and rogue regimes.November 23, the first day, was reserved for the business meetings ofall groups having an institutional affiliation with MESA. The panels, presentedas parallel sessions, began on Sunday at 8:30 a.m. Also featured wasa presidential address by the outgoing president, a plenary session, a bookexhibition, an art gallery, and a film fest. MESA organizers reported that1,900 people attended the 156-panel event, along with 80 exhibitions.The first session featured panels on popular culture and identity in theMaghreb, women and development, issues in contemporary Iran, intellectualsand ideas in the making of the Turkish Republic, history of the Ottomanborderlands, legitimation of authority in early period of Islam, comparativeperceptions of the “other” in Israeli and Palestinian textbooks, comparativeanalysis of political Islam, religious conversion and identity, and the Arabicqasidah. There was also a roundtable discussion on water issues and a thematicconversation on 9/11 and the Muslim public sphere. In the following ...
Islamic Law
Authors: Ahmed Arshad A.
Published: October 2020

If Michael Mumisa's goal in his monograph Islamic Law: Theory & Interpretation is to reacquaint the relatively advanced student with, or per­haps even introduce the intelligent novice to, the early historical develop­ment oflslamic law (fiqh) and Islamic jurisprudence (usu/ al-fiqh), it can be said fairly that his work does an adequate job. It would, however, be too gen­erous to hold that it succeeds according to his wishes in making a significant advancement - even if limiting one's scope to the English medium only -toward Islamic jurisprudence's theoretical or interpretive development. This outcome is unfortunate, given the promising first chapter that showcases the author's relative familiarity with the plight of the modern world vis-a-vis the traditional outlook, as well as his cognizance of the impracticability of applying Islamic jurisprudence in the modern world, dominated as it is by competing secular and profane forces at every practi­cal level of law, polity, and policymaking. Very few, if any, contemporary Islamic jurists (faqaha ') or legal scholars (those steeped infiqh or usul al­fiqh but not licensed to practice) demonstrate a priori knowledge of the nuances of modernity's philosophical underpinnings sufficient enough to engage in any meaningful discourse that would constitute an enduring guidepost by which, as Mumisa proposes, to "revive and broaden the dis­cipline of usu! al-fiqh in order to bring about a methodology which will truly enable us [i.e., Muslims] to refer all our matters to Allah and His Messenger." Upon learning of Mumisa's motivation, the Muslim reader's cautious optimism is that, finally, here comes one of those rare Islamic legal scholars who can identify the modem world's intellectual errors as well as those of the contemporary Muslims who deal with them ...
Modernity and Culture
Authors: Hakim Hasnan
Published: October 2020

This book contains the output from a series of discussions leading to an American Social Science Research Council (SSRC) conference in Aix-enProvence, France in September 1998. The 18 essays address some aspects of the history of the Mediterranean-Middle East and Indian Ocean-South Asian areas between the 1890s and 1920s, when modernity and colonialism struck these areas. Despite the lack of a precise definition of moder nity, the contributors unravel how the advent of "European" modernity in transportation, military power, media, and imperialistic or colonial tendency shaped these areas' culture and social structures. Many of the essays focus upon eighteenth- and nineteenth-century urban areas in port cities and important cities like Izmir, Haifa, Alexandria, Cairo, Basra, and Istanbul. This alludes to the fact that the cosmopolitan areas, especially coastal or port cities, are the locus of change, instead of rural areas. Throughout the book, modernization in Asia is treated less as an overpowering energy enacting inevitable social change than as a con­tested arena where subjugated people actively adapted, resisted, or altered the course of modernization inflicted by European colonialism. The introduction by C. A. Bayly and L. T. Fawaz provides background sketches of the challenge of area studies in history and long-term histori­cal trends affecting the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean rim circa I 600-1920. Three broad strokes are identified: the relative decline of such Muslim empires as the Ottomans, Safavids, Mughals or Deccan, due to their growing irrelevance or colonial encroachment; European mercantilist­imperialistic efforts in the maritime affairs of the Mediterranean, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean; and sweeping social change in Muslim societies due to embracing or reacting against the European onslaught or a pure recon­struction of culture and thought (e.g., Wahhabism, the Young Turks, and the pan-Islamic movement in Egypt and India). Against this backdrop, all chapters weave diverse, indepth, and interesting analyses at the macro, micro, or societal and individual levels ...
Editorial
Authors: Bullock Katherine
Published: October 2020

It is with a deep sense of humility that I take on the responsibility of edit­ing the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (AJISS), a journal established in 1984 to promote Islamically oriented scholarship in the social sciences. Now in its twentieth year, the journal has provided schol­ars with a forum for exploring and debating issues and concerns from diverse Muslim (or Muslim sympathetic) perspectives. It is a privilege to join the list of eminent scholars who have overseen the production of AJISS over these years - most recently, Louay Safi, a scholar with pro­found insight into both the Islamic and the western worlds. His is a hard act to follow. May Allah guide me. 

Budgetary constraints have forced AJISS to combine this year's last two issues (summer/fall 2003) into one - albeit a rather expanded volume. We hope that this is only a temporary measure, and that AJlSS will return soon to publishing four volumes a year. Of course, the articles and reviews them­selves still represent the high-quality scholarship we have come to expect from contributors to AJlSS. Though not specifically theme-based, an underlying theme does unify the articles in this issue: the ongoing dialogue between Muslims and the West over issues having to do with Islam's encounter with modernity. Each article examines some aspect of this encounter: Necva Kazimov looks at the relationship between various reforms made to Egypt's divorce law and that country's reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDA W), Fathi Malkawi analyzes the role and future needs of educating Muslim children in the United States, and Mohamad Fauzan Noordin discusses why wisdom has to be a priority in implementing and using information and communication technology (ICT). Then, lmad-ad-Dean Ahmad analyzes constitutionalism from the compara­tive perspective of the American Constitution and the Prophet's (peace be upon him) Madinah Covenant, Glenn E. Perry looks at the relationship between sovereignty and law in the democracy-Islam compatibility debate, and lastly, Pernille Ironside draws our attention to the Shari'ah penal law in northern Nigeria and its relationship to Nigeria's secular-based system of law ...
Political Development
Authors: Mohar Tunku
Published: October 2020

Political Development: An Islamic Perspective is divided into two broad parts: the conceptual foundations of political development and its case stud­ies. Part One contains seven chapters that deal with the conceptual foundations of political development, thereby signifying the importance of clarifying the concept so that an Islamic alternative to political development can be found. Part Two contains three chapters, each a case study of the political development experience in Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Sudan.Khurshid Ahmad, a central figure in the London-based Islamic Foundation, provides the much-needed position from which an Islamic perspective on political development should begin. His chapter, "Islamic Approach to Development," outlines the philosophical foundations of an Islamic approach to development and the goals of a development policy.He begins by uncovering the flaws of western thinking on development, which have resulted in what he calls "de-development." The West's var­ious development strategies are actually designed so that the developed countries can exploit the developing countries. Tn terms of development's philosophical foundations, Ahmad empha ­sizes tawhid (God's unity and sovereignty), rububiyah (the divine arrangements for nourishing, sustaining, and directing things toward their perfection), khilafah (human beings' role as God's vicegerent on Earth), and tazkiyah (purification plus growth). Hence, Islam's position takes into account humanity's role vis-a-vis its Creator and fellow human beings. The objectives of development transcend this world, for they also have an eye on the Hereafter ...
Muslim Minorities in the West
Authors: Gilliat-Ray Sophie
Published: October 2020

The Muslim diaspora, which has become established as a significant areaof publishing in the past 2 to 3 decades, is being charted by a number ofbooks and journals. This edited collection is a valuable addition to the literature,although specialists in the field will notice some degree of overlapwith existing sources.The book is divided into three sections exploring the Muslim experiencein America (seven chapters), Europe (three chapters covering France,Germany, and Norway), and areas of European settlement (five chapterscovering Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Caribbean). Thebest way to view this book is to consider it a series of case studies examininghow Muslims in different contexts have moved from being tempo­rary and peripheral individual sojourners to being, within their adoptedsocieties, generally well-established communities that have largely overcometheir internal differences and external structural barriers in order tobe publicly recognized as a part of multicultural and multi faith communitiesand societies. Many of the contributors believe that Muslim minoritiesare growing, dynamic, confident, and demographically "young" in most oftheir new societies, and that wherever they have established themselves,they have sustained their presence and thrived, sometimes in the face ofextreme hostility.This case study character has advantages and disadvantages. On theone hand, this reviewer found it extremely valuable to learn more aboutthe experience of some very specific minority groups, such as Sahelians inFrance, who are usually ignored and overshadowed in the literature by theoverwhelming Algerian-Moroccan presence in France. Likewise, with relativelylittle academic material available on Muslims in New Zealand, forexample, this book fills many of the academic gaps in the literature. Thefirst-hand accounts from previously unpublished sources were similarlyvaluable, and the chapter on establishing the Islamic Party in NorthAmerica constitutes an important documentary record. On the other hand,some chapters went over well-established ground, such as Turks inGermany. Specialists on Muslim minorities will find that some chaptersrepeat already well-known data and profiles oflslam in these contexts ...
Inside the Nation of Islam
Authors: Persaud Natasha
Published: October 2020

The author, who embraced the teachings of Louis Farrakhan's revampedNation of Islam (NOI) in the late I 970s to find solutions to America's raceproblems, left disillusioned in the mid-1990s. What he witnessed as hepassed through the organization's rank and file compelled him to compilehis experiences to give others a clearer understanding of the Nation's originsas well as its role concerning the issues facing African-Americans.Inside the Nation of Islam is divided into I I chapters and contains aforeword by Mike Wallace an epilogue by the author, extensive notes, abibliography, and an index. Also included are several photographs thatillustrate White's extensive involvement in the NOLWith a brief overview of African-American history prior to the NOI'screation, chapters 1 and 2 touch on the Harlem Renaissance, the origin ofthe Jim Crow laws, and the mass exodus of African-Americans from theSouth to the North. With the fall of similar resistance movements, theNOJ stepped in to address the bitter disillusionment that many of themexperienced upon their arrival in the North ...
Islamic Banking
Authors: Anwar Muhammad
Published: October 2020

Islamic Banking is an outstanding example of collaboration among Muslim and non-Muslim scholars interested in integrating "Western-based literature with that developed in the Islamic tradition." Stating that Islamic banking, although widespread, remains "poorly understood" in the Muslim world and an "enigma" in the West, the authors seek to clarify many matters. The book's main themes are Christian and Islamic positions on usurylriba' (chapter 8); the foundations (chapters 2 and 3), theories (chapter 5), application (chapters 5, 6, 7, and 9), and progress (chapters I and 9) of Islamic banking; and an analysis of Islamic banking in light of current theories of financial intermediation (chapter 4) and corporate gov­ernance (chapter 7). The book highlights Islamic and Christian commonalities on issues pertinent to banking and finance. While stating that Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam prohibit usury, "Islam is the only major religion which maintains a prohibition on usury" due to its prominence in the Qur'an. The issue of riba' is perplexing, for despite warnings of severe consequences to those who engage in it, the Qur'an is silent on its exact nature. Unfortunately, successive generations of scholars have so confused matters that no one can say exactly what riba' is. For example, a majority of scholars regarded bank interest as riba' and, therefore, made the need for an interest-free Islamic banking system inevitable, whereas 21 jurists at Egypt's al-Azhar recently proclaimed a ruling that legit­imizes interest ...
AMSS Thirty-second Annual Conference
Authors: Mir Shabana
Published: October 2020

The Thirty-second Annual AMSS Conference, cosponsored this year byIndiana University's Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies program and thedepartment of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, analyzed "EastMeets West: Understanding the Muslim Presence in Europe and NorthAmerica." Katherine Bullock (program committee chair, University ofToronto), Nazif Shahrani (professor of anthropology, director of MiddleEastern and Islamic studies program, Indiana University), PatrickO'Meara (dean, International Programs, Indiana University), and LouaySafi (president, AMSS) welcomed attendees and made introductoryremarks.Since the passing of Edward Said coincided with the beginning of theconference, in his welcoming remarks Shahrani referred to this greatscholar's lasting legacy. In fact, many panelists during the course of theconference talked about the importance of Said's research to their ownwork.Regular AMSS attendees such as myself would tell you that this conferencewas a tightly organized orchestra of excellent sessions, one after theother. The number of sessions was smaller than usual, and there were fewerparallel sessions, probably because far more academic rigor had been exercisedin selectiong papers than had been the case in previous conferences.A special delight on the first day was the lunch and jumu'ah prayer atthe Bloomington Islamic Center, catered and served by BloomingtonMuslim community volunteers. After these events, the conference beganin earnest. The opening panel, "A Political Philosophical Perspective onIslam and Democracy," featured M. A. Muqtedar Khan (Adrian College),who addressed the theoretical aspects of this debate, and Nazia Khandwalla(University of Texas), who looked at the debate in an empiricalstudy of slum-dwelling women in Karachi ...
Editorial
Authors: Bullock Katherine
Published: October 2020

Have the tragic events of 9/11 resulted in a profound change in the interactionsbetween the Muslim world and the West, or has the carnage simplyaccelerated an already present trend of strained relations? It is too earlyto know, but when historians begin looking back, they will likely find evidenceto support both assertions. With the introduction of the USAPATRIOT Act, which allows the government unprecedented opportunitiesto spy on people, greatly infringing upon their civil liberties, the treatmentof the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, racial profiling, and the harassmentand deportation of Muslims residing in the country, the Bush administrationappears to be leading the “free world” into a new variant of right-wingauthoritarian government.On the other hand, the American occupation of Iraq and the Bushadministration’s plans to reshape the Middle East bear an uncanny resemblanceto a policy paper published in 1996 by an Israeli think-tank, theInstitute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies: “A Clear Break: ANew Strategy for Securing the Realm.” Of course the symmetry betweenthe 1996 proposals (i.e., remove Saddam Hussein and weaken Syria andIran) and the current policies are no surprise, since three of the eight coauthorsnow hold key Bush administration positions: Richard Perle, memberof the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board; Douglas Feith, undersecretaryof defense for policy; and David Wurmser, Vice President Dick Cheney’sMiddle East advisor. Thus, 9/11 has simply given the neo-conservatives anexcuse and the ability to execute what had already been envisaged. TheMiddle East, long under colonial subjugation, is re-experiencing westernaims to dominate, control, and reshape it. Thus, from a Muslim perspective,9/11 appears to have confirmed, with a vengeance, global power structuresinstead of ushering in a new era.In Covering Islam, published by the late Edward Said in 1981, Saidobserved: “For almost every Muslim, the mere assertion of an Islamicidentity becomes an act of nearly cosmic defiance and a necessity for survival(p. 72).” Though written more than 20 years ago, how more true isthis observation now? Even the simple act of naming a child (especiallyboys) is fraught with difficulties. Many of the best-loved Muslim names, ...
Modernist and Fundamentalist Debates in Islam
Authors: Afzaal Ahmed
Published: October 2020

The two editors of this volume have successfully pooled their expertise insociology, politics, and modern Islam to bring together a cogent and wellorganizedreader of key texts depicting the self-statements of what maybe tentatively called Islamic “modernism” and “fundamentalism.” Theselection of 34 articles and treatises (18 on modernism, 16 on fundamentalism)is preceded by a scholarly introduction that also contains shortbiographies of the writers represented in this volume.For the purpose of organizing this anthology, the editors chose tohighlight what they describe as two “episodes” in modern Islam: thepowerful wave of Islamic modernism that arose in the last quarter of thenineteenth and the first quarter of the twentieth centuries, and the perhapsmore powerful wave of Islamic fundamentalism that arose from the1930s onward. This semi-chronological division of two sociocultural andideological waves is to be taken not as a representation of rigid categories,but merely as an heuristic devise meant to focus the reader’sattention on the contrasts and differences between them. The editors areaware that the designations “modernism” and “fundamentalism” areideal types, that the distinction between them begins to weaken as oneclosely examines their particular and concrete manifestations, and thatone type may develop traits or characteristics of the other, given appropriatesocial circumstances.As ideal types, however, the editors believe that Islamic modernismand fundamentalism may be identified on the basis of positions taken byspecific intellectuals or ideologues on five central and “historically significant”issues: jurisprudence, politics, western civilization, gender, andlifestyle. Consequently, these are the categories according to which they ...
Historical Dictionary of Prophets in Islam and Judaism
Authors: Stewart Devin
Published: October 2020

As the compilers of this dictionary point out, Qur’anic and Islamic viewsof prophecy have been studied largely in isolation, despite the obvious connectionsbetween Islam and the Biblical tradition. Comparative studieshave focused on what Islam has taken, or borrowed, from Biblical sources,often implying that this material has been manipulated for tendentiousmotives.The present dictionary works toward a less polemical comparativestudy of prophecy, investigating the complex relationships between Islamic, Biblical, and other Near Eastern views. The dictionary has beendesigned to examine shared traditions, promote interdisciplinary dialogue,and include a wide range of material not only from the Qur’an andthe Bible, but also from extra-Biblical and extra-Qur’anic texts, withoutclaiming to be comprehensive. Such texts include Rabbinic literature ofmany types; Christian pseudepigrapha, apocrypha, and commentaries;Qur’anic commentary (tafsir), histories, geographies, biographical dictionaries,stories of the prophets (qisas al-anbiya’), and theological discussionsof prophetology (dala’il al-nubuwah).It also includes several extremely useful additions: a general introduction(pp. xxiii-xxxvii), a chronology (pp. xix-xxii), a brief history ofprophecy in the Near East (pp. xxiii-xxxvii), a list of entries (Appendix I:pp. 357-64), a list of prophets (Appendix II: pp. 364-68), a bibliography,and an index. The bibliography, arranged by topic, is extensive andextremely useful for those interested in exploring the topic further (pp.368-480) ...
Iran and the Surrounding World
Authors: Asgharzadeh Alireza
Published: October 2020

Ever since the publication of James Morier’s The Adventures of HajjiBaba of Ispahan (London: J. Murray, 1824) in the early nineteenth century,many authors have tried to make sense of the Iranians’ attitudes, views,and approaches to the outside world. One of the most recent works in thisarea is Iran and the Surrounding World: Interactions in Culture and Cultural Politics, edited by Nikki R. Keddie and Rudi Matthee. This volumecontains interesting articles that will certainly contribute, in Keddie’swords, “to a better understanding of many aspects of Iran’s recent history”(p. 10). The editors also hope that, by way of this book’s “modest contribution”to the field of knowledge, “[w]estern leaders will gain a greateracquaintance with this culture, as well as with the reasons for Iran’s pastreactions against the West, and especially the U.S.” (p. 10).The book is roughly divided into five parts, starting from an overviewof Iran’s cultural politics from the Safavid period (1501-1722) onward. Thissection briefly discusses Iran’s relationship with its South Asian neighborsand looks into the ever-changing ethnic and tribal relationships both withinand outside Iran. The second part links some aspects of the Safavid period’ssociopolitical and cultural life to the Qajar (1796-1921) and Pahlavi (1925-79) periods. This section explores such interesting notions as the evolvingnature of Iranian nationalism, Iranian views about outsiders, nineteenthcenturytravel literature in Iran, and some impacts of earlier missionary girls’schools in Iran. The third part discusses the new political culture in theIslamic Republic and its global dimensions, covering such areas as theIranian women’s movement and its international character, the image of“self” and “other” in school textbooks, and the international successes “ofIranian films under a clerical regime” (p. 254) ...
Cultural Diversity and Islam
Authors: Bilici Mucahit
Published: October 2020

As a compilation of papers presented at an international conference (1998)on “Cultural Diversity and Islam” at American University in Washington,DC, this volume brings together the contributions of a wide array of scholars.It has four sections and twelve chapters dealing with diversity and/orpluralism in relation to Islam.The first section, “Cultural Diversity in Civilizational Perspective,”provides a macro (and at times comparative) perspective on Islam anddiversity. In chapter 1, the editors prepare the ground for discussion by providingsome definitions, potential questions, and chapter summaries. Theyalso explain why they prefer the concept of diversity over pluralism.In chapter 2, Seyyed Hossein Nasr discusses what he calls “a theoreticaland practical dilemma” in Islam: unity vs. diversity. Entitled“Unity and Diversity in Islam and Islamic Civilization,” this chaptermakes general statements about the nature of diversity in Islam and howunity and uniformity differ. Nasr argues that “Islam’s refusal to reducethis unity-in-diversity to mere uniformity, far from weakening the faith,has been a major cause of its strength through the ages” (p. 33). Tounderstand more fully how Islam created a unitary civilization that hasthrived on diversity, he looks at different cultural zones within Islam.The issue of Islam and diversity is often discussed in reference to theassertion of Islam’s compatibility with democracy as well as the challengesproduced by globalization, which brought Islam into closer contactwith western and other cultures. It is uncommon for scholars addressingsuch issues to raise the question of power.Sulayman S. Nyang’s excellent article in chapter 3 brings the issueof power into the equation. Looking at what he calls the factors and ...
Editorial
Authors: Bullock Katherine
Published: October 2020

This special issue was suggested to us by a reader during my term as AJISSbook review editor. Soon after 9/11, many bookstores and popular websites,among them www.amazon.com, stocked up on Islam-bashing books whosemain arguments were that Islam posed numerous threats to the United States,in particular, and to the West in general. Authors took umbrage with PresidentBush’s claim that the “war on terror” was not a war on Islam, and that, indeed,it was Islam that was the problem and the enemy of the modern age. Howabout making some scholarly responses to these books, our reader asked.I was initially of two minds, for these books were not academic treatises.Should an academic journal spend time on non-academic books? Onthe other hand, given how important these books were (and are) in shapingpublic opinion about Islam and the presence of Muslims in the West, itseemed essential that Muslim intellectuals should respond. To do nothing inthe face of the barrage of negative and hostile arguments ultimately seemedirresponsible. The Muslim community was under attack – spiritually andphysically. If there were no intellectual counter-arguments from a Muslimperspective, what could an uninformed and curious reader rely on to hearfrom the other side? A non-response by Muslims would count as affirmation,because the reader would have no alternative sources with which to thinkabout the issues being raised. Thus, we decided to provide scholarlyresponses to the Islam-bashing books from Muslim intellectuals (or non-Muslim scholars empathetic with Islam) that would do more than say “thesebooks are inflammatory” by providing reasoned analysis and argumentationas to why such books were not only wrong and misguided, but also that theywere actually inciting hatred toward Muslims.Not everyone agreed with our thinking, and some Muslim academicsfelt it would be a waste of their time to review (hence give unwarranted credenceto) nonacademic populist diatribes against Islam and Muslims. Othersembraced the project with enthusiasm. A few reviewers who had initiallyconsented found that in the end, they were unable to complete their assignmentsbecause they could not stomach such biased and non-academic books.When I became editor of AJISS, we decided to devote an entire issue toIslamophobia and not just review a few influential Islam-bashing books. Bythis stage, enough time had passed for it to become obvious that ...