Exploring Islam


Book Description

Exploring Islam is a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to the foundations of the Islamic faith, including its history, theology, and spiritual practice. The book also deals with issues such as jihad, the status of women, and the various sectarian divisions in Islam. Most distinctive about this work is its analysis of the lived experience of Muslims in modern American life. The book explores questions such as: - What are the foundations of Islam? - How do Muslims relate to and interpret the Qur'an? - Who is the Prophet Muhammad? - What does Shari'a law really mean? - What are the major themes of Islamic theology? - What are the theological and political issues that led to divisions among Muslims? - Do Muslims and Christians believe in the same God? - How do Muslims practice Islam in America? - What are the challenges and opportunities for American Muslims? In addressing these questions, Sayilgan offers readers a perspective that is scholarly, judicious, and engaging.




Discovering Islam


Book Description

This accessible work balances the image of Islam as aggressive and fanatical with an objective picture of the main features of Muslim history and the compulsions of Muslim society.




Why the West Fears Islam


Book Description

Jocelyne Cesari examines the idea that Islam might threaten the core values of the West through testimonies from Muslims in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the US. Her book is an unprecedented exploration of Muslim religious and political life based on several years of field work in Europe and in the United States.




Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road


Book Description

Today's tensions between the 'Islamic' East and 'Christian' West run high. Here Paul-Gordon Chandler presents fresh thinking in the area of Christian-Muslim relations, showing how Christ_whom Islam reveres as a Prophet and Christianity worships as the divine Messiah_can close the gap between the two religions. Historically, Christians have taken a confrontational or missionary approach toward Islam, leading many Muslims to identify Christianity with the cultural prejudices and hegemonic ambitions of Westerners. On the individual level, Christ-followers within Islam have traditionally been encouraged by Christians to break away from their Muslim communities. Chandler boldly explores how these two major religions_which share much common heritage_can not only co-exist, but also enrich each other. He illustrates his perspective with examples from the life of Syrian novelist Mazhar Mallouhi, widely read in the Middle East. Mallouhi, a self-identified 'Sufi Muslim follower of Christ,' seeks to bridge the chasm of misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians through his novels.




Exploring Islam in a New Light


Book Description

This book is a bold, modern, and in-depth vision of Islam solely according to the Quran. This Islam is spiritual, humane, and scientific, far from a fanatic and militant image it carries in the West. It is an impassioned call to understand Islam solely in Quranic terms and to reform practiced Islam, distorted by Hadith-based ideas.




Exploring Islam beyond Orientalism and Occidentalism


Book Description

Islamic religion has become an object of political discourse in ways that also affects academic reflection; against this background this volume aims to provide a theoretically and empirically founded assessment of where social sciences currently stand with regard to Islam. For this purpose, the volume continues to develop the sociological knowledge of Islam that began in the 1980s. Given the Orientalism inherent in sociology, the volume focuses on Muslim knowledge systems and institutions, as well as the practice of Muslim religiosity in various social contexts stretching from Algeria and Morocco to Turkey.




The Dark Side of Islam


Book Description

Whether you want to know how Islam differs from Christianity or how Islamic extremists justify their violence, Sproul and Saleeb provide credible answers to your questions.




Ethnographies of Islam


Book Description

This comparative approach to the various uses of the ethnographic method in research about Islam in anthropology and other social sciences is particularly relevant in the current climate. Political discourses and stereotypical media portrayals of Islam as a monolithic civilisation have prevented the emergence of cultural pluralism and individual freedom. Such discourses are countered by the contributors who show the diversity and plurality of Muslim societies and promote a reflection on how the ethnographic method allows the description, representation and analysis of the social and cultural complexity of Muslim societies in the discourse of anthropology.




What Is Islam?


Book Description

A bold new conceptualization of Islam that reflects its contradictions and rich diversity What is Islam? How do we grasp a human and historical phenomenon characterized by such variety and contradiction? What is "Islamic" about Islamic philosophy or Islamic art? Should we speak of Islam or of islams? Should we distinguish the Islamic (the religious) from the Islamicate (the cultural)? Or should we abandon "Islamic" altogether as an analytical term? In What Is Islam?, Shahab Ahmed presents a bold new conceptualization of Islam that challenges dominant understandings grounded in the categories of "religion" and "culture" or those that privilege law and scripture. He argues that these modes of thinking obstruct us from understanding Islam, distorting it, diminishing it, and rendering it incoherent. What Is Islam? formulates a new conceptual language for analyzing Islam. It presents a new paradigm of how Muslims have historically understood divine revelation—one that enables us to understand how and why Muslims through history have embraced values such as exploration, ambiguity, aestheticization, polyvalence, and relativism, as well as practices such as figural art, music, and even wine drinking as Islamic. It also puts forward a new understanding of the historical constitution of Islamic law and its relationship to philosophical ethics and political theory. A book that is certain to provoke debate and significantly alter our understanding of Islam, What Is Islam? reveals how Muslims have historically conceived of and lived with Islam as norms and truths that are at once contradictory yet coherent.




Islam and Development


Book Description

The study of Islam since the advent of 9/11 has made a significant resurgence. However, much of the work produced since then has tended to focus on the movements that not only provide aid to their fellow Muslims, but also have political and at times violent agendas. This tendency has led to a dearth of research on the wider Muslim aid and development scene. Focusing on the role and impact of Islam and Islamic Faith Based Organisations (FBOs), an arena that has come to be regarded by some as the 'invisible aid economy', Islam and Development considers Islamic theology and its application to development and how Islamic teaching is actualized in case studies of Muslim FBOs. It brings together contributions from the disciplines of theology, sociology, politics and economics, aiming both to raise awareness and to function as a corrective step within the development studies literature.