Muslims and Modernity: Current Debates (Comparative Islamic Studies) [Hardcover]

Clinton Bennett (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2005 | ISBN-10: 082645481X | ISBN-13: 978-0826454812

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Reference & Research Book News, August 2006

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-Mention. Theology Digest/ Vol. 52 No. 3/ Fall 2005 (Theology Digest )

Reference & Research Book News, August 2006

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About the Author

Clinton Bennett teaches Religious Studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 306 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (May 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082645481X
• ISBN-13: 978-0826454812
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,952,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Clinton Bennett was awarded the PhD in Islamic Studies by Birmingham University in 1990. He also holds the M.Ed. from Oxford and his undergraduate degree in Theology from Manchester University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and of the Royal Anthropological Institute and uses ethnography in his research. He is especially interested in how sensitive but critical issues in Religious Studies can be explored without causing offense to religious insiders. He is a specialist in the study of Islam with a focus on modern Muslim thinkers and movements. An ordained Baptist minister, he has worked as a missionary in Bangladesh, as co-pastor of a multi-racial inner city congregation, on the staff of the British Council of Churches and as a College and University chaplain and teacher. He has written nine books. He has combined academic study of Islam with participation in interfaith dialogue, serving on several World Council of Churches committees. He has advised local mosques, chaired school governing bodies and represented an NGO at the UN. He currently teaches at the State University of New York at New Paltz. His homepage is www.clintonbennett.net

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some useful comparative study of Muslim thinkers, April 5, 2007

By 

L. F Sherman "dikw" (Wiscasset, ME United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Muslims and Modernity: Current Debates (Comparative Islamic Studies) (Paperback)

Muslims and Modernity is a "cultural studies" attempt to introduce issues and debates in Islamic thought. His summaries of Muslim thinkers are usually incisive and demonstrate consider hard work. It sometimes shines, but is over ambitious and reaches too far to be consistently valuable. Like almost all treatments of "modernity" there is an overemphasis on lack of and presumed fear of modernity without assessment of Islam's capabilities and discounting the degree to which backwardness - while not exclusively the fault of colonialism or the west - is political, structural, derived from an economy extracting resources. None of these causes are particularly "Islamic" as most third and fourth world scholars would tell you.

The basic "left-right" scale to categorize positions of Muslim thinkers examines major topics comparatively with some focus not possible by collecting summaries of different thinkers. Only late does the author mention what should have been a cautionary note - that thinkers are not consistently left or right regarding different issues. Many important writers are included although those from Indonesia (of considerable importance) and even Tariq Ramadan are ignored. (Tariq Ramadan is used briefly as a secondary source not subject to the same kind of analysis.) How practices fit in five categories from totally forbidden to absolutely required should have been noted with appropriate emphasis on how by far most matters are in the middle category of not regulated at all by law. The reader would benefit from a clearer idea of how every Muslim thinker refers to the early community, Prophet Muhammad, and the Qur'an - all predating the Shari'a. (Read Tariq Ramadan's new sudy of Prophet Muhammad for this.)

Generally the assessments seem fair and concise although the one person I knew personally (two directed study and reading programs in Graduate School), Ismail al Faruqi, seems somehow harsher than the man I knew.

The historical examples like Algeria, Bangladesh, and Palestine are summarized but in such a way as to provide inadequate basis for evaluation or integration into the studies of the thinkers. The literary examples are interesting but inadvertently exaggerate extremes because they are dramatic with considerable literary license.

There are inevitably possible small errors with so many dates and names; sadly there is one major error that is surprising from an author who seems reasonably knowlegible. He mentions that Zakat is a percentage of "disposable income" when in fact it is much better described as based on about 2.5% of net worth. He does mention jizya paid by dhimmis but neglects to add that these people were excused from any military service as well as payment of zakat. Along these lines one can mention that he uses with little warning or comment two authors infamous as Islam phobic to a point that their scholarship is undermined: Bat Yo'er and Pipes. (A similar study of non Muslim authors would be informative.)

A book of this kind also, perhaps unsurprisingly, lacks the sociological analysis and empathy to put things in useful perspective to make the historical case studies more useful.