This book brings together international scholars of Islamic philosophy, theology and politics to examine these current major questions: What is the place of pluralism in the Islamic founding texts? How have sacred and prophetic texts been interpreted throughout major Islamic intellectual history by the Sunnis and Shi‘a? How does contemporary Islamic thought treat religious and political diversity in modern nation states and in societies in transition? How is pluralism dealt with in modern major and minor Islamic contexts? How does modern political Islam deal with pluralism in the public sphere? And what are the major internal and external challenges to pluralism in Islamic contexts? These questions that have become of paramount relevance in religious studies especially during the last three-four decades are answered as critically highlighted in Islamic founding sources, the formative classical sources and how it has been lived and practiced in past and present Islamic majority societies and communities around the world. Case studies cover Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, and Thailand, besides various internal references to other contexts.

This book explores some of the political and methodological directions that collectively lead to the repositioning of Islam in social science research as both an epistemic/ontological category and as a method. Chapters by experts in the field explore research in the Islamic context vis-à-vis these two distinct yet somehow interrelated frames. The question being raised here is how Islam as socio-religious notion is related to Islam as a theoretical/methodological framework. Taking cues from the experience of contributors, this book also examines the question if current methodologies or frames of references are pluralized enough to accommodate the question of Muslims or could the scholars themselves create alternative directions around the dominant spaces. The book offers ethnographic studies of Muslim communities mostly in minority settings and engages with a number of issues researchers encounter when dealing with the lived or everyday Islam. This book is essential reading for anyone engaged in the study of Muslims in the contemporary world. It will appeal to scholars of religious studies, studies of Islam in the West, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, human geography, and research methods.

In the current political and social climate, there is increasing demand for a deeper understanding of Muslims, the Qur’an and Islam, as well as a keen demand among Muslim scholars to explore ways of engaging with Christians theologically, culturally, and socially. This book explores the ways in which an awareness of Islam and the Qur’an can change the way in which the Bible is read. The contributors come from both Muslim and Christian backgrounds, bring various levels of commitment to the Qur’an and the Bible as Scripture, and often have significantly different perspectives. The first section of the book contains chapters that compare the report of an event in the Bible with a report of the same event in the Qur’an. The second section addresses Muslim readings of the Bible and biblical tradition and looks at how Muslims might regard the Bible - Can they recognise it as Scripture? If so, what does that mean, and how does it relate to the Qur’an as Scripture? Similarly, how might Christian readers regard the Qur’an? The final section explores different analogies for understanding the Bible in relation to the Qur’an. The book concludes with a reflection upon the particular challenges that await Muslim scholars who seek to respond to Jewish and Christian understandings of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. A pioneering venture into intertextual reading, this book has important implications for relationships between Christians and Muslims. It will be of significant value to scholars of both Biblical and Qur’anic Studies, as well as any Muslim seeking to deepen their understanding of the Bible, and any Christian looking to transform the way in which they read the Bible.

Islamic Bioethics presents a wide variety of perspectives and debates on how Islamic societies deal with the ethical dilemmas raised by biomedicine and new technologies. The book is a "constructive dialogue" between contributors selected from a multidisciplinary group of Muslim and non-Muslim scholars from different Islamic countries. The 11 chapters illuminate the diversity and complexity of the issues discussed in Islamic bioethics and pave the way to a better understanding of Islamic bioethics and dialogue in the global bioethics community. The chapters take both theoretical and practical approaches to the topic, and each covers an emerging issue in Islamic bioethics. This book will be useful for academics and professional institutions in both Islamic and non-Islamic countries, and will be instrumental in providing researchers, scholars, students, policymakers and medical professionals with access to the latest issues and debates related to Islamic bioethics. Contributors include: Tariq Ramadan, Abdallah Daar, Ali Albar, Mohsin Ebrahim, Baharouddin Azizan Alastair Campbel, Bagher Larijani, Carol Taylor, Gamal Serour, James Rusthoven, Ilhan Ilkilic, Ingrid Mattson, Hassan Chamsi-Pasha, Jonathan Crane, Hakan Ertin, Mehunisha Suleman. Contents: Islamic Ethics: Sources, Methodology and Application (T Ramadan)Islamic Bioethics: Infrastructure and Capacity Building (A Bagheri)What Islamic Bioethics Can Offer to Global Bioethics (A Bagheri et al.)Gender and Sexuality in Islamic Bioethics (I Mattson)Physician-Patient Relationship in Islamic Context (M Al Bar & H Chamsi-Pasha)Islamic Perspective on Brain Death and Organ Transplantation (M Ebrahim)The Stem Cell Debate in Islamic Bioethics (H Ertin & I Ilkilic)Environmental Ethics in Islam (A Baharuddin & M N Musa)Animal Rights in Islam (B Larijani et al.)Biomedical Research Ethics in the Islamic Context: Reflections on and Challenges for Islamic Bioethics (M Suleman)Challenges in Islamic Bioethics (K Alali et al.) Readership: Healthcare professionals, health policy makers, physicians and nurses, lawyers academics, researchers, graduate students and lay public. Keywords: Islamic Bioethics;Bioethics;Biomedical Ethics;Medical Ethics;IslamReview: Key Features: Provides a platform for a better understanding of bioethical issues in Islamic context and how an ethical dilemma is dealt with and how decisions are made in Islamic bioethics from a multidisciplinary group of scholarsBioethical topics presented in this volume are the most critical issues in Islamic bioethics as well as global bioethicsEach chapter presents an update of a bioethical topic and/or challenges in Islamic bioethics from an authoritative bioethics/religious scholarIn an innovative approach this volume presents a constructive dialogue between prominent Muslim and Non-Muslim scholars on Islamic bioethics

THE collection of papers in this volume documents the study of Islam in American Universities. Over the last few decades the United States has seen significant growth in the study of Islam and Islamic societies in institutions of higher learning fueled primarily by events including economic relations of the U.S. with Muslim countries, migration of Muslims into the country, conversion of Americans to Islam, U.S. interests in Arab oil resources, involvement of Muslims in the American public square, and the tragic events of 9/11. Although there is increasing recognition that the study of Islam and the role of Muslims is strategically essential in a climate of global integration, multiculturalism, and political turmoil, nevertheless, the state of Islamic Studies in America is far from satisfactory. The issue needs to be addressed, particularly as the need for intelligent debate and understanding is continuously stifled by what some have termed an “Islam industry” run primarily by fly-by journalists, think tank pundits, and cut-and-paste “experts.”

This ethnography of immigrant Muslims examines five Northeastern communities, providing an intimate look at what it means to be a practicing Muslim in America at a time when Islam is in the forefront of international news.

The study of Islam has historically been approached in two different ways: apologetical and polemical. The former focuses on the preservation and propagation of religious teachings, and the latter on the attempt to undermine the tradition. The dialectic between these two approaches continued into the Enlightenment, and the tension between them still exists today. What is new in the modern period, however, is the introduction of a third approach, the academic one, which ostensibly examines the tradition in diverse historical, religious, legal, intellectual, and philosophical contexts. Classical Islamic subjects (e.g., Qur'ān, ḥadīth, fiqh, tafsīr) are now studied using a combination of the apologetical, the polemical, and the academic approaches. Depending upon the historical period and the institutional context, these classical topics have been accepted (apologetical), have had their truth claims undermined (polemical), or have simply been taken for granted (academic). This volume, comprising chapters by leading experts, deconstructs the ways in which classical Muslim scholarship has structured (and, indeed, continues to structure) the modern study of Islam. It explores how classical subjects have been approached traditionally, theologically, and secularly, in addition to examining some of the tensions inherent in these approaches.