bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Infidel Within
Authors: Curtis Maria F.
Published: October 2020

While written from a solid historical methodological approach, Ansari’sThe Infidel Within will surely appeal across disciplines to professors andstudents of Islam in the West, the social sciences, colonial and postcolonialstudies, and ethnic and minority studies. This work is encyclopedic withregard to its many references to well-known and obscure pockets ofMuslim communities that thrived and/or disappeared since Islam began totake root in Britain. Therefore, it will be an important tool for futureadvanced research and very helpful for the beginning student. This workcombines astute social analysis with primary and secondary sources,including early Muslim newspapers in Britain, political speeches, and firstpersonnarratives. Perhaps one of the book’s greatest contributions is itsdense quotations from first-person historical sources, which give the readeran authentic sense of what it must have been like to be a Muslim inBritain struggling with various cultural and religious issues.The underlying question of this book is, simply put, considering themany waves of Muslim immigration, intermarriage, and evidence of indigenousconversion: Can there be a single British Muslim identity? Throughoutthe work, we are introduced to the many individuals who contributed toBritish Muslim heritage: poor immigrant seamen from every corner of theBritish Empire, high-ranking South Asian Muslims who intermingled withBritish high society, the more eccentric members of Muslim countries whocame to Britain as visitors and became enduring caricatures in the popularBritish press, English converts who tried to universalize Islam alongUnitarian theological lines, as well as the many charismatic Muslim leadersfrom various ethnic groups who promulgated Islam according to their ownrejection of and/or adherence to their particular culture’s manifestation of theIslamic experience.Ansari’s central premise is that understanding a community’s developmentcannot occur without understanding the many cultural, class, ethnic,racial, and economic forces that are simultaneously at work within thatcommunity. From such a standpoint, the author traces the path of variousMuslim communities as they took root throughout Britain at different classand ethnic levels. Furthermore, Ansari refuses to settle for any easy model ...
Islam in the Digital Age
Authors: Karim Karim H.
Published: October 2020

This is Gary Bunt’s second monograph on the Muslims’ use of the Internet,the first being Virtually Islamic (Cardiff, UK: The University of Wales Press:2000). It is a good contribution to the growing literature, and will appeal tostudents of contemporary Muslim societies and the sociocultural and religiousinfluence of new communication technologies. The book provides auseful list of websites containing information on Islam and Muslims.Bunt suggests that a substantial number of Muslims use the Internet asa propagation and networking tool, to dialogue with each other, and to conductresearch. For some, it is an important way to bypass state censorshipand access other media, and it acts as a means of local and global contact.The Internet is used to disseminate and obtain decisions and points of interpretationon current events, and, for some individuals who are relativelyunknown or treated as pariahs locally, to achieve fame in the larger ummah.Since September 2001, Muslims’ activities and activism on the Internethave proliferated; meanwhile, those in power have increased attempts torestrict them. There has been an increase in websites, chat rooms, and e-maillists. The author justifies linking Muslims’ uses of the Internet with jihad andfatwas by stating that these two areas have seen the most significant integrationof electronic activity with religion. However, he shuns alarmism aboutthe Internet and Islam by presenting a rational analysis and discussion.Bunt admits that a small, albeit growing, minority in Muslim-majoritycountries uses information and communication technologies. Muslim onlinediscourses are part of the contemporary discussion about Islamic identities.The Internet “has not superseded traditional forms of political expression, butis a means through which conventional boundaries and barriers can be transcended”(p. 11).
Islam, Postmodernism and Other Futures
Authors: Zaidi Ali Hassan
Published: October 2020

Followers of the Islamization of Knowledge project probably know thework of Ziauddin Sardar best for its trenchant critique of that project. Yetthe prolific British-Pakistani intellectual has written thoughtfully on topicsranging from the social consequences of science and technology and thefuture development of Muslim societies to cultural studies and the impactof postmodernism on religious belief. Since Sardar’s work is scatteredacross books, academic journals, and science and news magazines, the Reader is a most welcome compendium that showcases the breadth of hisengagements.The book contains 20 selections, which are divided almost equally intothree sections; the editors' introduction, which I discuss below; and a workingbibliography of Sardar's writings and index, both of which are very usefuladditions ...
International Human Rights and Islamic Law
Authors: Hakeem Farrukh B.
Published: October 2020

Mashood Baderin’s International Human Rights and Islamic Law is a monumentalcontribution to an area that needs more scholarly contributionsfrom intellectuals and scholars of Islamic law. Currently, there is a paucityof perspectives on this issue from the standpoint of the Shari`ah. Besidesenlightening readers to the Shari`ah’s sources, nuances, intricacies, anddynamism, Baderin demolishes the myth of a clash of perspectives betweenthe West and the Shari`ah. The reader comes away more knowledgeableabout the mechanics of Islamic law and is able to glean that Islamic law isfar more progressive, humane, and dynamic than the perception constructedby the neo-Orientalists.This book will be very illuminating for students, administrators, andjudicial personnel not only from the western world, but also for those in theIslamic world. Besides being knowledgeable in Islamic law, scripture, andHadith, Baderin shows a remarkable grasp and understanding of internationalhuman rights law. Each chapter is very comprehensive and informativefrom the secular and religious perspectives. After delineating the discourse,he describes and then defuses the apparent incompatibility between ...
The Muslim Veil in North America
Authors: Mir Shabana
Published: October 2020

When it comes to Muslims in the West, nothing is a more sensational visualsymbol than the hijab. Due to the current Muslim and non-Muslim fixationon it, scholarly examination of hijab and related issues is necessary.The Muslim Veil in North America examines some of its historical, sociological/anthropological, and theological aspects. Part 1 engages with theveil’s hyper-visibility in Canada. Since the book does not engage with theAmerican experience, I am not sure why the title refers to North America.I enjoyed part 2 immensely, and will use it as a reference on the subject.The bulk of this section explores the historical development of the veil’stheological status and nature. This book is different from, say, Maudoodi’sPurdah, which sees the veil in its contemporary form as a product of historicalprocesses.This book is dedicated to diasporic Muslim women, although introductorymaterial in various chapters addresses readers unfamiliar with Islam. Undergraduates will appreciate its accessibility in comparison tomost academic texts, and it will make the subject comprehensible to layreaders. Unfortunately, this means that the book wavers between being anacademic (education, anthropology, and sociology) and a lay read. This isnot because the entire book is tailored to different kinds of readers, butbecause its two parts are rather disjointed. Part 1 addresses a more lay andintroductory social science-related reader with basic information; part 2, onthe other hand, is a highly specialized examination of exegetical and hadithhistory.The editors, in addressing a gaping void in the literature, possiblyattempt to do too much: specialized theology, history, politics, anthropology,and sampling of “voices.” I would have preferred it to be more selective.Also, “let the voices speak” is a commendable approach, but after a certainpoint we should go beyond it. There is also a line between “reportage syndrome,”writing without an adequate theoretical framework, and skillfulacademic writing, which allows contextualized voices to be heard by fellowacademics within the social sciences. I would also have preferred that thetheology and sociology chapters be connected by common threads ...
Crucial Images in the Presentation of a Kurdish National Identity
Authors: Yenigün Halil Ibrahim
Published: October 2020

This book is primarily a history of the early Kurdish movement, from itsinception in the late nineteenth century to the 1930s. Yet, its distinctivenesscomes not from the Kurdish nationalists’ more publicized products, but fromits focus on the margins of their literary attempts. This study of failed nationalism“is concerned less with how and why Kurdish nationalism did or didnot ‘catch on’ than with the efforts made by [the] Kurdish elite to constructa viable concept of Kurdish identity” (p. 1). In other words, the author’smain concern is to identify how images of the Kurds were constructed andrepresented, and how they evolved, over time, until the late 1930s.The book is divided into three parts, each of which corresponds to a differentperiod that delineates differing self-images of the Kurds. Each part,in turn, consists of six to eight chapters that provide an account of both keyevents in the Kurdish movement’s history and literary works. Part 1,“‘Awakening’ the Kurds,” deals with the movement’s background contextand early period by discussing its leaders, several publications, and organizations.In this period, the Kurds’ self-definition was predominantly negative,and obstacles to modernization abounded: tribal structures, a nomadicway of life, illiteracy, ignorance, and wildness.Yet the Turks were never the “inimical other,” except for such people asthe Ottoman sultan Abdulhamid and “a long line of Ottoman despots.” Theyhad a long list of prescriptions to awaken and literally “remake” the Kurds sothat they could be accepted by the nations of the civilized world. When theWilsonian principles granted their right to self-determination without this culturalleap, some Kurds wanted a Kurdish state. However, the vast majoritymourned for the Treaty of Sevrés along with their Turkish brethren, despitethe fact that its articles established Kurdistan. This chapter also describes howmost Kurds joined forces with the Kemalists to drive out the occupiers, onlyto be frustrated by the Kemalists’ subsequent assimilation projects ...
Islamic Activism
Authors: Bullock Katherine
Published: October 2020

This book, an exciting development in the study of Islamic activism, is destinedto become a landmark text. The reason for this, as Kurzman observesin his conclusion, is as simple as it is strange: The authors treat Islamicactivists as normal human beings who make decisions about activism inways that are similar to decision-making methods used by non-Muslimactivists. Were it not for the persistent notion in both academic and popularcircles that Islamic activists are their own species, one that is motivated byan irrational fanaticism, any such conclusion would be seen as humdrum.Such is the isolation of Islamic studies from theoretical developments inother fields that it was not until the turn of the twenty-first century that scholars began to study Islamic activists from the vantage point of state-of-the artinsights on social movements. For this, Wiktorowicz and the contributors tohis book are pioneers who deserve our appreciation.Islamic Activism is divided into three parts: “Violence and Contention,”“Networks and Alliances,” and “Culture and Framing.” It also features aforeword by Charles Tilly, an introduction by the editor, and a conclusion byCharles Kurzman. Each chapter is a strong contribution based on solidempirical research with Islamic activists from various Muslim societies.Many chapters also provide synopses of social movement theory beforemoving on to a discussion of their particular case study. Due to the profundityof social movement theory, this never becomes repetitive, and a nonspecialistreader will gain an understanding of social movement theory whilelearning more about Islamic social movements. For this reason, both Tillyand Kurzman note that the study of Islamic social movements is not just aone way street – applying theoretical insights in social movement theoryderived from the study of non-Muslims to Islamic activists. Rather, thebroadening and deepening social movement theory itself is accomplishedvia the empirical study of Islamic activists ...
With All Our Strength
Authors: Farhoumand-Sims Cheshmak
Published: October 2020

Anne Brodsky’s With All Our Strength provides an ethnographic study ofthe Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). Thisorganization was founded in 1977 by the enigmatic Meena as “the firstindependent feminist women’s organization in Afghanistan, whose solepurpose and aim was the advancement and equality of Afghan women” (p.43). RAWA’s main vehicle of empowerment is education, through literacyand political consciousness, and its vehicles for promoting these tasks are literacy classes and Payam-e-Zan, a quarterly political magazine (publishedin Dari and Pashtu) that includes political commentaries on a wide range ofissues relating to Afghanistan.The author describes RAWA as a humanitarian and political women’sorganization that has operated in Afghanistan and Pakistan since its foundingin 1977. She provides a good review of its philosophy and workingsthrough an impressive number of interviews and personal observationsgained while living and traveling with RAWAmembers. Her analysis offersinsight into Afghanistan’s patriarchal culture, as well as the customs andtraditions that have impacted its women. She presents readers with anexcellent analysis of the events that led to the conflict in Afghanistan, discussesthe country’s situation since the regime change of 1979, and highlightsthe humanitarian cost of war, focusing on the conflict’s impact onAfghani women. In addition, she describes the horrors women faced underthe Taliban regime and outlines the continued challenges that they face inpost-Taliban Afghanistan as well as RAWA’s response ...
Arab-American Faces and Voices
Authors: Sarroub Loukia K.
Published: October 2020

Arab-American Faces and Voices: The Origins of an ImmigrantCommunity offers a detailed history of the lives of Arab immigrants in Worcester, Massachusetts. Elizabeth Booshada conducted primary sourceresearch, interviewed nearly 200 people, and documented the immigrants’stories of their families’ lives from 1880-1915. The author’s personal andfamily connections to the community, in combination with the candid interviewexcerpts, provide a fascinating and much needed account of a peoplewho survived, thrived in, and helped to create an important part ofAmerican society.The book’s main focus is to describe, from the perspectives of elderlyimmigrants of mainly Christian Arab ancestry, their experiences in theUnited States. Booshada gives a brief history of the Arab world at the timeof their migration, and each chapter provides extensive depictions of theirneighborhoods, workplaces, traditions, education, culture, the process ofAmericanization, and the legacies that they left to their progeny.Importantly, Booshada points out the complex and complicated socioculturaland economic ties that these early sojourners, and eventually settlers,had to the Arab world and the Americas. For example, they traveledfar and wide to be with family and to make a living.The book is rich in description, especially regarding the voices ofindividuals as they remembered the hardships and successes of starting abusiness, getting married, joining the war effort at the turn of the twentiethcentury, practicing religion, or becoming American during politicallydifficult times. One of the book’s main strengths is its great detail aboutthe various streets and buildings in Worcester in which the early immigrantsinvested, occupied, or built. However, more could be said, forexample, about how property, as well as the use of space for business,church, and family, contributed to an Arab and American identity-in-themaking ...
Inscriptions
Authors: Mazid Nergis
Published: October 2020

The irony was not lost that Toronto’s Colony Hotel was the site of theAMSS’ tribute to the late Edward Said, “Inscriptions: Decoding Politics,Gender and Culture in Epistemologies and Praxis,” held on November 27,2004. The first regional Canadian conference, cosponsored by the AMSS’ Canadian chapter and the University of Toronto’s political science department,featured eight sessions. A wide breadth of papers incorporated hisintellectual legacy, either directly through his critical frameworks, or indirectlythrough critiques developed from them. Gender, neo-conservativism,development, legal works of body, and Qur’anic hermenuetics were justsome of the issues discussed.Welcoming and opening remarks were offered by Jasmin Zine andMaliha Chisti, the conference’s cochairs; Paul Kingston, of the political sciencedepartment; and Beverly McCloud in absentia. Participants then splitinto two groups to attend concurrent sessions. Said’s legacy was presentedby Nahla Abdo (Carleton University, Canada), who discussed epistemology,diaspora, and identity, and Sedef Arat-Koc (Trent University, Canada),who examined imperial inscriptions, diasporic identifications, and visionsfor peaceful coexistence. The concurrent session, “Afghan Women, War,and Ideologies of Conflict,” featured papers on ground realities inAfghanistan and the neo-conservative agenda that drove American politicaldecisions.Maliha Chisti (University of Toronto, Canada) and ChesmakFarhoumand-Sims (York University, Canada) examined the trends andimpact of the transnational movement and global sisterhood on programmingfor Afghani women. Relating their experience with capacity-buildingprograms for Afghani women, they conveyed how larger aid agencies usedstereotypical epithets that ignored the long legacy of indigenous women’sactivism and prioritized formally educated, westernized women. FaizaHirji (Carelton University, Canada) examined the perpetuation of stereotypesof Muslim women in The New York Times (US), The Globe andMail (Canada), and Dawn, Pakistan’s largest English daily. While the twowestern papers conveyed tropes of veiled Muslim women in need of rescue,Dawn, due to its proximity to Afghanistan, flagged that country’ssociopolitical and religious complexities by situating women, Islam, andthe Northern Alliance. James Esdail (McGill University, Canada) examinedthe neoconservative movement in American foreign policy and concludedthat although no longer overt, imperialism and Orientalist tropesstill permeate this movement ...
Transnational Political Islam
Authors: Malik Anas
Published: October 2020

Amid the escalating conflicts and polarizations separating “Muslim” from“Westerner,” the book under review is a helpful contribution to the academicand policy literature. Prominent anti-immigrant right-wing movements,such as those led by Pim Fortyn (the Netherlands) and Jean-Marie Le Pen(France), have seen their perspectives enter and influence mainstream politics.Recently, Dutch movie director Theo van Gogh was murdered by aMuslim on the grounds that he had demeaned Islam. Demonstrations againstthe brutal murder and attacks on Muslim institutions followed. The alreadyoverheatedclimate of antagonism has risen by several degrees. These developmentsare echoed in other clashes in Europe revolving around identitypolitics, such as the hijab issue in France.Western states are coping with the dual demands posed by integrationand police work: seeking to integrate Muslims into European and Americansocieties while simultaneously pursuing terrorist cells and networks. AzzaKaram’s edited volume considers such questions as the relationshipbetween political Islam and violence, distinguishing extremism from moderateIslam (often presumed to be “mainstream” Islam), and how Muslimsin the West relate to these. Karam’s volume includes articles coveringFrance, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands (all described as non-Englishspeaking countries with less English scholarly literature on these topics) ...
Muslims in America
Authors: Khan Shaza
Published: October 2020

To date, most of the literature on Muslims in the United States has discussedthe formation and growth of this population from a national perspective.Few studies, however, examine the dynamics of specific Muslim communitiesfrom a local, city-specific context. Mbaye Lo attempts to fill this gapthrough his research on the history of Muslims in Cleveland, Ohio, in hisbook Muslims in America: Race, Politics, and Community Building. Thisbook aims to present a “comprehensive historical assessment of Muslimcommunities in Cleveland” by providing a detailed examination of “theirhistory, their faith and the challenges they face as they establish mosques,develop Islamic centers, and create a multiethnic community” (p. 2). Using various sources of data, such as oral histories of influential figures in theCleveland area and local and national surveys conducted on Muslims in theUnited States, Lo discovers that “the history of Islam in Cleveland is a localphenomenon with both national and global derivations” (p. 3).American immigration policies, the civil rights movement, and newinterpretations of Islam are some of the factors that affected the growth ofMuslim populations throughout the nation and in Cleveland. Lo traces thegenesis of the Muslim community to Ahmadi missionaries who arrived inthe city from India in the early 1900s. Shortly after their arrival, Ahmadisfound great success in inviting African Americans to convert to Islam, creatingthe foundation for what was to become a burgeoning Muslim community.In the latter half of the twentieth century, the arrival of immigrantMuslims and members of the Nation of Islam to Cleveland helped the communityexpand, while also introducing new versions of Islam to the city’sresident Muslims. Ironically, this influx of Muslim outsiders to Clevelandresulted in both the growth and the division of its Muslim population ...
Mazrui and His Critics
Authors: Adjei Paul Banahene
Published: October 2020

This work is a review essay of two books: Africanity Redefined: CollectedEssays of Ali A. Mazrui, edited by Ali Alamin Mazrui, Ricardo ReneLaremont, Tracia Leacock Seghatolislami, Michael A. Toler, and FouadKalouche (Africa World Press: 2002) and Governace and Leadership:Debating the African Condition: Ali Mazrui and His Critics, edited byAlamin M. Mazrui and Willy Mutunga (Africa World Press: 2003) Theseare the first two volumes in a three-volume work dealing with the correspondenceamong Ali Mazrui and his opponents, as well as his supporters,on issues relating to Africa.Mazrui, a Kenyan scholar, is currently Albert Schweitzer professor inhumanities and director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies, BinghamtonUniversity, State University of New York. An Oxford scholar, he isalso Albert Luthuli professor-at-large in humanities and development studiesat the University of Jos, Nigeria, as well as Andrew D. White professorat-large emeritus and senior scholar in Africana studies at CornellUniversity (www.islamonline.net). In addition, he has authored many publicationsand television and radio documentaries. Perhaps his best-knownwork in the West is his BBC radio and television documentary series “TheAfricans,” which was co-produced by the BBC and the public televisionstation WETA.Writing on Mazrui, Sulayman Nyang of Howard University states:Ali Mazrui is a controversial but independent and original thinker. He isa master word-monger and certainly does not belong to that class of menwho lament that words fail them. …It is because of his conjurer’s abilityto negotiate between the realm of serious issues and the province of ...
Progressive Muslims
Authors: Geissinger Aisha
Published: October 2020

Particularly since 9/11, students and the wider public have been asking NorthAmerican Muslim academics to comment on current events, while Muslimstudents and the larger Muslim community tend to expect Muslim academicsto “defend Islam” by engaging in apologetics. Nonetheless, this book beginsby stating that its authors seek to raise the level of discourse about Islam, andwant to avoid both apologetics and simplistic answers to complex questions.The introduction makes frank observations about the present state ofthe world’s Muslims and calls for an intellectual response that seriouslyengages modern realities. It is followed by fourteen chapters, which aredivided into three sections, which deal with contemporary interpretations ofIslam, gender issues, and pluralism, respectively. The book concludes witha suggested further reading list and an index ...
Reflections on Ijtihad and Moderate Islam
Authors: Safi Louay
Published: October 2020

My remarks focus on two central themes addressed in the preceding debate:moderate Muslim and ijtihad. Although my assignment requires me toengage the five illustrious interlocutors, I have chosen to refer to salientaspects of their statements, particularly those that help in clarifying the twothemes alluded to above. Given the brevity of my remarks and the limitedspace allocated to comments, it is not possible to expound on the epistemologicaland ontological underpinnings of the arguments. The followingarguments, therefore, take the form of a number of assertions that lack theoreticalgrounding. This will be felt particularly by readers who do notshare the basic assumptions upon which the arguments are premised. But,I guess this is exactly what the editor has intended: to explore diverse viewswithin and without the Muslim community.Still, this intellectual exercise provides an important backdrop for thecurrent debate about the significance of Islam in the profound transformationsoccurring in contemporary Islamic thinking. I also believe that thedebate reveals the complexity of the process of Islamic reform and diversityof its forms and manifestations ...
Is an Intra-Islamic Theological Ecumenism Possible? A Response to Sherman Jackson
Authors: Khalil Atif
Published: October 2020

It is rare to find within contemporary Islamic thought writers who are conversantin both the classical Islamic theological heritage and recent developmentsin philosophy and theology. More often than not, those who doattempt to engage in Islamic theology display either an ignorance of the pastor the present. This is not, however, the case with Sherman Jackson, whojoins a small handful of others, such as S. H. Nasr, Khalid Abou Fadl, andAbdal Hakim Murad, whose works – diverse as they are – reflect a grasp ofboth the Muslim intellectual tradition and modern thought.Jackson’s recent On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam(Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2002) is not only a translation of al-Ghazali’s Faysal al-Tafriqah bayna al-Islam wa al-Zandaqah (TheDecisive Criterion for Distinguishing Islam from Masked Infidelity), one ofthe most significant medieval attempts to formulate a method to definitivelydelineate “orthodoxy,” but is prefaced by a highly original essay inwhich, among other things, he ventures to extend al-Ghazali’s project byredefining and expanding the limits of Islamic orthodoxy within a contemporarycontext. In this sense, the introduction is a creative and laudableattempt by a serious Muslim thinker to do Islamic theology rather thanmerely exposit the dogmatic formulations of his medieval predecessors. Assuch, the introductory essay is the most original part of the book,1 since itis here that Jackson argues, among other things, for the possibility of anintra-Islamic theological ecumenism, one in which creedal schools that previously saw each other as misguided might come to a greater recognitionof their mutual legitimacies.This is, indeed, an ambitious project. Yet, few of the book’s reviewersseem to have fully appreciated the magnitude of Jackson’s project as laid outin his introductory essay – virtually an independent piece in its own right –and devoted, instead, the bulk of their reviews to the rest of the work.2 WhatI intend to do in the few pages that follow is to respond briefly to some ofhis arguments insofar as they pertain to his ideas on intra-Islamic theologicalecumenism.3 My purpose is to show that despite the ingenuity withwhich he tackles the issue of doctrinal and theological diversity, many of hiscentral arguments are beset by internal contradictions and incongruenciesthat might otherwise evade the casual reader ...
A Modern History of the Kurds, 3d rev. ed.
Authors: Ali Othman
Published: October 2020

This extensive survey of the Kurds’ history is divided into five sections:“The Kurds in the Age of Tribe and Empire,” “Incorporating the Kurds,”“Ethno-nationalism in Iran,” “Ethno-nationalism in Iraq,” and “Ethnonationalismin Turkey.” An introduction on Kurdish identity and social formation, as well as four appendices discussing the Treaty of Sèvres and theKurds of Syria, Lebanon, and Caucasia, are also included. David McDowall,a noted British specialist on Middle Eastern minority affairs and anacknowledged expert on Kurdish studies, has extensively revised the 1996second edition of his book. He provides an analysis of recent Kurdish eventsand a more up-to-date bibliography at the end of each section.This highly detailed history begins in the nineteenth century and ends inthe present day. The author discusses the interplay of the old and new facetsof Kurdish politics: local rivalries within Kurdish society; the enduringauthority of the traditional leadership represented by sheikhs and aghas; thefailure of modern nation states to respond to the challenge of Kurdishnationalism; and the use of Kurdish groups as pawns by major western powersand regional states in the region’s power politics. His methodology is primarilypolitical-historical in nature; however, anthropological and socialanalysis are not totally lacking.As presented by McDowall, a close scrutiny of modern Kurdish historyreveals striking continuities. For example, one pattern has characterizedKurdish-Iraqi relations since 1958: Each Iraqi government pursued peacenegotiations with the Kurds at first, only to fight them when it felt secureabout its rule. This pattern is also found in Iran’s relations with its Kurds.Turkey, however, has pursued a policy that seeks to assimilate and, at times,even ethnically cleanse its Kurdish population.There is also continuity in the major powers’ manipulation of the“Kurdish card” in Iraq. McDowall writes that in 1976, the SelectIntelligence Committee of the House of Representatives reported to theHouse that neither Iran nor the United States would like to see the civil wargoing on in Iraq at that time resolved in a way that would give the Kurds aclear win. Twenty years later, in 1991, the United States implemented a similarpolicy with the Kurds’ so-called “exclusionary zone’’ in northern Iraq.Fearing the consequences likely to follow Saddam Hussein’s overthrow – inparticular, the dismemberment of Iraq and wider regional instability – theUnited States refused to give the Kurds sufficient aid to enable them toestablish an independent homeland ...
European Trade and Colonial Conquest (vol. 1)
Authors: Abraham Jose
Published: October 2020

European Trade and Colonial Conquest is authored by Biplab Dasgupta, arenowned political and social activist from Calcutta who taught economics atCalcutta University and was a member of the Parliament of India for severalyears. He has authored many books on various aspects of India’s socioeconomicand political life in the post-independence era, such as the oil industry,the Naxalite movements, trends in Indian politics, labor issues and globalization,agrarian change and technology, rural change, urbanization, and migration.The present book primarily focuses on the evolution of Bengal’s economyand society over the precolonial period, beginning from prehistoric days.Even though there are writings on Bengal’s colonial history, we know verylittle about its precolonial past except for the names of kings, the chronologyof dynasties, and scattered references to urban settlements.Dasgupta shows a specific interest in highlighting the socioeconomichistory of the last two and half centuries, from Vasco de Gama’s journey toIndia in 1498 to the battle of Palashi in 1757. The author asserts that heexplores in detail the socioeconomic and political context of Bengal thatfacilitated the transfer of power to European hands, because historians generallyignore this rather quite long and critical period. He, therefore, commentsthat this is “less a book on pre-colonial Bengal” and more a book onEuropean trade and colonial conquest (p. vii). The book explains howEuropean commercial enterprise in Bengal gathered political power throughits control over trade and gradually transformed itself into a colonial power.Although the Mughals held political power during this period, the economicpower and control of the Indian Ocean trade routes were gradually slippinginto European hands.It is believed that Clive’s victory at the battle of Palashi led to the colonialconquest of Bengal. However, focusing on Bengal’s socioeconomic ...
Quranic Studies
Authors: Kersten Carool
Published: October 2020

Since its first release in 1977 by Oxford University Press, Quranic Studieshas become part of a wider body of published scholarship that is taking afresh look at the traditional renditions of early Islamic history. Apart fromthis book, John Wansbrough (1928-2002), who was professor of SemiticStudies at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), alsowrote The Sectarian Milieu (Oxford University Press: 1978). Others havesince continued to research the formative period of Islam in a similar fashion.Among the most controversial contributions in this genre wasHagarism: The Making of the Islamic World (Oxford University Press:1977), a joint project of Patricia Crone (who did her Ph.D. underWansbrough) and Michael Cook (who also taught at SOAS until 1986).Thescholars belonging to this “school” of history writing have been characterizedas representatives of a “renewed scepticism” (Mohammed Arkoun),“revisionists” (R. Stephen Humphreys), and even practitioners of “badOrientalism” (Leonard Binder).This last characterization is indicative of the direction in which the discussionshave moved. Rather than having a continued exchange of viewsinformed by scholarly arguments, which this highly specialist and arcanesubject matter would certainly merit, the debate was, regrettably, soondominated by ideological overtones. Due to new communication technologies,it became part of a discourse that went far beyond what would havebeen its normal readership. Now, Quranic Studies has been released again,enhanced with a foreword, new annotations, and a glossary by AndrewRippin, a Qur’anic studies expert from Victoria University in Canada.Rippin undertook this venture in order to counter some of the ideologicaland non-scholarly ways in which the book has been used during the firsttwenty-five years of its existence. In fact, the editor even questions whetherall of those voicing the strongest opinions about this book have actuallyever read it.That would indeed be most remarkable, because Wansbrough’s study isat a level of erudition that few can hope to master. Unfortunately, that is alsoits main drawback: For the non-specialist, and by that I mean the Islamicistwhose interests lie outside scriptural exegesis, this erudite book poses a ...
Bridging the Divide?
Authors: Shuayb Fiaz
Published: October 2020

On January 9, 2006, in Washington, DC, the Saban Center for Middle EastPolicy at the Brookings Institution hosted the highest level meeting betweenthe Bush administration and the American Muslim community. Entitled “Bridging the Divide?” and organized by the Brookings Project on USPolicy toward the Islamic World, representatives of various Muslim organizationwere granted the opportunity to interface with C. David Welch, theAssistant Secretary of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. The conference,a follow-up to previous initiatives on “Bridging the Divide” theme, soughtto bring together key leaders and specialists “to explore the potential spacefor the American Muslim community to assist and advance US policytowards the Islamic world and capabilities within the community that mightbe better tapped.” In attendance were representatives from the Americangovernment, officials from a variety of American Muslim organizations,American Muslim foreign policy experts, others from the Washington thinktankand policy communities, and students.In the opening speech, Welch acknowledged several unique characteristicsabout the American Muslim community: its integration into Americancivic life; being Americans as well as Muslims; and, despite post-9/11 tensions,steering a moderate course while confronting extremist Islamist tendencies.As evidence, he cited the Fiqh Council of North America’s recentfatwa against Islamic terrorism that was endorsed by major Muslim organizations.He recognized that American Muslims can play an exceptional rolein explaining the American position, given their cultural, linguistic, and ethnicties with the Islamic world, and acknowledged the history of conflictbetween the United States and the Muslim world. In addition, he condemnedthe seeming “civilizational strife” between Islam and the West as a pointless“jihad/crusade.” He stated that he was more comfortable with the relationshipof the United States with the Muslim – especially Arab – world as beingdefined by a dialog stressing the commonalities of belief in God, virtue,family life, and socioeconomic justice ...
New Faiths, Old Fears
Authors: Daniels Timothy P.
Published: October 2020

Bruce Lawrence’s book, New Faiths, Old Fears: Muslims and Other AsianImmigrants in American Religious Life, seeks to remedy theoretical gaps bycorrecting the emphasis on East Asians within Asian-American studies andby describing Asian Americans in relation to other minorities and dominantAnglos within the prevailing ethno-racial system (p. xiv). As a religiousstudies scholar with “a lifelong engagement with Islam, and an exuberantattachment to South Asia” (p. 38), he discusses post-1965 immigration andunderscores its religious and cultural dimensions. The range of controversialtopics broached in this book promise to appeal to a broad readership.Topics covered include historical and politico-economic aspects of immigration, racial prejudice, cultural and religious fundamentalism, argumentsover multiculturalism, transnational identities, and media representations ofreligion. Consequently, New Faiths, Old Fears is highly significant forthose interested in religious studies, sociology, anthropology, history, andcultural studies – and especially for those interested in immigration andAsian Americans ...
Editorial
Authors: Willoughby Jay
Published: October 2020

In this issue, we move away from our customary focus on the MuslimMiddle East and Muslims in the West and turn toward Southeast Asia andChina. Here, we find Muslim communities that seem not to be so entrancedby what we in the West consider to be the most pressing issues: the Muslimworld vs. the West and/or modernity, the Abrahamic faiths trialogue, politicaland economic reform, the suitability of western-style democracy inMuslim countries, and the rise of Islamic “fundamentalism,” “terrorism,”“extremism,” or whatever similar term the media throws at us.Excluding Indonesia and Malaysia, the overriding concerns of theseMuslims appear to be different, for they are often viewed as unwanted orignored minority communities. For example, Muslims living in Xinjiang,southern Thailand, and the southern Philippines are confronted daily by hostileor indifferent regimes that want their natural resources and land. Thus,their main concerns are actual (as opposed to theoretical) justice, beingallowed to remain “different” instead of being forced to assimilate, and passingon their religious and cultural identities in a hostile environment.In interfaith terms, their intellectuals are involved in other discourses:Islam and Buddhism, Confucianism, communism, folk religion, cultural chauvinism,and others. To cite an example, one of my Cham Muslim friends fromVietnam translated the Qur’an into Vietnamese several years ago. Accordingto him, the hardest part was translating such monotheistic concepts as God,sin, final judgment, good, and evil into a non-monotheistic language that hasno words for such concepts. One of our articles (Peterson) deals with howChinese Muslim scholars of the pre-modern era tried to solve this problem.Several of our articles deal with China, whose rite of passage intomodernity might have killed a lesser nation. Within the space of 100 years,it was ruled by a highly traditional empire engulfed in its own hubris, anationalist republican regime beset by a virulent communist insurgency andJapanese invasion, and an extremely radical revolutionary communistregime. And now it is an economic dynamo, due to its “capitalism with Chinesecharacteristics.” But what do we know of its Muslims, other than thatthe Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang continue to be restive and that the Bushadministration has accepted Beijing’s claim that several of Xinjiang’s secessionistgroups have links with the Taliban and al-Qaeda? ...
Stolen Youth
Authors: Gandolfo K. Luisa
Published: October 2020

The subject of child detention is fraught with complexities of both a legaland an emotional nature, particularly when placed in the context of conflict. Founded on the Defence for Children International: Palestine Section’s(DCI/PS) work conducted between 1999 and 2003, the contributors developeda level of expertise in the realm of youth detention in Israeli prisonsthrough research, advocacy work, and the experiences of their colleagues,many of whom were former child detainees. The result is a compelling andoften disquieting read, replete with testimonies by the children, their families,and lawyers which relates the unforgiving conditions and obstacles thatclutter the legal process and place the child at a disadvantage.Edifying and cogent, the authors maintain an objective narrativethroughout, thereby enabling the reader to absorb the circumstances andlegal framework prior to constructing an independent conclusion. In addition,the tables, graphs, and figures corroborate and clarify such subjects asIsraeli position abuse (shabeh), the characteristics of prisons, and key termsrelated to human rights and humanitarian law, as well as a glossary that providesbackground information concerning the noted organizations, statutes,and terminologies ...
The First Annual Muslim Peacebuilding, Justice, and Interfaith Dialogue
Authors: Zimmerman Ashleigh
Published: October 2020

The First Annual Muslim Peacebuilding, Justice, and Interfaith Dialoguewas held on 28-30 April 2006. Sponsored by the Salam Institute for Peaceand Justice (SIPJ) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), it wasmade possible through a Conflict Transformation Grant, in part with theFuller Theological Seminary, and the generous support provided by theMohammed Said Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace at American University.The conference was opened by Mohammed Abu-Nimer (SIPJ) andLouay Safi (ISNA). Abu-Nimer explained that this event was being held to“systematically think about the Islamic perspectives of peacebuilding, conflictresolution, and interfaith dialogue, and to attempt to bring it into theAmerican public context.” Safi mentioned that “it is crucial that we learnhow to prevent and resolve these inevitable conflicts.” After these openingremarks, the panel sessions began.Panel 1, “Peace through Development: Experiences from Muslim Communitiesand the Muslim World,” discussed the effect of development practicesin Muslim communities on the peace and sustainability of both thesecommunities themselves and their outside interactions. Kathleen Meilahnspoke about the United States’ inability to create a sustainable peace in Iraqdue to its lack of cultural and religious understanding. She was followed byAyse Kadayifici-Orellana, who presented the SIPJ’s study on MuslimPeacebuilders in Africa and the Balkans. Her major findings included theuse of and the need to expand the concept of tawhid (that all of creationemanates from God) and therefore must understand unity through plurality.Putut Widjanarko’s presentation focused on the Muslim community’s contributionto reducing ethnic differences within Islam.Panel 2, “Intra-Muslim Dialogue,” focused on the need for intra-faithdialogue among Muslims. The presenters pinpointed the Sunni-Shi`ah spilt,differences between converted Muslims and born Muslims, and ideological ...
Should the U.S. Shut Down Gitmo?
Authors: Srour Soha
Published: October 2020

This panel discussion, held on 27 June 2006 and sponsored by the Councilon American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), featured James Yee, a 1990 WestPoint graduate and Muslim chaplain assigned to Camp Delta (Guantanamo Bay) and attorney Gene Fidell of Feldesman, Tucker, Leifer, and Fidell, whohas worked on cases involving Guantanamo Bay inmates. The discussiontook place at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC.After making opening remarks on illegal immigrants and terrorism,Mohammad Nimer (research director, CAIR) introduced Chaplain Yee, whohad served at Camp Delta from November 2002 to September 2003. Whilethere, he experienced the detention center's living conditions and receivedawards and recognition for his service. On 10 September 2003, however, hewas arrested and accused of espionage, aiding the enemy, mutiny, and sedition.Eventually, he was locked up alongside enemy combatants YasserHamdy and Jose Padilla in a naval brig in South Carolina. Later, all chargeswere dropped, including unrelated charges regarding national security.Yee explained his role as advocating for the free exercise of worship. Headvised the camp commander on religious aspects of prison operations andlistened to prisoners’ complaints and concerns, including authorized andunescorted access to the cells. In addition, he observed detainee treatmentand made recommendations. He described two operations: detention operationsrun by military police or guards (e.g., providing them with clothes) andintelligence gathering, which included extracting information. Yee wasassigned to the former group, as the commanding general at the time, MajorGeneral Geoffrey Miller, considered it unethical for the chaplain to be presentduring intelligence gathering operations ...