Amid civil war, failing states, and terrorism, Arab liberals are growing in numbers and influence. Advocating a culture of equity, tolerance, good governance, and the rule of law, they work through some of the region's largest media outlets to spread their ideals within the culture. Broadcasting Change analyzes this trend by portraying the intersection of media and politics in two Arab countries with seismic impact on the region and beyond. In Saudi Arabia, where hardline clerics silenced their opponents for generations, liberals now dominate the airwaves. Their success in weakening clerics' grip over the public space would not only help develop the country; it would ensure that the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad exports a constructive understanding of Islam. In Egypt, home to a brutal government crackdown on Islamists and a bloodsport of attacks on Coptic Christians, local liberals are acting with courage on the ground and over the airwaves. Through TV talk shows, drama, and comedy, they play off the government's anti-Islamist agenda to more thoughtfully advocate religious reform. Author Joseph Braude, himself a voice in Arabic-language broadcasts and publications, calls for international assistance to the region's liberals, particularly in the realm of media. Local civic actors and some reform-minded autocrats welcome a new partnership with media experts and democratic governments in North America, Europe, and the Far East. Broadcasting Change argues that support for liberal reform through Arabic media should be construed as an international "public good" - on par with military peacekeeping and philanthropy.

Egyptology: The Missing Millennium brings together for the first time the disciplines of Egyptology and Islamic Studies, seeking to overturn the conventional opinion of Western scholars that Moslims/Arabs had no interest in pre-Islamic cultures. This book examines a neglected period of a thousand years in the history of Egyptology, from the Moslem annexation of Egypt in the seventh century CE until the Ottoman conquest in the 16th century. Concentrating on Moslem writers, as it is usually Islam which incurs blame for cutting Egyptians off from their ancient heritage, the author shows not only the existence of a large body of Arabic sources on Ancient Egypt, but also their usefulness to Egyptology today. Using sources as diverse as the accounts of travelers and treasure hunters to books on alchemy, the author shows that the interest in ancient Egyptian scripts continued beyond classical writers, and describes attempts by medieval Arab scholars, mainly alchemists, to decipher the hieroglyph script. He further explores medieval Arab interest in Ancient Egypt, discussing the interpretations of the intact temples, as well as the Arab concept of Egyptian kingship and state administration-including a case study of Queen Cleopatra that shows how the Arabic romance of this queen differs significantly from Western views. This book will be of great interest to academics and students of archaeology, Islamic studies and Egyptology, as well as anyone with a general interest in Egyptian history.

This book collects 15 papers on the greatest philosopher of late antiquity and founder of Neoplatonism, Plotinus (d.270), and the founding figure of philosophy in the Islamic world: al-KindAE" (d. ca. 873). A number of the contributions focus on the text that joins the two: the so-called Theology of Aristotle, in fact an Arabic version of Plotinus' Enneads produced in al- KindAE"'s translation circle. Across several papers, Adamson argues that this translation is best understood as a reinterpretation of Plotinus designed to appeal to contemporary readers in the culture of the 'AbbAEsid era. Two contributions also analyze the notes on the Theology written by the great Avicenna. Other papers look at aspects of al-KindAE"'s own thought, exploring his ideas concerning metaphysics, free will astrology, and optics. The traditions of Plotinus and al-KindAE" are also treated, with papers on Plotinus' student Porphyry and his Arabic reception, and on followers of al-KindAE". Adamson argues that we can identify what he calls a 'Kindian tradition' in the 9th-10th centuries. He discusses the philosophical presuppositions of this movement, and the use of al-KindAE"'s ideas made by one particular representative of the Kindian tradition, the Persian thinker Miskawayh.

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).

Voices and Veils: Feminism and Islam in French Women's Writing and Activism

How do Muslim citizens across the globe perceive the European Union? And what factors influence their EU attitudes? This book offers the first systematic theoretical and empirical analysis of Muslim citizens' EU attitudes in and outside the European Union. Using the best empirical data available, the book demonstrates that Muslim citizens' attitudes are not shaped by their denomination and religious beliefs, but by material and political considerations. It finds that Muslims are most favourable toward the EU due to their positive experiences in European contexts, whereas in contrast, Muslim citizens outside the EU are more skeptical toward the European Union due to sovereignty concerns and the lack of support from the EU and its member states. Such findings not only contribute to the research on social legitimacy of international organizations and international public opinion more generally, but also provide important suggestions for (European) policy makers regarding external and domestic policies. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners of European Union politics, Middle East studies, public opinion and International Relations.

" Keaton] provides the most in-depth analysis of the predicament of French Arabs and Africans living in the suburbs of Paris.... O]ne can read the book through the lens of such great African American writers and activists as Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Malcolm X.... It] contains an implicit warning to you, France, not to repeat the American racism in your country." from the foreword by Manthia Diawara

Muslim girls growing up in the outer-cities of Paris are portrayed many ways in popular discourse as oppressed, submissive, foreign, "kids from the projects," even as veil-wearing menaces to France s national identity but rarely are they perceived simply as what they say they are: French. Amid widespread perceptions of heightened urban violence attributed to Muslims and highly publicized struggles over whether Muslim students should be allowed to wear headscarves to school, Muslim girls often appear to be the quintessential "other." In this vivid, evocative study, Trica Danielle Keaton draws on ethnographic research in schools, housing projects, and other settings among Muslim teenagers of North and West African origin. She finds contradictions between the ideal of universalism and the lived reality of ethnic distinction and racialized discrimination. The author s own experiences as an African American woman and non-Muslim are key parts of her analysis. Keaton makes a powerful statement about identity, race, and educational politics in contemporary France."

The war on terror has been raging for many years now, and subsequently there is a growing body of literature examining the development, motivation and effects of this US-led aggression. Virtually absent from these accounts is an examination of the central role that gender, race, class and sexuality play in the war on terror. This lack of attention reflects a continued resistance by analysts to acknowledge and engage identity-related social issues as central elements within global politics. As this conflict spreads and deepens, it is more important than ever to examine how diverse international actors are using the war on terror as an opportunity to reinforce existing gendered, raced, classed and sexualized inter/national relations. This book examines the official war stories being told to the international community about why and against whom the war on terror is being waged. The book will benefit students, scholars and practitioners in the areas of international relations, women's studies and cultural studies.

el-Aswad introduces the concepts of worldviews/cosmologies of Muslims, explaining that the different types of worldviews are not constructed solely by religious scholars or intellectual elite, but are latent in Islamic tradition, embedded in popular imagination, and triggered through people's everyday interaction in various countries and communities. He draws from a number of sources including in-depth interviews and participant observation as well as government documents and oral history. Through the perspectives of ethno-cosmology, emic interpretation of sacred tradition, modernity, folklore, geography, dream, imagination, hybridity, and identity transformation, he examines how culturally and religiously constructed images of the world influence the daily actions of people in various Muslim communities. The worldviews of Sunnis, Shi'as, and Sufis are covered in turn, and Muslims in the UAE, Egypt, Bahrain, and suburban Detroit are the focus. el-Aswad also discusses the effects of Western attempts at imposing its essentially secular worldview through the process of globalization and how cyberspace has promoted connectivity among Muslim communities and, especially in the United States, opened up unlimited options and new possibilities.

What is driving political extremism in Pakistan? In early 2011, the prominent Pakistani politician Salmaan Taseer was assassinated by a member of his own security team for insulting Islam by expressing views in support of the rights of women and religious minorities. Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, was killed by gunfire and explosive devices as she left a campaign event in December 2007; strong evidence links members of extremist organizations to her slaying. These murders underscore the fact that religion, politics, and policy are inextricably linked in Pakistan. In this book, Haroon K. Ullah analyzes the origins, ideologies, bases of support, and electoral successes of the largest and most influential Islamic parties in Pakistan. Based on his extensive field work in Pakistan, he develops a new typology for understanding and comparing the discourses put forth by these parties in order to assess what drives them and what separates the moderate from the extreme. A better understanding of the range of parties is critical for knowing how the US and other Western nations can engage states where Islamic political parties hold both political and moral authority. Pakistan's current democratic transition will hinge on how well Islamic parties contribute to civilian rule, shun violence, and mobilize support for political reform. Ullah's political-party typology may also shed light on the politics of other majority-Muslim democracies, such as Egypt and Tunisia, where Islamist political parties have recently won elections.

It is commonly believed that during the interwar period, Kemalist secularism successfully eliminated religion from the public sphere in Turkey, leaving Turkish national identity devoid of religious content. However, through its examination of the impact of the Ottoman millet system on Turkish and Balkan nationalisms this book presents a different view point. Catagaptay demonstrates that the legacy of the Ottoman millet system which divided the Ottoman population into religious compartments called millets, shaped Turkey's understanding of nationalism in the interwar period. Providing a compelling examination of why and how religion shapes national identity in Turkey and the Balkans and covers topics including:
- The ottoman legacy
- Kemalist citizenship policies and immigration
- Kurds, Muslims and Jews and the ethno-religious limits of Turkishness
Incorporating documents from untapped Turkish archives, this book is essential reading for scholars and students with research interests in Turkey, Turkish Nationalism and Middle East History.

Sufism is typically thought of as the mystical side of Islam. In recent years, it has been held up as a supposedly peaceful alternative to the spread of forms of Islam associated with violence, an embodiment of democratic ideals of tolerance and pluralism. Are Sufis in fact as otherworldy and apolitical as this stereotype suggests? Modern Sufis and the State brings together a range of scholars, including anthropologists, historians, and religious-studies specialists, to challenge common assumptions that are made about Sufism today. Focusing on India and Pakistan within a broader global context, this book provides locally grounded accounts of how Sufis in South Asia have engaged in politics from the colonial period to the present. Contributors foreground the effects and unintended consequences of efforts to link Sufism with the spread of democracy and consider what roles scholars and governments have played in the making of twenty-first-century Sufism. They critique the belief that Salafism and Sufism are antithetical, offering nuanced analyses of the diversity, multivalence, and local embeddedness of Sufi political engagements and self-representations in Pakistan and India. Essays question the portrayal of Sufi shrines as sites of toleration, peace, and harmony, exploring cases of tension and conflict. A wide-ranging interdisciplinary collection, Modern Sufis and the State is a timely call to think critically about the role of public discourse in shaping perceptions of Sufism.

This book, based on extensive original research in the field, analyses the political, social and cultural implications of the rise of Islam in post-Soviet Russia. Examining in particular the situation in Tatarstan and Dagestan, where there are large Muslim populations, the authors chart the long history of Muslim and orthodox Christian co-existence in Russia, discuss recent moves towards greater autonomy and the assertion of ethnic-religious identities which underlie such moves, and consider the actual practice of Islam at the local level, showing the differences between "official" and "unofficial" Islam, how ceremonies and rituals are actually observed (or not), how Islam is transmitted from one generation to the next, the role of Islamic thought, including that of radical sects, and Islamic views of men and women's different roles. Overall, the book demonstrates how far Islam in Russia has been extensively influenced by the Soviet and Russian multi-ethnic context.

Indonesia is home to the largest Muslim community in the world. Much of the media attention given to manifestations of radical Islam in Indonesia after 9/11 and the Bali bombings of October 2002 have been limited to current affairs. This book provides a broader perspective about contemporary Islam in Indonesia through discussing two outstanding streams of thought and movements - Islamic modernism and radical Islamic fundamentalism. These two multifaceted phenomena clearly illustrate the significant contemporary influence of the Middle East on the Indonesia archipelago, in an Islamic context. Thus the focus is twofold: the local context, and the impact of the Middle East on Islam in Indonesia. These two perspectives allow a comparative and cross-regional view which, combined with the broader historical narrative, provides insights into possible future trends.;The author explains the importance of the reformist motivation; religious and social & political dimensions; ideology, perceptions, and interaction in the context of the transmission and dissemination of Islamic ideas; and the current and potential appeal of the war cry of Jihad in opposition to the unique bulwarks against it as suggested by the local Indonesian context. These topics make this book essential reading to understanding the current and future comprehensive challenges posed by radical Islam in the Indonesian archipelago.

In the aftermath of 9/11 a critical analysis of offending and victimisation of Asian Muslims is desperately required. Muslims and Crime addresses this need by means of a comparative criminological evaluation of British and Pakistani South Asian Muslims. In addition to providing a succinct review of contemporary studies in the field, Muzammil Quraishi evaluates issues of offending and victimization amongst South Asian Muslims; develops an understanding of Islamic criminal law and its influence on crime and social control by means of a comparative evaluation between Britain and Pakistan; explores the nature of Islamophobia and its impact on South Asian Muslims in Britain and Pakistan; explores the American 'Critical Race Theory' perspective within British and Pakistani contexts; and examines the construction of racial stereotypes during colonial encounters and how far these may be traced into the post-colonial social terrain. The book will interest academics in sociology, criminology, race and ethnicity, and law. The themes explored will also be of significant interest to practitioners within criminal justice institutions.

The Ottoman chronicles recount that the first sultan, Osman, dreamt of the dynasty he would found - a tree, fully-formed, emerged from his navel, symbolising the vigour of his successors and the extent of their domains. This is the first book to tell the full story of the Ottoman dynasty that for six centuries held sway over territories stretching, at their greatest, from Hungary to the Persian Gulf, and from North Africa to the Caucasus. Understanding the realization of Osman's vision is essential for anyone who seeks to understand the modern world.

The title of this volume implies two things: the greatness of the scientific tradition that Muslims had lost, and the power of the West, in whose threatening shadow reformers now labored to modernize in order to defend themselves against those very powers they were taking as models. Copernicus and Darwin were the names that dominated the debate on science, whose arguments and rebuttals were published mainly in the religious and secular journals in Cairo and Beirut from the 1870s. Analysis and interpretation of this literature shows the hope that Arab reformers had of duplicating the Japanese success, followed by the despair when success was denied. A cultural malaise festered from generations of despair, defeat and foreign occupation, and this feeling transmogrified after 1967 to a psychosis in a significant number of secular writers, educators and religious reformers. The great debate on assimilating science was turned inward where defensive mechanisms of denial spun out perversions of science: the Quran becoming a thesaurus of science; and a more extreme derivative of that, something called "Islamic Science," arising as an alternate science that was to be in harmony with the Quran, Shari'a and Muslim belief. This volume reveals the undermining effect of European imperialism on western-oriented religious reformers and secular intellectuals, for whom science and political reform went together, and concludes with a chapter on the state of science in contemporary Muslim societies and the efforts to institutionalize science (before the upheavals of 2011) so as to bring to life an authentic and indigenous culture that would sustain scientific study and research as autonomous pursuits.

There are many misconceptions and concerns regarding Islamic societies and how Muslim countries have failed to come up with their own localised solutions to socio-economic problems in dealing with poverty alleviation and societal development. This book explores why there is so much disconnect between spirituality and enterprise development in the world today, and how a part of the Islamic world, in fact located in Pakistan, can be part of the solution rather than being central to the problem. This book builds upon Ronnie Lessem and Alexander Schieffer's theory of 'integral dynamics' which works through a fourfold rhythm of the GENE. Set against a mono-cultural perspective, the authors highlight the ever-increasing and deepening divide between Western and Islamic cultures. Through the course of the book, the authors use the transformational GENE (Grounding, Emergence, Navigation, Effect) rhythm developed by Lessem and Schieffer to take readers through the 4C (Call, Context, Co-creation and Contribution) process, articulated to CAREing-4-Society. They ground their call in Akhuwat's community of Akhuwateers (donors, beneficiaries, borrowers, volunteers and replicators), to explore alternative models of spiritually based finance through an emerging SOUL-idarity paradigm. Furthermore, through these models and Akhuwat's CARE (Community, Awareness, Research, Embodiment) process, they put forward that encouraging community activism, raising awareness around Islamic practices of Qard-e-Hasan, institutionalising their innovative research, and finally transforming and educating the community, will provide an alternative to microfinance for poverty alleviation. Showcasing an unconventional spiritual-financial solution, deeply immersed in spirituality and infused with local moral values and traditions, this book demonstrates how poverty can be alleviated in countries around the world, specifically, in developing Muslim countries.

Since 2011, with the British Government's counter-radicalisation strategy, Prevent, non-violent Islamist groups have been considered a security risk for spreading a divisive ideology that can lead to radicalisation and violence. More recently, the Government has expressed concerns about their impact on social cohesion, entryism, and women's rights. The key protagonists of non-violent Islamist 'extremism' allegedly include groups and individuals associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Jama'at-i-Islami. They have been described as part of the 'global Muslim Brotherhood', but do they constitute a singular phenomenon, a social movement? This book shows that such groups and individuals do indeed comprise a movement in Britain, one dedicated to an Islamic 'revival'. It shows how they are networked organisationally, bonded through ideological and cultural kinship, and united in a conflict of values with the British society and state. Using original interviews with prominent revivalist leaders, as well as primary sources, the book also shows how the movement is not so much 'Islamist' in aspiring for an Islamic state, but concerned with institutionalising an Islamic worldview and moral framework throughout society. The conflict between the Government and the global Muslim Brotherhood is apparent in a number of different fields, including education, governance, law, and counterterrorism. But this does not simply concern the direction of Government policy or the control of state institutions. It most fundamentally concerns the symbolic authority to legitimise a way of seeing, thinking and living. By assessing this multifaceted conflict, the book presents an exhaustive and up-to-date analysis of the political and cultural fault lines between Islamic revivalists and the British authorities. It will be useful for anyone studying Islam in the West, government counter-terrorism and counter-extremism policy, multiculturalism and social cohesion.

Wahhabism is often understood as a radical version of Islam responsible for inspiring and motivating Islamic terrorism. Western Imaginings: The Intellectual Contest to Define Wahhabism is an inquiry into how Wahhabism has been understood and represented by Western intellectuals, particularly those belonging to the neo-conservative and liberal traditions. In contrast to the existing literature that treats Wahhabism as a historical phenomenon or a monolithic theological ideology, a literature often written by authors keen to promote geopolitical interests or with ideological axes to grind, Davis's work considers Wahhabism as a discursive construct crafted and popularized by a Western intellectual elite. This comprehensive study speaks to how and why Western intellectuals have chosen to represent Wahhabism in specific ways, ranging from an analysis of the particular rhetorical techniques employed by these intellectuals to a consideration of the religious and political beliefs that inspire and motivate their decisions. Western Imaginings is aimed at students of political philosophy, intellectual traditions, and sociology; media and policy professionals; and anyone interested in how Islamic doctrines like Wahhabism have been represented in an international context framed by a heightened anxiety about radical Islam.

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.

In a book written with the poignancy and beauty appropriate to its subject matter, the author opens by reminding us that "the essence of a society is in a sense identical with its history." "Classical Islam" also serves as a reminder that in the case of Islam, despite its triumphs on the fields of battle, telling its history is the only way open to us to render that essence accessible and show it from all sides. The work offers a grand narrative of a faith that offers an interpretation of the world, a way of life, and a style of thinking, that goes far beyond institutional or political supports. The relevance of this historical perspective is beyond dispute. The period from 610 A.D. when Muhammad received his "call" until the conquest of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258 is known as the classical period of Islam. This was the period of the great expansion of Islam both as a political structure and as a religious and intellectual community. It established the base for the development of the high Islamic civilization of North Africa, the Near East, Persia, and India, as well as further expansion of the Islamic religious and intellectual community throughout the world. This book presents an authoritative history of the period written by one of the world's leading experts on the subject. Classical Islam examines the relationships, both cultural and political, between the Islamic world and the Mediterranean countries and India and elaborates on the economic, social, and intellectual factors and forces that shaped the Muslim world and molded its interactions with "infidels." The work is written in a clear and direct narrative form, emphasizing simultaneously the major intellectual trends and the political events and tendencies of the formative period in Islamic history that still resonates today.

Iran-Saudi Arabia Relations and Regional Order studies relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, focusing in particular on the period since 1991. After a brief introductory section examining the record of relations between these two countries in the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian revolution, the authors examine four aspects of their current relationship: - the military balance and military threat perceptions - opposing views on questions of regional security - ideological competition on Islamic issues, and - economic differences, expressed through oil production and pricing policies. Each of these issues directly affects the security of both the Iranian and Saudi governments. Deterioration in one aspect has the capacity to exacerbate relations in the other three, increasing mistrust and injecting a sense of imminent crisis into many of the day-to-day issues that arise between Iran and Saudi Arabia.;The factors which tend to destabilise this relationship have been reinforced during the past seventeen years, so much so that any schemes for managing the security of this key strategic region through the co-operation of its principal states will remain extremely remote.

This book provides an overview of the evolution of political Islam in South-east Asia. It analyses the sources of religious radicalism and assesses the regional terrorist and radical networks. It describes how secular democratic institutions can be strengthened, and how moderate and tolerant tendencies can be promoted.

Mankind is faced with a number of serious problems that demand an effective solution. The prevalence of injustice and the frequency of financial crises are two of the most serious of these problems. Consisting of an in-depth introduction along with a selection of eight of Muhammad Umer Chapra's essays - four on Islamic economics and four on Islamic finance - this timely book raises the question of what can be done to not only minimize the frequency and severity of the financial crises, but also make the financial system more equitable.The author considers the origins of Islamic economics and outlines its development and underlying principles. He compares the approach taken to ethics and economics in Islam with that taken in the West, considering whether lessons can be applied to the global financial architecture in order to mitigate against financial crises. The book also examines the case against interest and looks at both innovation in Islamic finance, as well as challenges facing the industry. Written by a leading authority in the field, this book will be a stimulating resource for students and researchers in Islamic economics and finance, as well as providing valuable insight to all of those with an interest in financial systems and their interaction with society. Contents: Preface Introduction Part I Islamic Economics 1. Is it Necessary to Have Islamic Economics? 2. Islamic Economics: What it is and How it Developed 3. Ethics and Economics: The Islamic Imperative 4. Ibn Khaldun's Theory of Development: Does it Help Explain the Low Performance of the Present Day Muslim World? Part II Islamic Finance 5. The Case Against Interest: Is it Compelling? 6. Innovation and Authenticity in Islamic Finance 7. Challenges Facing the Islamic Financial Industry 8. The Global Financial Crisis: Some Suggestions for Reform of the Global Financial System in the Light of Islamic Finance Index