bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reflecting on Islam in America
Authors: Bin Abdullah Omer
Published: October 2020

"The strength of America is in its diversity, and this diversity includes theIslamic component, which is part of the American mainstream now." Soproclaimed ISNA secretary general Sayyid M. Syeed while inauguratingthe sixth annual ISNA Islam in America Conference, which is now part ofthe American academic calendar.Held in Chicago on July 5-7, four conferences were featured: Islam inAmerica, Islam among Latino Americans, Islam in American Prisons, andMuslim Refugee Resettlement in America. The mainstream American mediawas there in full to cover these events.l n his inaugural address, Syeed said that Muslims must continue toshape their public identity as they further integrate into mainstreamAmerican society. He added that while public perceptions about Muslimsand Islam have improved over the last 30 years, there is still work to bedone. He stated that ISNA will continue to serve Muslim Americans andpromote understanding among all Americans, and that INSA has receiveda federal faith-based initiative grant for a project.Mary Ann Peters, American ambassador to Bangladesh, remarked inher keynote address that America derives its strength from diversity andstressed that there is no acceptable level of intolerance in America. Sheinformed the audience that she had reached out to over 2,000 Bangladeshireligious leaders to promote womens' rights in their country, and that pro­moting democracy overseas serves American interests. She would like tosee better relations between the U.S. and Muslim countries, and mentionedthat the American government has accepted her suggestion of regularexchanges of religious scholars between the two countries.Shaikh Hamza Yusuf focused on the Prophet's conduct and remindedeveryone that he never repaid persecution, insults, or injury with anger orin kind. Addressing the mainstream media's treatment of Muslims, Yusufsaid that instead of simply criticizing the media, Muslims must form anorganization similar to the Anti-Defamation League that could correct andinform their detractors. Dr. David Schwartz, another keynote speaker whorecently retired as religious services administrator for the Federal Bureau ofPrisons, said that Islam is a positive element in inmates' lives. He vehementlyrejected the insinuation that American prisons are being used as ...
Women in Islam
Authors: Ouis Soumaya Pernilla
Published: October 2020

Anne Sofie Roald, a Norwegian convert to Islam and associate professor ofthe history of religion at Malmo University (Sweden), devotes her book totwo major themes: Examining what the interpretations of the Qur'an andSunnah in the Arab cultural sphere "say" on various women's issues, andhow this interpretation tends to change during the cultural encounter withthe West. The cover picture exemplifies these themes: two young happyMuslim women wearing headscarves while biking, illustrating Muslimwomen well integrated into western society but without giving up theirIslamic identity. The book is divided into two parts: theoretical and methodologicalreflections, and empirical issues.Roald's approach involves exact textual citation. Her emphasis on textis explained, as Islam is a scriptural religion, as "what can be termedIslamic is what can be linked to the text." Further, she analyses how classicaland contemporary scholars have interpreted the text, in addition to theresults of her fieldwork among Arab Sunni Muslim activists living in theWest. This methodology allows her to avoid the reification of Islam - theapprehension of Islam as separated from its social context. She chooses toemphasize the opinions of the Muslim Brotherhood (ikhwarJ) and the postikhwantrend, or an "independent Islamist trend" of Islamists who gobeyond the ikhwan's thought and who are not linked to its organization.Being an Arabic-speaking Muslim herself, Roald plays both roles of beingan "insider" and an "outsider."Her analysis builds basically on two theories: the "basket metaphor"combined with the idea of"normative fields." The "basket," defined as theset-up of traditions in a specific religion or ideology, is a metaphor thatcomes from the idea that a basket leaks from the inside and absorbs fromthe outside. In other words, concepts might leak out and new ones mightget absorbed. Further, even though all of its contents are latently present,what is needed in different times and spaces is subjected to the processes ofselection. Roald explains that Muslims might consider such a metaphorblasphemous, but the selection from ''the basket" is what actually happens.The text's function, how it is being interpreted and applied, is superior tothe text's very existence ...
Women Claim Islam
Authors: Zine Jasmin
Published: October 2020

This book embarks on a sojourn into the stories and autobiographies of Arabwomen writers who "claim Islam" by "writing themselves into the historyof the twentieth century." Being situated outside their nations' historical narratives,Cooke examines the literary practices of Arab Muslim women whohave entered into global political discourses as vibrant public intellectuals,rather than as history's invisible subtext. According to her, Arab Muslimwomen "have been left out of history, out of the War Story, out of the narrativesof emigration and exile, out of the physical and hermeneutical spacesof religion." Thus Muslim women intellectuals and writers are challengingthe erasures of their experiences in the public and discursive spaces ofnation, community, and faith.Cooke argues that women have become the "symbolic center" in societiesincreasingly dominated by Islamic discourse. But while this discoursegives "unprecedented importance to women," it also centers them as pivotalto the "virtuous Muslim community" and thereby dictates constricting rulesfor their "appropriate behavior." This has resulted in a preoccupation withregulating and policing women's bodies (clearly evident in TalibanizedAfghanistan). Yet at the same time, shifting women's experiences from themargins to the center of discursive focus has allowed their voices to emergein new ways. 1n many cases, this stakes their claim to a more empoweringIslamic identity. This movement has allowed Muslim women writers andintellectuals to develop a gendered Islamic epistemology. According toCooke, these women "do not challenge the sacrality of the Qur'an, but theydo examine the temporality of its interpretations." ...
Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil
Authors: Ahmad Fauzia
Published: October 2020

Much has been written about Muslim women, dress, hijabs, veils, and, more recently, burqas. Bullock's book, based on her doctoral work with 16Muslim women in Canada, critically examines the western media's representations and perceptions of the veil. What perhaps marks this book as different from many others focusing on the "ubiquitous veil" is not just that Bullock converted to Islam during the course of her study, but her embed­ dedness in the material as she describes her conversion and adoption of the hijab. Her personal responses to much western journalistic writing is reflected in her clear fustration at the almost overwhelming refusal of western commentators to acknowledge and respect the concept of choice Muslim women make when regarding dress. As Algerian sociologist Marnia Lazreg noted in 1988, Muslim women are denied the authority to define their own lives by having to satisfy frames of reference dictated and inserted by "Outsiders." This theme surfaces throughout the book, which seeks to challenge "the popular western stereotype that the veil is oppressive" and to stress the multiple meanings and heterogeneity behind Muslim women's choices in covering. Bullock argues that such misconceptions are social constructions that do not necessarily reflect the lives of those under discussion. She care­fully avoids generalizing and presenting an overly positive angle on Muslim women's lived experiences. She acknowledges that for some Muslim women, in certain sociopolitical and historical contexts, enforced veiling is a reality. Thus marked by an absence of choice and the denial of basic rights, the veil can symbolize oppression. The Taliban's restrictions on women are presented as a prime example. Bullock differentiates between populist views on Muslim women and clothing practices and those of western or westernized feminists. She argues two main schools of thought. The first comprises feminists who believe and stress that religions like Islam are patriarchal, and therefore are inherently oppressive toward women and deny them opportunities for ''true" liberation. This school of thought, which Bullock calls "liberal feminism," remains sus­picious of arguments advanced by Muslim women who speak positively of their faith and their choices to cover, believing them to be inflicted with a form of "false consciousness."  ...
The Female Circumcision Controversy
Authors: Jafri Gui Joya
Published: October 2020

Female circumcision is a highly contested "tradition" practiced in many parts of the world, particularly Africa. International human rights campaigns refer to the practice as "female genital mutilation" (FGM) and seek to elim­inate it; its practitioners tend to defend it even after it has been declared ille­gal. Within this charged environment, Ellen Gruenbaum has undertaken the difficult task of examining the controversy from a more culturally sensitive perspective based on her years of fieldwork in Sudan.

In many respects, her attempt to present the issue's multiple sides is successful. Using ethnographic description, she explores the range of fac­tors giving this practice its importance, from socioeconomic to aesthetic, while also suggesting why and how there are more appropriate means to alter, reduce, and eradicate the practice.

In accordance with her list of influencing factors, Gruenbaum themat­ically divides her chapters into such sections as "patriarchy," "marriage and morality," and "ethnicity." However, the ethnographic passages within are crucial to the book, because they show the humanity of those involved and help explain the contexts and circumstances of women's lives outside their objectified status as "victims of tradition." Also noteworthy is her support of advocacy for change, using ethnography to promote activism that is sen­sitive to and respectful of the needs of those affected. She repeatedly emphasizes the need to address poverty and women's basic needs as more effective means to move forward, rather than focusing on circumcision in isolation ...
Reel Bad Arabs
Authors: Shehadeh Michel
Published: October 2020

When it comes to Arab characters in movies, Hollywood has only one kind:Bad Arabs. So argues Jack Shaheen, professor emeritus of mass communica­tions at Southern Illinois University and a fonner CBS News consultant onMiddle East affairs in his new book,Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifiesa People.In this groundbreaking study, Shaheen provides long-awaited evidencethat since "cameras started cranking to the present," Hollywood, for morethan a century, has targeted Arabs. It has portrayed them, knowingly orunknowingly, as "uncivilized religious fanatics and money-mad cultural·others'." He convincingly makes the case that filmmakers must not be pardonedfor distorting and sacrificing the truth under the false pretext of artisticlicense.The book is divided into two main parts. Most important, perhaps, is theintroduction. The second part reviews films from A to Z. The book containsnotes, appendices, a glossary, an index of films, and lists and discusses, inalphabetical order, more than 900 feature films containing Arab characters.The overwhelming majority of them, such as Prisoner in the Middle East,Wanted Dead or Alive, The Delta Force, and EYecutive Decision negativelystereotype Arabs. Only a handful of scenarios that surfaced in the 1980s and1990s featured Arab characters as heroes. The Lion of the Desert and The13"' Warrior come to mind.Shaheen eloquently describes the links between the ability to create fictionalnarratives and images and the power to fonn social attitudes, shapethoughts and beliefs, and construct prisms through which people view theworld, themselves, and other peoples. Over time and through repetition, thesestereotypes become self-perpetuating, enduring, and hard to eliminate.Part One consists of 12 sections, which enables the reader to navigateeasily what otherwise could have been complicated issues and concepts.The first section, "The Genesis," discusses the negative stereotyping ofArabs in American pop culture. After this, he introduces "Real Arabs" ashe has known them: his family, friends and colleagues, and people he hasmet and experienced throughout his life. Another part, "The Stereotype'sEntry," deals with how stereotypical Arab images entered American pop­ular culture. Here he argues that American image-makers did not invent ...
Literary Representations of Female Identity
Authors: Babana-Hampton Safoi
Published: October 2020

The essay examines the texts of the two women writers - Leila Abouzeid (from Morocco) and Nawal El Saadawi (from Egypt) - as offering two female perspectives within what is commonly referred to as "feminine" writing in the Arab Muslim world. My main interest is to explore the various discursive articulations of female identity that are challenged or foregrounded as a positive model. The essay points to the serious pitfalls of some feminist narratives in Arab-Muslim societies by dealing with a related problem: the author's setting up of convenient conceptual dichotomies, which account for the female experience, that reduce male-female relationships in the given social context to a fundamentally antagonistic one. Abouzeid's novel will be a case study of a more positive but also realistic and complex perspec­tive on female experience ...
The International Women's Movement and the Politics of Participation for Muslim Women
Authors: Chishti Maliha
Published: October 2020

This article explores the potential for Muslim women's politi­cal engagement in the international women's movement. irrespective of the barriers that exist to deny and undermine the agency of Muslim women in the movement, this article calls for a more sustained involvement of Muslim women in global fem­inist thought and praxis. By articulating a faith-centered approach to social justice, Muslim women have important con­tributions to make in order to push forward a collective agenda against all forms of violence and oppressions affecting women, in both Muslim and non-Muslim societies. This article suggests that Muslim women implement a strategic-integrative approach to our involvement based on creating our own independent and integrated analyses and political frames, and engaging in soli­darity and alliance-building with women across our diversity and difference based on mutually defined goals ...
Understanding Fundamentalism
Authors: Gilliat-Ray Sophie
Published: October 2020

From the opening pages of the preface until the last sentence of the conclusion,this book is well-written, authoritative, and insightful. The authordraws upon some 40 years of rich experience as an anthropologist in theMiddle East and further afield to offer a clear analytical account of fundamentalismin the three monotheistic traditions of Christianity, Judaism, andIslam. His book also draws upon a decade of teaching and debate aboutfundamentalism with undergraduate students at the State University of New York at Binghamton, and the clarity of his writing reflects an appreciationof the needs and interests of students.Antoun defines the phenomenon of fundamentalism as “an orientation tothe world, a particular worldview and ethos, and as a movement of protestand outrage against the rapid change that has overtaken the people of anincreasingly global civilization at the end of the twentieth century.” He arguesthat it has defining characteristics wherever it is found: scripturalism (beliefin the literal inerrancy of sacred scripture); the search for purity in an impureworld; traditioning (making the ancient immediately relevant to the contemporarysituation); totalism (taking religion beyond the worship center tohome, school, workplace, bank, and elsewhere); activism (challenging establishments,both political and religious, sometimes by violent protest); struggleof good and evil; and selective modernization and controlled acculturation.These themes are explored in depth over the course of five chapters,with a sixth chapter based on a case study that presents a recording of conversationsbetween the author and a “fundamentalist” in Jordan in 1986 ...
Burying the Past
Authors: Ejobowah John Boye
Published: October 2020

How should societies that have transitioned from authoritarian to democraticrule deal with the atrocities and gross human rights violations of theirimmediate past? Should those implicated in the crimes of past regimes beprosecuted? This sophisticated volume attempts to address such questions.About one-third of the book is comprised of well-reasoned theoreticalchapters that answer the above questions by creating a space in liberal justicefor forgiveness. The remainder consists of empirical contributions thatdescribe the ways in which international institutions and five countries(Chile, Guatemala, South Africa, Rwanda, and Northern Ireland) haveresponded to such crimes. Unlike the theoretical section, most contributionshere argue that while memory and forgiveness (the truth commissions) areimportant, they are not enough to meet the victims’ psychological needsand do not guarantee non-repetition. The introduction rightly acknowledgesthat some of the chapters argue in different directions.Doing justice in the aftermath of civil conflict is a thorny problem. In liberalism,criminal justice always has been straightforward: the courts, themouthpiece of objective law, have to mediate and impose punishment if theperpetrator is proven guilty. Punishment must consist of penalties that annulthe advantages seized by the criminal, compensate the victim in the case of ...
Refugees in our Own Land
Authors: Muallem Ariege
Published: October 2020

Refugees in our Own Land narrates the author’s life between October andDecember 2000, when she was married and living in the West Bank’sDheisheh refugee camp. The book creates a new respect for the refugeesamong whom she lived and gives the reader a glimpse of the incredible difficultiesof their everyday lives.The book is divided into two parts. The first part chronicles Hamzeh’slife during October 4-December 4, 2000: her personal life and that of herfriends in Dheisheh, as well as current political events and how they affectthe life of the refugees in the camp. These almost daily entries were actuallye-mailed to a large number of people while she was still living inDheisheh. The second half of the book is a series of short unrelated storiesand articles, written between 1988 and March 2000, that highlight eventsthat brought her to Dheisheh and explain other events and people in her life.Their order is a bit odd. After the reader gets used to Hamzeh’s life in thecamp, she abruptly ends her entries by describing how she left the camp andthen, just when the reader wants to know what happened next, she startsrelating the events that transpired 2 years ago prior to her journey to theWest Bank. There is no mention of a husband there, and then all of a suddenshe goes from living in the United States to ending up in Dheisheh.How she got there, unfortunately, is never explained. The lack of detailsconcerning such important transitions is quite frustrating. Although shemay have considered them “too personal” to include, it resulted in frustrationon the reader’s part.One success, however, is her exposure of the humanity of people whoso often are dismissed by the world as “refugees.” She mentions their namesand describes their faces and personalities, thereby giving the reader an ...
Worlds of Difference
Authors: Butterworth Charles E.
Published: October 2020

This is an appealing and clearly written account of how European thinkersfrom late medieval to early modern times reflected upon and explored thequestion of what to do about people of different religions and cultures. Inother words, how should their divergent opinions be understood and, eventually,what practical dispositions should be taken toward them? CaryNederman devotes the introduction and first chapter to an excellent,detailed explanation of the book’s focus and goals. Simply put, he is intentupon challenging two currently dominant views: that toleration emerged inEurope only at the time of the Reformation, and that it is ineluctably linkedwith the kind of political liberalism usually associated with John Locke. Tothis end, he calls the reader’s attention to expressions of religious, and evensomewhat political, toleration that appear early in the twelfth century andcontinue well into the sixteenth century. Unfortunately, he does not succeedin this ambitious, even appealing, stratagem as fully as he would havewished, for he admits in passing that he is content to “offer illustrations,”instead of a “comprehensive account,” of this phenomenon ...
Social Justice in Islam
Authors: Idris Sajjad
Published: October 2020

The dynamics of Islamic revival/activism have been the subject of renewedinterest in the aftermath of the 9/ I I tragedy. Most of this interest has beenconfined to media sound bites that present little or no appreciation for thelinkages between cause and effect, despite appeals by some conscientiouscommentators for balanced analysis. Deina Abdelkader's Social Justice inIslam, therefore, is a fresh contribution to studies on Islamic revivalism inits contemporary context. Even though the study covers the period from1988 to 1993, its examination of revivalist (or, as Abdelkader prefers,activist) sentiment and activities in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey through thedual lens of maqasid al-Shari 'ah (aims of Shari'ah) and the legal doctrineof maslahah (public good) is timely, for it connects popular sentiment toexpression. The legal convention of maslahah and the paradigm of themaqasid serve as baselines from which the author seeks to create a methodto understand the revivalists' thoughts and actions, as well as the feedbackmechanisms created by them to understand how they must function infuture contexts.Abdelkader uses statistical analyses to examine the data in order tostudy the relationship between the maqasid and the levels of activism measuredin each country. This lends her work credibility beyond the use ofanecdotes, which is needed in contemporary social science research. Thework is comprised of seven chapters followed by appendices that presentthe data collected for Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey. The chapters focus ontheories of Islamic activism, the relationship between activism and publicexpectations, and the research methodology used. A glossary of Arabictenns is included, as well as an extensive bibliography. A preface is pr<rvided by Taha Jabir al-Alwani.Abdelkader's first task is to review theories of lslamic activism/revivalin order to provide the reader with an understanding of its real causes. Shereviews three approaches used in the study of l slamic activism/revival: themodernization/economic development approach, which focuses on thedynamics of modernization; the popular discontent approach, which examinesthe sources and degree of mobilization oflslamic activism/revival; andthe cultural studies approach, which emphasizes the customs and traditions ...
Body of Text
Authors: Moghul Umar F.
Published: October 2020

This book is perhaps the first study in English devoted to the development and rationale of ritual purity laws. The author, Marion Holmes Katz, a pro­fessor at Mount Holyoke College, chooses not to write from the traditional Muslim or Islamic jurisprudential perspectives. Though this does not invalidate an argument per se, it certainly renders her premises troublesome from a traditional Islamic legal perspective. Katz's attempt to formulate an alternative interpretive methodology, however, fails due to internal inconsistencies in her argument as well as the prevalence of poor and often speculative reasoning. 

Body of Text is divided into four chapters, an introduction, and a con­clusion. The introduction begins with a discussion of Islamic law's com­prehensive nature, noting that it even addresses washing after relieving one­self. Most interestingly, she points out similarities among various religions in matters of ritual purity, but unfortunately assumes that this necessarily is proof of simple borrowing. The author excludes the possibility that these religious rules had a common source. Katz proceeds to reconstruct Islamic law's methodological and historical development and sets out her approach to its sources. However, while asserting that relying on ahadith is inappro­ priate, she nevertheless employs ahadith as well as various athar ( deeds and precedents of the Companions) to reach several conclusions. Given that she effectively rejects the Hadith literature, as understood by Muslim jurists and Hadith scholars, the work as a whole is rendered unpersuasive ...
AMSS Regional Conference
Authors: Mohmand Abdul-Qayum
Published: October 2020

On April 12, 2003, the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS), incollaboration with the Muslim Students' Association (MSA) of theUniversity of Utah, held its first regional conference in Salt Lake City,Utah. The day-long conference, "The Place of.Islam in America," includedpanel discussions and workshops. The first panel dealt with "Images andPerceptions of Islam in America," and the second panel focused on "TheEmerging Muslim Community: Opportunities and Challenges." Toward theend of the program, both the panelists and the audience participated in threeworkshops: "Challenges of Raising a Muslim Child," "Examining the UtahMuslim Community," and "Muslim Youths Dealing with Temptations andPeer Pressure." Louay Safi (president, AMSS) and Sayyid M. Syeed (generalsecretary, ISNA) gave the two keynote addresses.At the beginning of the conference, Abdul-Qayum Mohmand, programcoordinator, welcomed the panelists and the guests and stated that: "Sincethe Muslim community is part of the social and political construct of thissociety and contributes to the build up of this society in many aspects, it isvital for them to find out where they are placed in this society."In his opening remarks, Safi talked about the importance of the Muslims'political and social positioning in the United Stated and pointed out that"American Muslims have a great opportunity to develop Islamic thought andinstitutions for modern-day society." He stressed that "faced with new socialchallenges stemming from modernist trends, American Muslims possess aUthe ingredients they need to develop solutions with far-reaching impact onimproving the quality of life both in the U.S. and throughout the Muslimworld." He expressed confidence that the conference deliberations are part ofthe Muslim American struggle to better the human condition.In the first panel, James Toronto (associate professor oflslamic studies,Brigham Young University, Utah) focused on the challenges and responsi bilitiesof the American Muslim community. Calling upon its members to ...
Globalization or Recolonization
Authors: Yenigiin Hali! Ibrahim
Published: October 2020

Globalization has been a burning topic of interest for social scientists andthe general public for the last 2 decades. However, a Muslim discourse onglobalization has not been sufficiently developed. The current book seeksnot only to present a dramatic picture of the ummah within the globalizednetwork of mainly economic relations, but also offers policy solutions toget out of this crisis and create the Islamic ummah as an active actor inglobal economic and political affairs.As the title suggests, in this book globalization does not have the pos itiveconnotations that it has in liberal western scholarship. In fact, it is seenmore as a recolonization of the Third World, and, in particular, of theIslamic world. The first chapter lays the theoretical ground, the last oneconcludes the argument and gives a strategic plan to counter recolonization,while the other six chapters concentrate on different aspects of globaliza tion.What comes out of the comparative analyses between the developedand the developing non-Muslim and Muslim worlds is the striking fact thatMuslims score the lowest in almost all areas. Besides calling the Muslims'attention to this disconcerting plethora of problems, the authors masterfullydocument how the myth of interdependence fades away, notwithstandingevidence of the unequal treatment by the "global" economic and political institutions, when the Muslims' interests are at stake. In many instances, the economic and political variables go hand-in-hand with the informative ones that perpetuate and legitimize these unfair actions through a fundamentalist image of Muslims ...
Freedom, Equality and Justice in Islam
Authors: Ahmad Ali
Published: October 2020

Modern Muslim thinkers who try to locate and construct constitutional tenets based on the Islamic tradition face various difficulties, for they have to address a segment of an audience that expects an exposition comparable to the West's in terms of terminologies, institutions, and remedies, as well as to draw from the best practices of Islamic history and modern Muslim societies. It is always fustrating to learn that Islam's constitutional history, despite its richness in individual constitutional tenets, loses some of its utility in modern Muslim societies due to systemic changes caused by glob­ alization and pervasive international institutions, both of which have had far-reaching consequences on domestic sociopolitical settings. Given the contemporary nation-state's overarching authority, one known guarantee of the people's social, legal, or political rights is a con ­stitutional framework under a credible rule of law system. Mohammad Hashim Kamali's Freedom, Equality and Justice in Islam identifies the three themes in the title of his book as the fundamental bases upon which all other constitutional guarantees of human rights depend. The book is divided into three chapters, each dedicated to one of the main themes. The first chapter, which discusses freedom, presents a con­ceptual analysis of the term and how it is expressed in Islam's theological and sociopolitical contexts. However, unlike various guarantees provided for realizing other values, such as justice (discussed in chapter 3), there is little discussion of such practical guarantees for personal liberty and free­dom. The author acknowledges that Muslims have given scant attention to constitutional guarantees of freedom, citing the prevalence of despotic gov­ernments throughout much of Islamic history. Nevertheless, the only way he offers out of this situation is to observe that Muslims should change the language of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) to reflect the challenging times confronting the ummah. This may not be surprising, given the identified problems, as mentioned above, that have to be faced squarely. The second chapter, which analyzes equality, reviews authoritative Islamic sources and argues that although there is conclusive evidence that Islam envisages equality in basic rights and duties among all Muslims, the evidence is somewhat inconclusive on whether all members of the human race enjoy such equality. This inconclusiveness is due to sources that leave room for different interpretations and to prevailing circum­stances during the formative period of Islamic law. Kamali pays particu­lar attention to the duties and rights of women and non-Muslims, for there are different opinions on women's political and family-law rights and on equal opportunity for non-Muslims. He states that even if differential treatments of the two categories are maintained in certain circumstances, such differences do not negate equality, because Islam's positive equality ...
Taking Back Islam
Authors: Willoughby Jay
Published: October 2020

This book is divided into nine sections: an opening section with intro ductoryessays, followed by eight chapters that discuss the writers' viewson certain issues. Each section contains several essays of anywhere frombetween three to six pages. Given the number of authors, I will mentiononly some of the points made in each section.In his introduction, Michael Wolfe lays out the book's generalpremise: Maybe it is time to stop looking to the "motherland" for ourunderstandings of Islam and Islamic tradition. Maybe it is time to growup. This call is sure to find a resonance among the many Muslims whoare tired of imported imams and imported books that are so far removedfrom our own reality in the West. Farid Esack brings up an interestingpoint: Historically, Muslims have known only two paradigms: oppression(Makkah) and governing (Madinah). However, given current realities,they must adopt a third kind: peaceful coexistence in a state of equality,as done by those Muslims who emigrated to Abyssinia.In "Violence," Khaled Abou El Fadl notes that Islam is concernedwith building and creating, and that ruining and destroying life is "an ultimateact of blasphemy against God." He writes that war is defensive anda last resort, that trade and technology are preferred, and that political discourseshave displaced moral discourses. Aasma Khan discusses hersmall group (Muslims against Terrorism), which was set up in the daysfollowing 9/11 to educate people "about the incompatibility oflslam withterrorist activities, hatred, and violence."In "Democracy," Karen Armstrong reminds us of several importantfacts: modernity/democracy is a process; that in the Muslim world, modernitywas imposed from above and has close ties with colonial subjugation/dependence, instead of independence; and that is imitation and not inno­vation. Religion, she asserts, can help people through the transition tomodernity. Alex Kronemer states that "the greatest obstacle to democracyin the Muslim world is not 'Islam,' it is poverty, the lack of education, andcorrupt and repressive regimes, many of which - and this is the importantpoint - are supported by the democracies of the West." This raises thequestion of whether the West really wants democracy in the Muslim world ...
The Rise and Fall of the Islamic Empire and the Threat to the West
Authors: Mazid Nergis
Published: October 2020

Historians and literary critics looking for examples of modern literatureusing classic Orientalist discourse will find The Rise and Fall of theIslamic Empire and the Threat to the West a useful tool. Anthony J. Dennispresents 1,400 years of history, interprets the Qur'an and the Shari'ah,scrutinizes Sunni and Shi'a sectarianism, psychoanalyzes Muslims, commentson the status of women, discusses international political and nationalmovements, and gives diplomatic and military contingency plans for civiliansand policymakers to stem the "Islamic threat" to the West in 157pages (including notes). His second edition forward begins with a polite"I-told-you-so" claiming that 9/11 occurred because Americans were notas vigilant as he told them to be in his first edition (1996), that it was the"first chapter in what promises to be a long battle" (forward) betweenIslam and the West.According to the author, the fall of communism ended the cold warsystem of checks and balances and allowed rogue Islamic states to flourish.Iran, being one of the oldest rogue states and an established enemy ofthe United States, took the USSR's place in stimulating and directing revolutions.Given that Muslims are religiously directed to hate all nonMuslimsand western prosperity is a reminder of their shortcomings,Muslims are jealous and eager to embrace the new revolution ...
AMSS Third Regional Conference
Authors: Ahsani Syed A.
Published: October 2020

At its Third Regional Conference, the AMSS broke new ground, dispellingthe popular image that Muslims are extremists and Islam isengaged in holy war against the West. Mayor Robert Cluck welcomed theparticipants, praised American Muslim organizations' condemnation of9/11, and thanked AMSS for informing Americans about Islam and theMuslim contribution to civilization through its publications and annualconventions. MSA president Laith Albataineh welcomed the participantson behalf of the students.In his introduction, Chairman Basheer Ahmed stated that extremismand terrorism were not unique to a single religion. He exhorted all peacelovingpeople to unite to rein in extremism before it gets out of control.Congressman Martin Frost (D-Texas), the guest of honor at the luncheon,referred to his post-9/11 statement encouraging every Texan to join him inresisting intolerance and bigotry. While condemning terrorism in theMiddle East, he expressed his support for the "roadmap to peace" and aPalestinian state. Congressman Frost is known for his support of civilrights, getting more immigrants into the American armed forces, con­stituent service, upholding the Bill of Rights, furthering his district's eco­nomic development, and assisting students' career development.Moazam Syed, American Muslim Alliance president elect (TarrantCounty) thanked the congressman; said that terror, hatred, and prejudice arealien to all religions; and that: "America will remain just and tolerant, evenwhen confronted with terror and adversity." Bob Ray Sanders, Star Telegramstaff writer and columnist, moderated the question and-answer session.Jamal Badawi (Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Canada) dispelled theinaccurate notions that the Arabic words for "holy war'' can be found in theQur' an, that kufr means "infidel," that Allah is the God of Muslims only, thatIslam is exclusivistic, and that an unbeliever (kafir) does not have the sameright to life as a Muslim, and several other often-misunderstood notions. Heaffirmed that practice or juristic opinions could not replace the Qur'an andahadith, advocated an integrative contextual approach toward understandingthese texts, and pointed out common pitfalls in their interpretation. Hisstatements were well-received by both Muslims and non-Muslims.AMSS president Louay Safi analyzed the present extremism found inthe Muslim world as being based on distorted interpretations of scripture ...
Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam
Authors: Zaidi Ali Hassan
Published: October 2020

While the public role of intellectuals in North America, and perhaps in theWest more generally, is declining, one may hazard to say that their roleremains significant in the Muslim world, judging by the number of intellectualswho have been censored in Muslim societies. Iran, in particular,has a strong tradition of public intellectuals, the latest of whom isAbdolkarim Soroush, a vocal critic of the post-revolutionary clericalregime. An official in the early years of post-revolutionary Iran, he hassubsequently been harassed and censored for arguing that secularism is the best way to guard against the abuse of power. Since Soroush hasquickly gained a following both inside and outside Iran, the editors are tobe commended for editing and translating his wide-ranging ideas andmaking them accessible to the English reading public.The editors’ introduction contextualizes Soroush’s work by locatinghim within a current of Iranian enlightened-religious intellectuals, and,more generally, in a current of Muslim reformist thought that includes thelikes of Muhammad Iqbal and Ali Shariati. Chapter 1, an interview withSoroush, reveals the major influences on the development of his thought,while the remaining 11 chapters are a collection of his essays, lectures,and speeches. Most of this material consists of lectures that he deliveredin the early 1990s. Chapters 2, 4, and 6-9 represent the core of his ideason the limits of religious knowledge, secularism, and the mutual dependenceof freedom and critical reason. The remaining chapters nicelyround out the book with topics ranging from a defense of critical reason,science, and freedom to the differences between the educational model ofthe traditional religious seminary versus the modern university.Chapter 2 presents Soroush’s theory of the contraction and expansionof religious knowledge. Here, he makes the controversial (at least in thepost-revolutionary Iranian context) argument that while religion andsacred scriptures may be flawless and constant, the interpreters of religionare not. Hence, Soroush argues that traditional Islamic knowledge needsto be treated like any other branch of knowledge, “as incomplete, impure,insufficient, and culture-bound” (p. 32) ...
Islam Under Siege
Authors: Kavakci Merve
Published: October 2020

Ahmed’s Islam Under Siege is among the most popular books of the post-9/11 period both in the West and in the Muslim world. The subtitle of thebook poses as its summary: Living Dangerously in a Post-Honor World.This multifaceted book addresses a wide audience, including thoseAmericans in the Midwest who fearfully reflect upon the proverbial question“Why do they hate us?,” Muslims who incessantly lament the acrimoniousreality of Islam being associated with terrorism, and intellectuals whostrive to discern the underlying factors of the crisis between Muslims and theWest. Ahmed responds to the query “Could acts of violence be relegatedmerely to Muslim societies?” by adeptly elucidating the underlying factorsof the Muslim world’s crisis and the West’s failure to understand Islam. In ahistorical context, he ponders the emergence of what he coins the “posthonor”world in which we live, and finally offers a road map to global peace.To alleviate extremist behavior and the rise of terrorism, he stresses theindispensability of – sine qua non – dialogue. He invites Muslims to acquirea self-critical retrospective insight so that they can apprehend their contributionto today’s quagmire, and calls on non-Muslims to exercise more discernmentin understanding the complexities in Muslims’ lives.The fulcrum of his argument is the notion of `asabiyah and its convolutedform, dubbed “hyper-asabiyya,” which he states creates an extremistdemeanor in the Muslim world and ultimately results in violence. The term`asabiyah refers to social cohesion, as described by the medieval socialphilosopher Ibn Khaldun, and is accrued in a society that is based on justice,compassion, and knowledge. The need to maintain it against thethreat of any danger to the established social solidarity engenders a hyperbolicform of `asabiyah, namely, “hyper-asabiyya.” Given that `asabiyah’smain goal is to protect and preserve the society’s “honor,” the trepidationover losing honor or any loss of honor spurs a voracious desire to maintainor recover that honor. This inherent urge to preserve the “core” orregain what is already lost intensifies the emergence of “hyper-asabiyya.”In other words, the breakdown of `asabiyah (a lack of social cohesion)engenders “hyper-asabiyya,” which is characterized by control and violence.Hence, ironically, while “hyper-asabiyya” arises because of the lackof `asabiyah, the former is an exaggerated form of the latter ...
Suits and Uniforms
Authors: Kösebalaban Hasan
Published: October 2020

Philip Robins contends that Turkish foreign policy has faced four challengesin four distinct periods of its history: (1) consolidating the emergentTurkish Republic through external recognition (1930s), (2) remainingneutral during the Second World War (1940s), (3) confronting thechallenge of Soviet expansionism (the cold war era), and (4) respondingto the end of bipolarity (post-cold war era). Robins examines these foreignpolicy issues in the last period.The main thesis of this work is threefold: First, Turkey is a status quopower in the way that its foreign policy elites have fastened their thinkingand practice to the framework of “the sanctity of borders, of states, ofmultilateral institutions and of norms of conduct, even when it becameclear that systemic changes had rendered some of these continuities nolonger tenable” (p. 6). Second, Turkey continues to be firmly orientedwestwards in terms of its foreign relations, which are characterized by itsstrong commitment to NATO as well as its desire to join the EuropeanUnion (EU). Finally, Turkish foreign policy has been characterized moreby “caution than daring,” quoting Malik Mufti. Despite the increase in itspower relative to its neighbors, Turkey has avoided an interventionist foreignpolicy by emphasizing the formation of multilateral frameworks forconflict resolution.Robins defends these arguments by analyzing the international systemicand domestic politics context in which Turkish foreign policy is ...
Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life
Authors: Janmohamed Zahir
Published: October 2020

While Ashutosh Varshney’s book, Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindusand Muslims in India, cannot be judged by its cover, it can be judged byits index. His exhaustive and erudite study of riots in India only includesa paltry three references to the Rashtriya Swayemsevak Sangh (RSS) andVishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), two Hindu nationalist organizations thatplay a central role in such riots. He also fails to mention the Bajrang Dal,the militant Hindu organization responsible for many of the attacks duringthe violence in Gujarat in 2002. This seems to summarize the problemwith his book: It is intriguing yet incomplete.The reason for this omission becomes clear from his central thesis:Riots seldom occur where integrated networks of civic engagement exist;riots are a common feature where interdependency is absent. Varshney, aprofessor of political science at the University of Michigan, surveys sixcities in India: three riot-prone (Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Aligarh) andthree riot-free (Lucknow, Calicut, Surat).His focus on India’s urban centers is not without reason. Only 4% ofcommunal violence-related deaths have occurred in rural areas, where67% of the Indian population lives. Eight cities (whose total populationis only 5% of the country’s total population) account for 45% of deaths incommunal violence. Varshney seems overly eager to correct the notionthat Hindu-Muslim violence is a pan-Indian experience.His book highlights some important divisions that contribute to interreligiousdiscord. In chapter 5, for example, he notes that Aligarh MuslimUniversity (AMU), once an educational center for both Muslims andHindus, is now largely a university exclusively attended by Muslims.Such divisions at the higher academic levels lead to inevitable cleavagesin society. Varshney concludes that “local patterns of violence underlinehow important associational ties across communities are for peace inmulti-ethnic societies” (p. 11).It is tempting to agree with Varshney. His book suggests the basicpremise that if Muslims and Hindus work together, they will not resort tocommunal violence. One can understand why his ideas have gained supportfrom government officials, apologetic Indian scholars, and ...