Authors: Vincent J. Cornell
Voices of Islam (224 page)
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Volume 5 V
OICES OF
C
HANGE
Vincent J. Cornell, General Editor Omid Safi, Volume Editor
P
RAEGER
P
ERSPECTIVES
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Voices of Islam / Vincent J. Cornell, general editor.
cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–275–98732–9 (set : alk. paper)—ISBN 0–275–98733–7 (vol 1 : alk. paper)—ISBN 0–275–98734–5 (vol 2 : alk. paper)—ISBN 0–275–98735–3 (vol 3 : alk. paper)—ISBN 0– 275–98736–1 (vol 4 : alk. paper)—ISBN 0–275–98737–X (vol 5 : alk. paper) 1. Islam— Appreciation. 2. Islam—Essence, genius, nature. I. Cornell, Vincent J.
BP163.V65 2007
297—dc22 2006031060
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright
©
2007 by Praeger PublishersAll rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2006031060 ISBN: 0–275–98732–9 (set)
0–275–98733–7 (vol. 1)
0–275–98734–5 (vol. 2)
0–275–98735–3 (vol. 3)
0–275–98736–1 (vol. 4)
0–275–98737–X (vol. 5)
First published in 2007
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
C
ONTENTS
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Vincent J. Cornell
Introduction: Islamic Modernism and the Challenge of
Reform Omid SafiCreativity, Innovation, and Heresy in
Islam Umar F. Abd-AllahIs ‘‘Islamic’’ Philosophy
Islamic? Mohammad AzadpurIslam for the People: Muslim Men’s Voices on Race and Ethnicity in the American Umma
Jamillah A. Karim
Islam in the African American
Experience Aminah Beverly McCloudIslam and Gender
Justice Ziba Mir-HosseiniTransitions in the ‘‘Progress’’ of Civilization: Theorizing History, Practice, and Tradition
Ebrahim Moosa
Sexual Diversity in
Islam Scott Sirajul Haqq KugleSufism in the West: Islam in an Interspiritual
Age Hugh Talat HalmanI and Thou in a Fluid World: Beyond ‘‘Islam versus the
West’’ Omid Safi
vi Contents
About the Editors and Contributors 235
V
OICES OF
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SLAM
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Vincent J. Cornell
It has long been a truism to say that Islam is the most misunderstood religion in the world. However, the situation expressed by this statement is more than a little ironic because Islam is also one of the most studied religions in the world, after Christianity and Judaism. In the quarter of a century since the 1978–1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, hundreds of books on Islam and the Islamic world have appeared in print, including more than a score of intro- ductions to Islam in various European languages. How is one to understand this paradox? Why is it that most Americans and Europeans are still largely uninformed about Islam after so many books about Islam have been pub- lished? Even more, how can people still claim to know so little about Islam when Muslims now live in virtually every medium-sized and major commu- nity in America and Europe? A visit to a local library or to a national book- store chain in any American city will reveal numerous titles on Islam and the Muslim world, ranging from journalistic potboilers to academic studies, translations of the Qur’an, and works advocating a variety of points of view from apologetics to predictions of the apocalypse.
The answer to this question is complex, and it would take a book itself to discuss it adequately. More than 28 years have passed since Edward Said wrote his classic study
Orientalism,
and it has been nearly as long since Said critiqued journalistic depictions of Islam in
Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World.
When these books first appeared in print, many thought that the ignorance about the Middle East and the Muslim world in the West would finally be dispelled. However, there is little evidence that the public consciousness of Islam and Muslims has been raised to a significant degree in Western countries. Scholars of Islam in American universities still feel the need to humanize Muslims in the eyes of their students. A basic objective of many introductory courses on Islam is to demonstrate that Muslims are rational human beings and that their beliefs are worthy of respect. As Carl W. Ernst observes in the preface to his recent work,
Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the
viii
Voices of Islam
Contemporary World,
‘‘It still amazes me that intelligent people can believe that all Muslims are violent or that all Muslim women are oppressed, when they would never dream of uttering slurs stereotyping much smaller groups such as Jews or blacks. The strength of these negative images of Muslims is remarkable, even though they are not based on personal experience or actual study, but they receive daily reinforcement from the news media and popular culture.’’
1
Such prejudices and misconceptions have only become worse since the ter- rorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the war in Iraq. There still remains a need to portray Muslims in all of their human diversity, whether this diver- sity is based on culture, historical circumstances, economic class, gender, or religious doctrine. Today, Muslims represent nearly one-fourth of the world’s population. Although many Americans are aware that Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country, most are surprised to learn that half of the Muslims in the world live east of Lahore, Pakistan. In this sense, Islam is as much an ‘‘Asian’’ religion as is Hinduism or Buddhism. The new reality of global Islam strongly contradicts the ‘‘Middle Eastern’’ view of Islam held by most Americans. Politically, the United States has been preoccupied with the Middle East for more than half a century. Religiously, however, American Protestantism has been involved in the Middle East for more than 150 years. Thus, it comes as a shock for Americans to learn that only one-fourth of the world’s Muslims live in the Middle East and North Africa and that only one-fi of Muslims are Arabs. Islam is now as much a worldwide religion as Christianity, with somewhere between 4 and 6 million believers in the United States and approximately 10 million believers in Western Europe. Almost 20 million Muslims live within the borders of the Russian Federation, and nearly a million people of Muslim descent live in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, on the Gulf of Finland.