This editions includes a new chapter on the"Notion of Jihad at the Turn of the 21st Century, n upadated bibliography and a new introduction.Review of the 1996 Edition:" It helps us understand the wider social and moral senses of Jihad"-_Library JournalThis book demonstrates that the notion of jihad (?Holy War?) is very much alive in the Islamic world, and plays a prominent political role. Western observers usually associate jihad with fanaticism, while Islamists emphasize its mission as a crusade against drugs and other societal scourges. ?Six Islamic texts are presented which compiler Peters has translated. These texts include, first of all, a number of hadiths which present the ?raw material? for Islamic law. The texts that follow include portions from Malik?s Al-Muwatta, the chapter on Jihad from Averrroes? legal handbook al-Bidaya, teachings of Ibn Taymiyya on Jihad, the Ottoman Jihad Fatwa of 1914, and Mahmud Shaltut?s treatise Koran and Fighting (which is a modernist interpretation of jihad). These texts are followed by two well-written articles by Peters. This is a very valuable work for all who wish to understand the meaning, importance, and practice of Jihad for Muslims today as well as in the past. Highly recommended.? ?ChoiceRudolph F. Peters, University of Amsterdam and director of the Netherlands Institute in Cairo, is the author of Islam and Colonialism and numerous other books.
Covers the Arab world, from Morocco to the borders of Iran, with the focus primarily on the 20th Century. By choosing a wide array of authors, many of whom are from the region or from the non-Anglophone world, the full breadth of worldwide scholarship on the modern Arab world is on display.
Converts from the Muslim faith, potentially threatened by death for their apostasy in Muslim countries, recount their experiences with Islam and why they abandoned it.
Organized into sections, this book discusses the origins and world view of political Islam and its relationship with issues of terrorism and democracy. This three-volume collection also includes case studies that examine the ideas, strategy, tactics, leadership and opposition to the movement both in the Middle East and in other parts of the world.
Between the mid-1990s and 2004, Omar Bakri Muhammad and his organisation al-Muhajiroun generated a very public profile as the voice of 'Islamism' in the United Kingdom. This book explores the lifespan of al-Muhajiroun and charts the organisation's perspectives on the 'war on terror', Muslims in the West and the role of the United States.
The War of Ideas is being fought both within Islamic societies and between some Muslim voices and the West. The War of Ideas is a struggle between moral claims, political philosophies, and historical interpretations that compete for assent within a society and across borders. Like the ideological component of the Cold War, the War of Ideas is about the fundamental principles of human society, from the basis for law and structures of governance to gender relations and the nexus of religion and politics. It is a global War: the foes have resorted to arms to protect and promote their worldview. This book brings together some of the most important voices from different partisan, theoretical and religious perspectives to argue and forecast the next phase in the War of Ideas.
An alphabetically-arranged reference work covers the Muslim faith from its origins to the present day, including key people, places, texts, art, and rituals.
In this study, Emilio Platti dares to enquire directly into the compatibility between Islam and Christianity, as well as between Islam and modernity. He insists that the best way to answer such questions is to return to the origins of the Islamic tradition. What precisely does the Qur'an have to say about Christians? How can we explain the resentment towards the 'West' that seems to characterize some Muslims? Does the so-called clash of civilizations have its roots in Islamic theology? How did the negative portrait of Muslims that was characteristic of the Latin Middle Ages come about? Is it possible to speak in a 'monolithic' fashion about Islam? Is it really the case that Muslims must set about developing a new identity? What is the relationship between Islamic law and modern theories of human rights? What does it mean to be a 'believer' and might this not be the real heart of the tensions and controversies that mark so much of the contemporary encounter between Islam and the West? Platti's study engages both classical and contemporary readings of the Islamic tradition and offers a nuanced and challenging view not only of its past, but of its present and of the directions it might take in the years ahead.
This book introduces readers to many previously neglected Arab-Muslim thinkers who, over the past 1,000 years, have reflected on the relation between Islam and the West. Many of these thinkers have been overlooked by Western scholars because of their orientalist frame of mind, but they were important bridge builders.
Convening on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the global congress The World's Religions after September 11 explored the negative and positive possibilities of the religious dimensions of life. The presentations from the congress have been pulled together in this set, which addresses religion's intersection with human rights, spirituality, science, healing, the media, international diplomacy, globalization, war and peace, and more. This comprehensive set includes contributions from such well-known scholars of religion as Arvind Sharma and a host of others from all the world's religious traditions. This set is an unprecedented examination of religion's influence on modern life, an honest assessment of how religion can either destroy us or preserve us, and a thorough exploration of what steps might be necessary for all religions to join together as a force for good. Because of the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the very concept of religion underwent a paradigm shift. Instead of standing for virtue and piety, peace and harmony, the word religion also came to be inextricably associated with evil, aggression, and terror. People around the world began to question whether the religious and secular dimensions of modern life can be reconciled, whether the different religions of the world can ever coexist in harmony. Indeed, the very future of religion itself has sometimes seemed to be uncertain, or at least suspect. The volumes are: 1. Religion, War, and Peace 2. Religion and Human Rights 3. The Interfaith Dimension 4. Spirituality.