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Can democracy flourish in Muslim society? What does the Qur’an say about women, minorities, human rights? Are Islam and the West on a collision course? After 9/11, much has been written about the inevitability of a clash between Islam and the West, as their worldviews compete for global supremacy. Recent developments have done little to challenge this thesis, or the West’s negative image of Islam. The author compares and contrasts contributions from “traditional” and “progressive” Muslims. Voicing at least two Muslim opinions in each area of debate, this book challenges the idea that all Muslims think identically. While Muslims and Modernity is designed primarily for use an undergraduate textbook, reference to accessible Internet material, to literature and to popular as well as scholarly sources will broaden its appeal to a general readership. This book’s discussion draws on post-colonial theory, feminist analyses, anthropology, cultural and religious studies, politics and philosophy.
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Muslims and Modernity
Also available from Continuum: Prophets in the Quran, Brannon Wheeler Six World Faiths, W. Owen Cole
Muslims and Modernity An Introduction to the Issues and Debates
Clinton Bennett
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© Clinton Bennett 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 0-8264-5481-X PB: 0-8264-5482-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bennett, Clinton. Muslims and modernity : an introduction to the issues and debates / Clinton Bennett. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8264-5481-X—ISBN 0-8264-5482-8 (pbk.) 1. Islamic modernism. 2. Islamic renewal. 3. Islam and civil society. 4. Human rights— Religious aspects—Islam. 5. Islam—21st century. I. Title. BP166.14.M63B45 2005 297.2'7—dc22 2004063212 Typeset by YHT Ltd, London. Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
Contents
Acknowledgements Pedagogical Preface - In the public eye - Aims and approach - A left-right analysis Introduction: Voices and Viewpoints - Methodology: virtual insidership - Polarized viewpoints - Media and anti-Islamism - Does Islam threaten the West?
ix xii xii xiii xvi 1 1 3 9 11
1. Modernity, Postmodernity and the World of Islam - The crises of modernity - What is modernism? - Postmodernity and Islam - Postmodernism and Marxist analysis - Muslim responses: Akbar Ahmed (1992) and Ziauddin Sardar (1998)
17 17 24 27 30
2. Muslims and Democracy - Democracy - whose version? - Double standards - Four models - Summary of the historical legacy - Mawdudi's model: theo-democracy (centre right) - Rule by an elite: the case of Saudi Arabia - The centre-left's model: Taha's Second Message of Islam - Secular Islam: the far left - Literary case study: Ahdaf Soueif s The Map of Love
40 40 42 44 46 49 53 56 57 61
3. Muslims on Human Rights - An imposition from outside?
63 63
31
VI
CONTENTS
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Mawdudi and the Muslim right: human rights and Islam The hizb-ut-tahrir and humanrights The Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights (1981) Bassam Tibi on human rights An-Na'im on Islam and humanrights Freedom of expression and the limits of dissent: Hisbah Literary case study: Hanif Kureishi's The Black Album
65 67 68 69 73 76