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In the popular imagination, Islam is often associated with words
like oppression, totalitarianism, intolerance, cruelty, misogyny,
and homophobia, while its presumed antonyms are Christianity, the
West, liberalism, individualism, freedom, citizenship, and
democracy. In the most alarmist views, the West's most cherished
values--freedom, equality, and tolerance--are said to be endangered
by Islam worldwide.
Joseph Massad's "Islam in Liberalism" explores what Islam has
become in today's world, with full attention to the multiplication
of its meanings and interpretations. He seeks to understand how
anxieties about tyranny, intolerance, misogyny, and homophobia,
seen in the politics of the Middle East, are projected onto Islam
itself. Massad shows that through this projection, Europe emerges
as democratic and tolerant, feminist, and pro-LGBT rights--or, in
short, Islam-free. Massad documents the Christian and liberal idea
that we should missionize democracy, women's rights, sexual rights,
tolerance, equality, and even therapies to cure Muslims of their
un-European, un-Christian, and illiberal ways. Along the way he
sheds light on a variety of controversial topics, including the
meanings of democracy--and the ideological assumption that Islam is
not compatible with it while Christianity is--women in Islam,
sexuality and sexual freedom, and the idea of Abrahamic religions
valorizing an interfaith agenda. "Islam in Liberalism" is an
unflinching critique of Western assumptions and of the liberalism
that Europe and Euro-America blindly present as a type of salvation
to an assumingly unenlightened Islam.
In the popular imagination, Islam is often associated with words
like oppression, totalitarianism, intolerance, cruelty, misogyny,
and homophobia, while its presumed antonyms are Christianity, the
West, liberalism, individualism, freedom, citizenship, and
democracy. In the most alarmist views, the West's most cherished
values--freedom, equality, and tolerance--are said to be endangered
by Islam worldwide. Joseph Massad's Islam in Liberalism explores
what Islam has become in today's world, with full attention to the
multiplication of its meanings and interpretations. He seeks to
understand how anxieties about tyranny, intolerance, misogyny, and
homophobia, seen in the politics of the Middle East, are projected
onto Islam itself. Massad shows that through this projection Europe
emerges as democratic and tolerant, feminist, and pro-LGBT
rights--or, in short, Islam-free. Massad documents the Christian
and liberal idea that we should missionize democracy, women's
rights, sexual rights, tolerance, equality, and even therapies to
cure Muslims of their un-European, un-Christian, and illiberal
ways. Along the way he sheds light on a variety of controversial
topics, including the meanings of democracy--and the ideological
assumption that Islam is not compatible with it while Christianity
is--women in Islam, sexuality and sexual freedom, and the idea of
Abrahamic religions valorizing an interfaith agenda. Islam in
Liberalism is an unflinching critique of Western assumptions and of
the liberalism that Europe and Euro-America blindly present as a
type of salvation to an assumingly unenlightened Islam.
Sexual desire has long played a key role in Western judgments about
the value of Arab civilization. In the past, Westerners viewed the
Arab world as licentious, and Western intolerance of sex led them
to brand Arabs as decadent; but as Western society became more
sexually open, the supposedly prudish Arabs soon became viewed as
backward. Rather than focusing exclusively on how these views
developed in the West, in "Desiring Arabs" Joseph A. Massad reveals
the history of how Arabs represented their own sexual desires. To
this aim, he assembles a massive and diverse compendium of Arabic
writing from the nineteenth century to the present in order to
chart the changes in Arab sexual attitudes and their links to Arab
notions of cultural heritage and civilization.
A work of impressive scope and erudition, Massad's chronicle of
both the history and modern permutations of the debate over
representations of sexual desires and practices in the Arab world
is a crucial addition to our understanding of a frequently
oversimplified and vilified culture.
"A pioneering work on a very timely yet frustratingly neglected
topic. . . . I know of no other study that can even begin to
compare with the detail and scope of [this] work."--Khaled
El-Rouayheb, "Middle East"" Report""" "In "Desiring Arabs,"
[Edward] Said's disciple Joseph A. Massad corroborates his mentor's
thesis that orientalist writing was racist and dehumanizing. . . .
[Massad] brilliantly goes on to trace the legacy of this racist,
internalized, orientalist discourse up to the present."--"Financial
Times"
Among the many shocking violations of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib,
the most notorious was sexual torture. Military personnel justified
this abhorrent technique as an effective tool for interrogating
Arabs, who are perceived as repressed and especially susceptible to
sexual coercion. These abuses laid bare a racist and sexually
charged power dynamic at the root of the U.S. conquest of Iraq - a
dynamic that reflected centuries of Western assumptions about Arab
sexuality. Desiring Arabs uncovers the roots of these attitudes and
analyzes the impact of Western ideas - both about sexuality and
about Arabs - on Arab intellectual production. Sexual desire has
long played a key role in Western judgments about the value of Arab
civilization. In the past, Westerners viewed the Arab world as
licentious, and Western intolerance of sex led them to brand Arabs
as decadent; but as Western society became more sexually open,
supposedly prudish Arabs soon became viewed as backward. Rather
than focusing exclusively on how these views developed in the West,
Joseph A. Massad instead reveals the history of how Arabs
represented their own sexual desires. from the nineteenth century
to the present in order to chart the changes in Arab sexual
attitudes and their links to Arab notions of cultural heritage and
civilization. For instance, he demonstrates how, in the 1980s, the
rise of sexual identity politics and human rights activism in the
West came to define Arab nationalist, and especially Islamist,
responses to sexual desires and practices, and he reveals the
implications these reactions have had for contemporary Arabs. A
work of impressive scope and erudition, Joseph A. Massad's
chronicle of both the history and modern permutations of the debate
over representations of sexual desires and practices in the Arab
world is a crucial addition to our understanding of a frequently
oversimplified and vilified culture.
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