Islam and the Tyranny of Authenticity

Islam and the Tyranny of Authenticity PDF Author: Aaron W. Hughes
Publisher: Equinox Publishing (UK)
ISBN: 9781781792162
Category : Islam
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Many scholars of Islam are interested in creating a liberal, inclusive, pluralistic, feminist, and modern version of the religion that they believe to be explicit in the pages of the Qur'ān, but missed by earlier interpreters. In so doing, they create "good" Islam and, in the process, seek to define what does and does not get to count as authentic. As the purveyors of what they now believe to be veritable Islam, they subsequently claim that rival presentations are bastardizations based either on Orientalism and Islamophobia (if one is a non-Muslim) or misogyny and homophobia (if one is a Muslim that disagrees with them). Instead of engaging in critical scholarship, they engage in a constructive and theological project that they deceive themselves into thinking is both analytical and empirical. This book provides a hard-hitting examination of the spiritual motivations, rhetorical moves, and political implications associated with these apologetical discourses. It argues that what is at stake is relevance, and examines the consequences of engaging in mythopoesis as opposed to scholarship.

Islam and the Tyranny of Authenticity

Islam and the Tyranny of Authenticity PDF Author: Aaron W. Hughes
Publisher: Equinox Publishing (UK)
ISBN: 9781781792162
Category : Islam
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Many scholars of Islam are interested in creating a liberal, inclusive, pluralistic, feminist, and modern version of the religion that they believe to be explicit in the pages of the Qur'ān, but missed by earlier interpreters. In so doing, they create "good" Islam and, in the process, seek to define what does and does not get to count as authentic. As the purveyors of what they now believe to be veritable Islam, they subsequently claim that rival presentations are bastardizations based either on Orientalism and Islamophobia (if one is a non-Muslim) or misogyny and homophobia (if one is a Muslim that disagrees with them). Instead of engaging in critical scholarship, they engage in a constructive and theological project that they deceive themselves into thinking is both analytical and empirical. This book provides a hard-hitting examination of the spiritual motivations, rhetorical moves, and political implications associated with these apologetical discourses. It argues that what is at stake is relevance, and examines the consequences of engaging in mythopoesis as opposed to scholarship.

Overcoming Tradition And Modernity

Overcoming Tradition And Modernity PDF Author: Robert D. Lee
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429967071
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
“Authenticity” has begun to rival “development” as a key to understanding the political aspirations of the Islamic world. Almost everywhere modernity has laid waste to tradition, those habits and practices deemed to be timeless and true. Imperialism carried European notions of progress into Muslim-dominated parts of the globe, and subsequently Muslims themselves espoused Western practices, techniques, and philosophies. Regimes calling themselves liberal, socialist, and Arab nationalist all embraced modernity as their principal objective. Most of these regimes failed to create the promised better lives their citizens desired. Moreover, ordinary Muslims felt despair as modernity ripped apart families, exposed youngsters to the materialism and hedonism of Western entertainments, heightened social expectations, and undermined religious belief. Even though tradition has proved itself incapable of staving off modernity, the promises and premises of modern development literature have been called into question. Where is the truth around which Muslims can rally? Does modernity require a rejection of tradition? Does the embrace of Islamic ideas necessitate turning away from modernity? Robert D. Lee explores these compelling questions by presenting four contemporary Muslim writers—Muhammad Iqbal, Sayyid Qutb, ‘Ali Shari’ati, and Mohammed Arkoun—all of whom have refused to bow to such a dichotomy of modernity and tradition. This study examines their efforts, deeply influenced by European thinking, to find a truth beyond tradition and modernity—an “authentic” understanding of Islam upon which Muslims can build a future. All four thinkers believe such an authentic understanding can serve as the foundation for a new politics. Lee argues, however, that each of these versions of authenticity suffers shortcomings and falters in its efforts to move from the particularity of culture onto a grander scale of political organization appropriate for the modern world.

The Islamic Secular

The Islamic Secular PDF Author: Sherman A. Jackson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197661785
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 543

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Book Description
This book argues that the meaning of "secular" in the West and in Islam differ fundamentally. Though the Islamic secular is a "liberation" from Islam's sacred law, shari'ah, it is neither outside "religion" nor a rival to it; it seeks neither to discipline nor displace religion nor expand its own jurisdiction at religion's expense. The Islamic Secular is, in Sherman Jackson's view, a complement to religion-in effect, a "religious secular." In this book, Jackson makes the case for the Islamic Secular on the basis of Islam's own pre-modern juristic tradition and shows how the Islamic Secular impacts the relationship between Islam and the modern state, including the Islamic State.

The Failure of Political Islam

The Failure of Political Islam PDF Author: Olivier Roy
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674291416
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
This powerful argument reassess radical Islam and the set of ideas and assumptions at its core. Olivier Roy offers a challenging and highly original view that no-one trying to understand Islamic fundamentalism can afford to overlook.

Whose Islam?

Whose Islam? PDF Author: Megan Brankley Abbas
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 1503627942
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
In this incisive new book, Megan Brankley Abbas argues that the Western university has emerged as a significant space for producing Islamic knowledge and Muslim religious authority. For generations, Indonesia's foremost Muslim leaders received their educations in Middle Eastern madrasas or the archipelago's own Islamic schools. Starting in the mid-twentieth century, however, growing numbers traveled to the West to study Islam before returning home to assume positions of political and religious influence. Whose Islam? examines the far-reaching repercussions of this change for major Muslim communities as well as for Islamic studies as an academic discipline. As Abbas details, this entanglement between Western academia and Indonesian Islam has not only forged powerful new transnational networks but also disrupted prevailing modes of authority in both spheres. For Muslim intellectuals, studying Islam in Western universities provides opportunities to experiment with academic disciplines and to reimagine the faith, but it also raises troubling questions about whether and how to protect the Islamic tradition from Western encroachment. For Western academics, these connections raise pressing ethical questions about their own roles in the global politics of development and Islamic religious reform. Drawing on extensive archival research from around the globe, Whose Islam? provides a unique perspective on the perennial tensions between insiders and outsiders in religious studies.

The Study of Islamic Origins

The Study of Islamic Origins PDF Author: Mette Bjerregaard Mortensen
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110675498
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
The study of Islam’s origins from a rigorous historical and social science perspective is still wanting. At the same time, a renewed attention is being paid to the very plausible pre-canonical redactional and editorial stages of the Qur'an, a book whose core many contemporary scholars agree to be formed by various independent writings in which encrypted passages from the OT Pseudepigrapha, the NT Apocrypha, and other ancient writings of Jewish, Christian, and Manichaean provenance may be found. Likewise, the earliest Islamic community is presently regarded by many scholars as a somewhat undetermined monotheistic group that evolved from an original Jewish-Christian milieu into a distinct Muslim group perhaps much later than commonly assumed and in a rather unclear way. The following volume gathers select studies that were originally shared at the Early Islamic Studies Seminar. These studies aim at exploring afresh the dawn and early history of Islam with the tools of biblical criticism as well as the approaches set forth in the study of Second Temple Judaism, Christian, and Rabbinic origins, thereby contributing to the renewed, interdisciplinary study of formative Islam as part and parcel of the complex processes of religious identity formation during Late Antiquity.

Sexual Ethics and Islam

Sexual Ethics and Islam PDF Author: Kecia Ali
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1780748531
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Stoning. Slavery. Honour Killings. Homosexuality. In the context of Islam, these topics are frequently discussed but little understood. When debated, such emotive issues often spark heated argument rather than reasoned deliberation. In this lucid and carefully constructed collection of essays, feminist academic Dr Kecia Ali examines classical Muslim texts and tries to evaluate whether a just system of sexual ethics is possible within an Islamic framework. Seeking to avoid polemical argument, Ali inspects key themes such as consent and control, which are crucial to any understanding of either traditional Islamic sexual ethics or the possibilities for progressive transformation in these ideals. Suitable for undergraduates and the interested reader alike, Sexual Ethics and Islam is an essential tool for understanding modern Islam in today’s increasingly sexualised world.

Islam and the Infidels

Islam and the Infidels PDF Author: David Bukay
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351511505
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
This book discusses Islam, its relationship with the world, and how Muslims perceive the world and their role within it. Using Islamic scriptures and the works of important Muslim clerics, the author explores the Islamic notion that Muslims represent the best of humanity, and as such, have the duty and the right to propagate their faith throughout the world by any means, including violence. Islam and the Infidels warns of the dangers Muslim immigration poses to free societies. Using a diplomacy of deceit, Islamists immigrate to Western societies. Having done so, they establish closed ethnic communities that are estranged from their host countries, and are breeding grounds for native-born malcontents who may attack and destroy Western nations from within. The author is especially critical of Western apologists who not only pretend that Islam is not inherently aggressive and dangerous, but also denigrate those who point out the threat to liberal values posed by fundamentalist Islamic ideology. Bukay argues that to meet the Islamic threat, the West must understand Islam's true nature, and the best way of doing so is by analysing its scriptures and history. Bukay argues that Western societies should embrace the Judeo-Christian tradition, which is the root of their cultural heritage. In light of the mounting Muslim threat to liberalism in Western societies, citizens should resist oppressive Islamic practices and doctrines rather than accept them.

Populocracy

Populocracy PDF Author: Catherine Fieschi
Publisher: Comparative Political Economy
ISBN: 9781788210256
Category : Authenticity (Philosophy)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Catherine Fieschi examines why populism and populist parties have become a feature of our politics. Populism's appeal, she argues, needs to be understood as a response to the fundamental reshaping of our political, economic and social spheres through globalisation and the digital revolution"--

Theorizing Islam

Theorizing Islam PDF Author: Aaron W. Hughes
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317545931
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
The scholarly study of Islam has become ever more insular and apologetic. Academic Islamic Studies has tried to maintain a focus on truth, authenticity, experience and meaning and has effectively avoided discussion of larger social, cultural and ideological issues. Many scholars of Islam have presented themselves to their colleagues, the media and the public as the interpreters of Islam and have done so with an interpretation which tends, almost universally, to the liberal and egalitarian. The ignorance and hostility which the Islamic faith has faced since 9/11 has partly necessitated the taking of such a position. But, as Theorizing Islam argues, the issue remains that only one interpretation of Islam is generally being presented and, as with any interpretation, this has its own assumptions. The aim of Theorizing Islam is to explore the potential for a fuller, more honest and more sophisticated approach to both theory and methodology in the academic study of Islam.