Islam is a burning topic in modern scholarship and contemporary world affairs. It is a subject poorly understood by Western observers, and in this book Professor Montgomery Watt takes a significant step towards its demystification. Montgomery Watt examines the crucial questions of traditional world-view and self-image which dominate the thinking of Muslims today. This traditional self-image causes them to perceive world events in a different perspective from Westerners - a fact not always appreciated by the foreign ministries of Western powers. Professor Watt presents a brilliant and critical analysis of the traditional Islamic self-image, showing how it distorts Western modernism and restricts Muslims to a peripheral role in world affairs. In a scholarly and incisive way, he traces this harmful image to its origins in the medieval period and then to the traumatic exposure of Muslims to the West in modern times. He argues that Muslim culture is suffering from a dangerous introspection, and in his closing chapters presents a constructive criticism of contemporary Islam, aimed at contributing to a truer, more realistic Islamic self-image for today. First published in 1988.

The volume brings together seventeen studies on Avicenna by Dimitri Gutas, written over the past twenty-five years. They aim to establish Avicenna's historical and philosophical context as a means to determining his philosophical project and the orientations of his thought. They deal with his life and works, his method, his epistemology, and his later reception in the Islamic world, ending with a programmatic essay on the state of the field of Avicennan studies and future agenda. Occasioned by issues raised in Gutas's monograph on Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition (whose second edition has just appeared), they form a substantive complement to it. For this reprint, a number of the essays have been reset and accordingly revised and updated. Provided with exhaustive indexes of names, places, subjects, and technical terms, the volume constitutes a new and major research tool for the study of Avicenna and his heritage. (CS1050).

Engaging with a Legacy shows how Nehemia Levtzion shaped our understanding of Islam in Africa and influenced successive scholarly generations in their approach to Islamization, conversion and fundamentalism. The book illuminates his work, career and family life - including his own 'life vision' on the occasion of his 60th birthday. It speaks to his relationship with researchers at home and abroad as mentor, colleague and provocateur; in one section, several authors reflect on those dynamics in terms of personal and professional development. Levtzion's contemporaries also speak of interactions with him (and his life-long companion, wife Tirza) in the 1950s and 1960s; we see in these writings the birth of West African historical studies. Levtzion's arrival as Israeli graduate-student in Nkrumah's Egyptian-leaning Ghana, and the debate over what 'African Studies' should mean in an environment that included the personal intervention of W.E.B. Du Bois, are stories told for the first time. Most poignant is the account of Levtzion's commitment to building African Studies, complete with emphasis on Islam, in the heart of the Jewish state at The Hebrew University. His never-ending defence of the program reflected his determination to be both 'engaged historian' and 'engaged Israeli' - a legacy he chose for himself. Finally, an 'Epilogue' to the original publication shows how one aspect this legacy, Levtzion's growing preoccupation with the 'public sphere in Muslim societies', has become even more relevant in 'post-Arab Spring' Africa and the Middle East. This book was published as a special issue of the Canadian Journal of African Studies.

This collection explores issues of adaptation between Islam and North American culture, including the dynamics of the family, strategies for coping, the influence of an alien environment upon believers, and the role of women in an Islamic setting.

Terrorism remains one of the major threats facing the world community. While literature on the subject is dominated by discussion of the factors leading individuals and groups to join violent extremist, terrorist groups, the question of what can lead them to disengage from such groups is an equally important one. This book is the first study to provide a detailed analysis of both counter-radicalization and deradicalization programmes in eight Muslim-majority states, representing hitherto one of the largest, detailed, and most systematic inventory of such programmes in the world.

Drawing on detailed case-studies from a number of countries, the book:

• traces the historical evolution of violent extremist groups and individuals in each country case study, including the period before independence;

• describes in detail states response to this phenomenon in each period;
• provides important empirical analyses for counter-and-deradicalization policies and programmes based on extensive fieldwork and interviews with state officials, former radicals, and members of civil society organizations in each country;

• provides a first systematic evaluation of the effectiveness and success of these programmes and policies;

• focuses simultaneously on factors that have led to deradicalization at an individual or organizational level, and on the macro environment, both external-global and internal, that encourages counter-radicalization and deradicalization of groups and individuals.

The detailed comparative analyses allow the reader to identify conditions, both internal and external, which are conducive to both success and failure of counter-radicalization and deradicalization programmes, and the authors identify best practice and provide policy implications for states facing threats from violent extremism, as well as for international institutions and organizations working in the field of counter-terrorism.

Muslims have been present in South Asia for 14 centuries. Nearly 40% of the people of this vast land mass follow the religion of Islam, and Muslim contribution to the cultural heritage of the sub-continent has been extensive. This textbook provides both undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as the general reader, with a comprehensive account of the history of Islam in India, encompassing political, socio-economic, cultural and intellectual aspects. Using a chronological framework, the book discusses the main events in each period between c. 600 CE and the present day, along with the key social and cultural themes. It discusses a range of topics, including: How power was secured, and how was it exercised The crisis of confidence caused by the arrival of the West in the sub-continent How the Indo-Islamic synthesis in various facets of life and culture came about Excerpts at the end of each chapter allow for further discussion, and detailed maps alongside the text help visualise the changes through each time period. Introducing the reader to the issues concerning the Islamic past of South Asia, the book is a useful text for students and scholars of South Asian History and Religious Studies.

Terrorism remains one of the major threats facing the world community. While literature on the subject is dominated by discussion of the factors leading individuals and groups to join violent extremist, terrorist groups, the question of what can lead them to disengage from such groups is an equally important one. This book is the first study to provide a detailed analysis of both counter-radicalization and deradicalization programmes in eight Muslim-majority states, representing hitherto one of the largest, detailed, and most systematic inventory of such programmes in the world.

Drawing on detailed case-studies from a number of countries, the book:

• traces the historical evolution of violent extremist groups and individuals in each country case study, including the period before independence;

• describes in detail states response to this phenomenon in each period;
• provides important empirical analyses for counter-and-deradicalization policies and programmes based on extensive fieldwork and interviews with state officials, former radicals, and members of civil society organizations in each country;

• provides a first systematic evaluation of the effectiveness and success of these programmes and policies;

• focuses simultaneously on factors that have led to deradicalization at an individual or organizational level, and on the macro environment, both external-global and internal, that encourages counter-radicalization and deradicalization of groups and individuals.

The detailed comparative analyses allow the reader to identify conditions, both internal and external, which are conducive to both success and failure of counter-radicalization and deradicalization programmes, and the authors identify best practice and provide policy implications for states facing threats from violent extremism, as well as for international institutions and organizations working in the field of counter-terrorism.

Are you a prison officer who feels nervous about dealing with Muslims on the wings? Are you a prison chaplain who wants to know how your chaplaincy affects the lives of prisoners? Are you a policymaker who needs a robust base of evidence for Islam in prison? Are you an academic or a journalist seeking ground-breaking social science in a contentious field? Based on original evidence from 279 Muslim prisoners and 79 prison officers, we explore how Muslims come to be incarcerated, how the practice of Islam affects prison life and rehabilitation, the types of Islam and the effects of Islamic conversion in prison and the professional practice of officers and chaplains. We also investigate the common belief that incarceration fosters Islamist extremism and suggest improvements to faith provision and rehabilitative opportunities for Muslim prisoners.

Debates over the headscarf and niqab, so-called 'sharia-tribunals', Female Genital Operations and forced marriages have raged in Europe and North America in recent years, raising the question - does accommodating Islam violate women's rights? The book takes issue with the terms of this debate. It contrasts debates in France over the headscarf and in Canada over religious arbitration with the lived experience of a specific group of Muslim women: Somali refugee women. The challenges these women eloquently describe first-hand demonstrate that the fray over accommodating culture and religion neglects other needs and engenders a democratic deficit.

In Refugee Women: Beyond Gender versus Culture, new theoretical perspectives recast both the story told and who tells the tale. By focusing on the politics underlying how these debates are framed and the experiences of women at the heart of these controversies, women are considered first and foremost as democratic agents rather than actors in the 'culture versus gender' script. Crucially, the institutions and processes created to address women's needs are critically assessed from this perspective.

Breaking from scholarship that focuses on whether the accommodation of culture and religion harms women, Bassel argues that this debate ignores the realities of the women at its heart. In these debates, Muslim women are constructed as silent victims. Bassel pleads compellingly for a consideration of women in all their complexity, as active participants in democratic life. The book will appeal to students and scholars throughout the social sciences, particularly of sociology, political science and women's studies.

The Malay population makes up Singapore's three largest ethnic groups. This book provides an analysis of the debates on religion, politics and citizenship of Malay Muslims in contemporary Singapore. Comprehensively and convincingly argued, the author examines their disadvantaged circumstances in the fields of politics, education, social mobility, and freedom of religious expression. The book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of Muslims in Singapore, and the politics of a Muslim minority in a Chinese dominated city-state. It will be of interest to researchers and students in the field of Singaporean studies, Southeast Asian Studies and Islam in Asia.

The management of social, religious and ethnic diversity is a key social policy concern in Britain, and Muslims in particular have become a focus of attention in recent years. This timely and topical volume examines the position of Muslims in Britain and how they are changing and making social, political and religious space. With contributions from world renowned scholars on British Muslims and from policy makers writing on issues of concern to Muslims and others alike, the book explores how British Muslims are changing social and religious spaces such as mosques and the role of women, engaging in politics, creating media and other resources, and thus developing new perspectives on Islam and transforming Muslim society from within. Chapters cover issues of religion and politics, Britishness, governance, parallel lives, gender issues, religion in civic space, ethnicity, and inter ethnic and religious relations, as well as the role of intellectuals, chaplains and activists in reforming Islam and renovating the British political landscape. Providing a broad and comprehensive examination of the key issues surrounding Muslims in the UK, this book will be a valuable resource for students, lecturers and researchers in sociology, social policy, geography, politics, Islamic studies and other related disciplines.

The management of social, religious and ethnic diversity is a key social policy concern in Britain, and Muslims in particular have become a focus of attention in recent years. This timely and topical volume examines the position of Muslims in Britain and how they are changing and making social, political and religious space. With contributions from world renowned scholars on British Muslims and from policy makers writing on issues of concern to Muslims and others alike, the book explores how British Muslims are changing social and religious spaces such as mosques and the role of women, engaging in politics, creating media and other resources, and thus developing new perspectives on Islam and transforming Muslim society from within. Chapters cover issues of religion and politics, Britishness, governance, parallel lives, gender issues, religion in civic space, ethnicity, and inter ethnic and religious relations, as well as the role of intellectuals, chaplains and activists in reforming Islam and renovating the British political landscape. Providing a broad and comprehensive examination of the key issues surrounding Muslims in the UK, this book will be a valuable resource for students, lecturers and researchers in sociology, social policy, geography, politics, Islamic studies and other related disciplines.

The Muslim Brotherhood is one of the oldest and most influential Islamist movements. As the party ascends to power in Egypt, it is poised to adopt a new system of governance and state society relations, the effects of which are likely to extend well beyond Egypt 's national borders. This book examines the Brotherhood 's visions and practices, from its inception in 1928, up to its response to the 2011 uprising, as it moves to redefine democracy along Islamic lines. The book analyses the Muslim Brotherhood 's position on key issues such as gender, religious minorities, and political plurality, and critically analyses whether claims that the Brotherhood has abandoned extremism and should be engaged with as a moderate political force can be substantiated. It also considers the wider political context of the region, and assesses the extent to which the Brotherhood has the potential to transform politics in the Middle East.

The Muqaddimah, often translated as "Introduction" or "Prolegomenon," is the most important Islamic history of the premodern world. Written by the great fourteenth-century Arab scholar Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), this monumental work established the foundations of several fields of knowledge, including the philosophy of history, sociology, ethnography, and economics. The first complete English translation, by the eminent Islamicist and interpreter of Arabic literature Franz Rosenthal, was published in three volumes in 1958 as part of the Bollingen Series and received immediate acclaim in the United States and abroad. A one-volume abridged version of Rosenthal's masterful translation first appeared in 1969. This Princeton Classics edition of the abridged version includes Rosenthal's original introduction as well as a contemporary introduction by Bruce B. Lawrence. This volume makes available a seminal work of Islam and medieval and ancient history to twenty-first century audiences.

Southeast Asia manifests some of the most interesting, non-violent as well as conflictual elements of Islamic social and political life in the world. This book examines the ways in which Muslim politics in Southeast Asia has greatly impacted democratic practice and contributed to its practical and discursive development. It addresses the majority and minority situations of Muslims within both democratic and authoritarian politics. It shows, for example, how in Muslim majority Indonesia and Malaysia, political Islam directly engages with procedural democracy; in Muslim minority Thailand and the Philippines, it has taken a violent route; and in Muslim minority Singapore, it has been successfully managed through civil and electoral politics. By exploring such nuances, variations, comparisons and linkages among Muslim majority and minority countries, this book deepens our understanding of the phenomenon of Muslim politics in the region as a whole.

After barely half a century of experience, Islamic banking has become established as a new niche industry across the world, offering new and sophisticated financial products designed to be compliant with Islamic legal principles and common law. This comprehensive book explores the theory, principles and practices underpinning this rapidly expanding sector of banking. Expert contributors - including eminent scholars and senior practitioners in the field - examine the roots of the principles of ethical Islamic financial transactions, which have evolved over several millennia, on issues including usury, interest rates, and financial contracting for funding enterprises, mortgages, leasing and other transactions. Regulatory and governance issues are discussed, and the practice and operation of Islamic financial institutions are explained via three distinct case studies. Importantly, the final chapter looks at what steps are being taken to provide professional accreditation to Islamic banking professional personnel, and prescribes requirements for training in this growing industry. This rich and wide-ranging guide to the foundations and fundamental principles of this new form of ethics-based financial practice will prove a fascinating and illuminating read for regulators, practitioners, and scholars in the fields of economics, finance, money and banking. Contributors: I. Abraham, S.O. Alhabshi, S.H. Aljunid, M. Ariff, M.K. Badar, I. Bhatti, M. Bhatti, E. Girard, K. Hassan, T. Hassan, M. Iqbal, M.K. Lewis, C. Mews, A. Saeed, S.H. Razak, M. Shamsher, M.T. Skully, A. Walsh, M. Zaman

This book provides a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the various schools of Qur'anic exegesis, from the earliest periods through to the present day.

Employing a comparative-contrastive methodology, the author examines traditional and rational schools of thought - such as the Mu'tazili, Shi'i, Ibadi, Sufi, metaphysical, modern, and scientific approaches to the interpretation of the Qur'an - to give a detailed analysis of the similarities and differences in their theological views. The study spans a broad period, covering exegetical techniques adopted in Qur'anic exegesis from its infancy during the 1st/7th century up to the beginning of the 15th/21st century. Furnished with copious micro- and macro-level examples which explicate the Qur'anic notions and the points of view relevant to each school and exegetical approach, the book provides a rounded empirical study of Islamic thought.

This thorough and holistic historical investigation is an important contribution to the study of Qur'anic exegesis and Islamic theology, and as such will be of enormous interest to scholars of religion, philosophy and Islamic studies.

Reaching beyond traditionally politicised scholarship to provide a unique perspective on the place of religion and culture in global and local politics, this book examines the impact of Islam on 'civilizational' relations between different groups and polities.

Bassam Tibi takes a highly original approach to the topic of religion in world politics, exploring the place of Islam in society and its frequent distortion in world politics to the more radical Islamism. Looking at how this becomes an immediate source of tension and conflict between the secular and the religious, Tibi rejects the 'clash of civilizations' theory and argues for the revival of Islamic humanism to help bridge the gap. Chapters expand on:

• inter-civilizational conflict in global politics
• dialogue between religious and secular, East and West
• western concepts of Islamism
• euro-Islam and the Islamic diaspora in Europe
• Islamic humanism as a tool for bridging civilizations.

Shedding new light on the highly topical subject of Islam in politics and society, this book is an essential read for scholars and students of international politics, Islamic studies and conflict resolution.

Examining the global experiences, challenges and achievements of Muslim women participating in physical activities and sport, this important new study makes a profound contribution to our understanding of both contemporary Islam and the complexity and diversity of women's lives in the modern world. The book presents an overview of current research into constructs of gender, the role of religion and the importance of situation, and looks closely at what Islam has to say about women's participation in sport and what Muslim women have to say about their participation in sport. It highlights the challenges and opportunities for women in sport in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries, utilising a series of extensive case-studies in various countries which invite the readers to conduct cross-cultural comparisons. Material on Iraq, Palestine and Bosnia and Herzegovina provides rare insights into the impact of war on sporting activities for women. The book also seeks to make important recommendations for improving access to sport for girls and women from Muslim communities. Muslim Women and Sport confronts many deeply held stereotypes and crosses those commonly quoted boundaries between 'Islam and the West' and between 'East and West'. It makes fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in the interrelationships between sport, religion, gender, culture and policy.

Islam, Europe and Emerging Legal Issues brings together vital analysis of the challenges that Europe poses for an expanding Islam and that Islam poses for Europe, within their ever-evolving religious, legal, and social environments. This book gathers some of the best thinking on Islam and the law affecting current and contested issues that can no longer be ignored, particularly as they have found their way before the European Court of Human Rights. Contributors include leading authorities who are working at the heart of this generation's law and religion questions in Europe and across the world. This book outlines implications for all those who look to Europe-from both within and without-for models of human rights implementation and multi-cultural accommodation.

The author of this thought provoking addition to Gower's Transformation and Innovation Series has worked as a management consultant in the Arab Middle East for 25 years. In Islamic Values and Management Practices she acknowledges that businesses and other organizations in the region face urgent concerns in relation to quality and transformation, but argues that these issues might be more appropriately addressed by the application of an Islamic Management Model, rather than the 'Western' one hitherto applied. Over time, a set of management systems based on Islamic values has been developed by the author. These systems recognise the need to build human organizations, socially and politically as well as commercially, and also the recognition that for Muslims, justice is the ultimate value, bringing balance between the individual's soul and spirit on the one hand, and the organization's soul and spirit on the other. This Islamic management model stresses that effectiveness is an outcome of operating efficiently and at the same time unifying the organization's objectives with those of its employees and wider society, and ensuring that at the strategic level the long view is always maintained. Recounting her own personal and business journey, Maqbouleh Hammoudeh presents the outcomes of research that has tested the application of the Islamic Management Model and its ability to deliver the desired quality and transformation outcomes in a major civic or profit making organization. At a time when many practitioners and business educators are seeking new management approaches, this revealing case study sheds light on the evolution of a contemporary theory of management for the Muslim World.

Muslims in 21st Century Europe explores the interaction between native majorities and Muslim minorities in various European countries with a view to highlighting different paths of integration of immigrant and native Muslims. Starting with a critical overview of the institutionalisation of Islam in Europe and a discussion on the nature of Muslimophobia as a social phenomenon, this book shows how socio-economic, institutional and political parameters set the frame for Muslim integration in Europe. Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden are selected as case studies among the 'old' migration hosts. Italy, Spain and Greece are included to highlight the issues arising and the policies adopted in southern Europe to accommodate Muslim claims and needs. The book highlights the internal diversity of both minority and majority populations, and analyses critically the political and institutional responses to the presence of Muslims.

The fields of morality and ethics have been left out significantly from socio-scientific study in general and in economics and finance in particular. Yet this book argues that in this age of post-modernist analytical inquiry, the study of morality and ethics is an epistemological requirement. This book illustrates the delimiting nature of mainstream economic reasoning in treating morality and ethics and highlights the potential contribution of analytical monotheism, as typified by the Islamic concept of Tahwid. The principal purpose of this book is to undertake an introductory exploration of the critical area of comparative economic thought in order to place the nature and emergence of ethico-economic theory in its proper context. It is ultimately argued that such a post-orthodoxy revolutionary methodological worldview can be presented by Islamic political economy, Islamic economics and finance.

These are questions to which oriental thinkers have given a wide range of philosophical answers that are intellectually and imaginatively stimulating. Thirty-Five Oriental Philosophers is a succinctly informative introduction to the thought of thirty-five important figures in the Chinese, Indian, Arab, Japanese and Tibetan philosophical traditions. Thinkers covered include founders such as Zoroaster, Confucius, Buddha and Muhammed, as well as influential modern figures such as Gandhi, Mao Tse-Tung, Suzuki and Nishida. The book is divided into sections, in which an introduction to the tradition it covers precedes the essays on its individual philosophers. Notes, further reading lists, and cross-references provide the student with a clear route to further study. There is a glossary of key terms at the end of the book.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.