Muslims and Modernity : An Introduction to the Issues and Debates

Acknowledgements ix Pedagogical Preface xii In the public eye xii Aims and approach xiii A left-right analysis xvi Introduction: Voices and Viewpoints 1(1) Methodology: virtual insidership 1(2) Polarized viewpoints 3(6) Media and anti-Islamism 9(2) Does Islam threaten the West? 11(6) Modernity, Postmodernity and the World of Islam 17(23) The crises of modernity 17(7) What is modernism? 24(3) Postmodernity and Islam 27(3) Postmodernism and Marxist analysis 30(1) Muslim responses: Akbar Ahmed (1992) and Ziauddin Sardar (1998) 31(9) Muslims and Democracy 40(23) Democracy - whose version? 40(2) Double standards 42(2) Four models 44(2) Summary of the historical legacy 46(3) Mawdudi's model: theo-democracy (centre right) 49(4) Rule by an elite: the case of Saudi Arabia 53(3) The centre-left's model: Taha's Second Message of Islam 56(1) Secular Islam: the far left 57(4) Literary case study: Ahdaf Soueif's The Map of Love 61(2) Muslims on Human Rights 63(22) An imposition from outside? 63(2) Mawdudi and the Muslim right: human rights and Islam 65(2) The hizb-ut-tahrir and human rights 67(1) The Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights (1981) 68(1) Bassam Tibi on human rights 69(4) An-Na'im on Islam and human rights 73(3) Freedom of expression and the limits of dissent: Hisbah 76(5) Literary case study: Hanif Kureishi's The Black Album 81(4) Muslim Voices on the Qur'an 85(22) Common ground 85(1) How Muslims view the Qur'an 86(11) A multiplicity of voices 97(4) Progressive contributions 101(3) A contextual approach 104(3) Islamic Epistemology 107(22) The Islamization of knowledge: supporters and critics 107(1) Al-Faruqi: Islam the religion of reason, science and progress 108(3) Nasr: the goal of education is to actualize all the possibilities of the human soul 111(3) Nasr and Mawdudi: convergence and divergence 114(1) Bucaillism: the Qur'an as a scientific text 115(1) Sardar: a critique of al-Faruqi and Nasr 116(4) Reviving the Mu'tazalite heritage 120(9) Muslim Voices on Gender in Islam 129(27) Introducing the debate 129(2) Mawdudi: equal but different 131(4) Feminist Muslim responses 135(7) Male contributions 142(2) Islamic feminism: human rights and humanist critiques 144(6) Literary case study: two Egyptian novels and Alf Laylah Wa Laylah 150(6) Non-Muslims in the Muslim World: Voices and Views 156(21) Four positions on Islam and non-Muslims 156(3) Mawdudi: theory and reality of the classical dhimmi model 159(5) The centre left and non-Muslims in an Islamic state 164(4) The radical left 168(5) Literary case study: Nasrin's Lajja 173(4) Muslims as Minorities: Voices and Views 177(21) Three strategies 177(1) Muslims in non-Muslim territory: what do the founding discourses say? 177(3) India: a case study of the three strategies 180(4) The confrontational response in Diaspora Islam 184(1) The separatist response 185(3) The integrationist mode 188(7) Literary case study: Monica Ali's Brick Lane 195(3) War and Peace in Islam: The Traditional View 198(21) Muslim understanding of war and peace 198(1) Sayyid Qutb on jihad 198(7) Mawdudi's and Qutb's impact on contemporary Muslim life 205(4) The case of Palestine 209(10) Progressive and Moderate Muslims on War and Peace 219(21) Rethinking jihad 219(1) Shaltut's treatise on `The Koran and Fighting' 220(3) Al-Qaradawi and jihad 223(3) Muslims on 9/11 226(1) The issue of suicide 227(1) Progressive Musims on pacifist Islam 228(8) Some non-Muslims respond to 9/11 and Islamic terrorism 236(4) Algeria: A Study in Islamic Resurgence, and Bangladesh: Culture v. Islam 240(17) Algeria's colonial legacy 240(1) Al-Jaza'ir 'Arabiyya wa al-Islam dinuha (Algeria is Arab and Islam is its religion) 241(1) Literary case study: Camus's L'Etranger 242(2) Post-independence 244(3) The demand for autonomy 247(2) Democracy as a movable feast 249(2) Bangladesh: a case study 251(6) Bibliography 257(20) Index 277