Pathways to Contemporary Islam: New Trends in Critical Engagement highlights that the current tensions in Islam and the Muslim world are the result of historical dynamics as opposed to an alleged incompatibility between religious tradition and modernity. The emphasis on pathways indicates that critical engagement and contestation have always been intrinsic to the history of Islam. The aim of the book is to elaborate the contemporary pathways and analyse the trends that contest the Islamic intellectual tradition, the relationship between religion and politics, and the individual and collective practice of religion. The collection of essays analyses the current efforts of critical re-engagement with the Islamic intellectual tradition and underlines the historical diversity of Islamic orthodoxies that led to the establishment of various pathways in the practice and role of religion in Muslim societies.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Constructing Pathways to Contemporary Islam
- Section 1 Historical Trends in Contemporary Perspective
- 1. Pathways to Modern Islam
- Ali Allawi
- Introduction
- Defining Modern Islam
- Islamic State
- Islamic Society
- Islamic Consciousness
- The Downfall of Modern Islam in Three Currents
- Islamic Parties and Movements
- The Dead End of Modern Islam
- Reformation, Enlightenment, and the Romantic Movement in Modern Islam
- 2. A Theoretical Pathway to Contemporary Islam
- Iulia Lumina
- From Herodotus to Universal History
- ‘Oriental Ease and Repose’, Despotism and the Theft of History
- Rethinking World History and Multiple Modernities
- From Orientalism to Post-Orientalism
- Defining Islam
- From Modernity to the Contemporary
- Conclusion
- Section 2 Contesting the Islamic Intellectual Tradition
- 3. A New Approach to Islamic Intellectual Tradition
- Ali Unsal
- Introduction
- Terminology
- A New Approach to the Islamic Intellectual Tradition
- Conclusion
- 4. The Best and Most Trying of Times
- Islamic Education and the Challenge of Modernity
- The Origins and Varieties of Muslim Learning
- The Relation of Religious to Non-Religious Knowledge
- Modern Learning and Intellectual Renewal
- Whither Islamic Intellectualism?
- 5. The Function of Myths in the Justification of Muslim Extremism
- Syed Farid Alatas
- Introduction
- Myths
- The Battle of the Trench and the Banu Qurayza
- The Absurdity of the Story of the Banu Qurayza
- Conclusion
- Section 3 Beyond the Arab Revolutions:
Political Islam Revised
- 6. Building Trust in the Democratic Process
- The Role of Islamists in Tunisia’s Post-Arab Spring Transitional Politics
- Introduction
- When Islamists are Political Actors
- The Tunisian Context for Democratization
- Ennahda in Government: Building National Unity
- Trust in the Democratic Process
- Concluding Remarks
- 7. The Failure of Political Islam Revisited
- Olivier Roy
- What is Islamism?
- Islamism and Jihadism
- The Decline of Islamism
- The Future of Islamists
- 8. Regaining the Islamic Centre?
- A Malaysian Chronicle of Moderation and Its Discontents
- Introduction
- Islamic Pluralism in Brief Historical Perspective
- How Moderation Lost the Battle: The Case of Malaysia
- The Aftermath: Implications of the Defeat of Moderation
- Can the Centre Be Regained?
- Concluding Remarks
- Section 4 Contemporary Spaces of Critical Engagement
- 9. Enhancing Dialogue Between Religious Traditions
- An Islamic Perspective
- A Historical Perspective
- The Prospects of Sufism in Informing a Peace-Driven Universal Ethic
- The Role of Islamic Institutions in Interreligious and Inter-Civilizational Dialogue
- 10. The Ethical in Shari’a Practices
- Deliberations in Search of an Effective Paradigm
- Methodological Innovation
- Change in Terms of History and Tradition
- Shariʿa as Ethical Truth
- Shariʿa as Ethical Norms
- Negotiating the Ethical in Contemporary Muslim Ethics
- Paradoxical Pictures
- Rape and Nullification of Marriage: The Imrana Case
- Making Sense of Norms
- Blasphemy
- How to Think About Tradition in Muslim Moral Contexts
- Conclusion
- 11. The New Horizons of Piety
- Religiosity and Moral Agency in the Modern World
- Progressive Muslim Movements
- The Islamic Fashion Industry
- Islamic Beauty Pageants
- Development of Veiled (Muslim) Dolls
- Artistic Voices of Resistance
- Conclusion
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
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