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In Rethinking Islam, Katajun Amirpur argues that the West’s impression of Islam as a backward-looking faith, resistant to post-Enlightenment thinking, is misleading and—due to its effects on political discourse—damaging. Introducing readers to key thinkers and activists—such as Abu Zaid, a free-thinking Egyptian Qur’an scholar; Abdolkarim Soroush, an academic and former member of Khomeini’s Cultural Revolution Committee; and Amina Wadud, an American feminist who was the first woman to lead the faithful in Friday Prayer—Amirpur reveals a powerful yet lesser-known tradition of inquiry and dissent within Islam, one that is committed to democracy and human rights. By examining these and many other similar figures’ ideas, she reveals the many ways they reject fundamentalist assertions and instead call for a diversity of opinion, greater freedom, and equality of the sexes.
Preparing pupils to engage with religious and cultural heterogeneity is increasingly seen as a key task for school education. This book presents research on religion-related dialogue in European schools and addresses the complex intersection of various factors supporting or hindering it. The volume offers findings of the international research project ‘Religion and Dialogue in modern societies’ (ReDi). The chapters present analyses of school case studies in five European cities London (England), Hamburg and Duisburg (Germany), Stockholm (Sweden), and Stavanger (Norway), to empirically answer the question: What are possibilities and limitations of religion-related dialogue in schools? Possibilities and Limitations of Religion-Related Dialogue in Schools in Europe will be a key resource for practioners and researchers of religious education, education studies, educational research, religious studies, and sociology. It was originally published as a special issue of the Religion & Education.
The volume contributes to a better understanding of Iranian history since 1953, with a focus on societal change and its reflection in intellectual discourse. The papers explore the attitudes of Iranians toward modernity and tradition before and after the Revolution of 1979. With insights from Oriental studies, history, sociology, literature and social anthropology, the volume offers a cross-disciplinary perspective on the intellectual, political, and social history of Iran.
In Rethinking Islam, Katajun Amirpur argues that the West’s impression of Islam as a backward-looking faith, resistant to post-Enlightenment thinking, is misleading and—due to its effects on political discourse—damaging. Introducing readers to key thinkers and activists—such as Abu Zaid, a free-thinking Egyptian Qur’an scholar; Abdolkarim Soroush, an academic and former member of Khomeini’s Cultural Revolution Committee; and Amina Wadud, an American feminist who was the first woman to lead the faithful in Friday Prayer—Amirpur reveals a powerful yet lesser-known tradition of inquiry and dissent within Islam, one that is committed to democracy and human rights. By examining these and many other similar figures’ ideas, she reveals the many ways they reject fundamentalist assertions and instead call for a diversity of opinion, greater freedom, and equality of the sexes.
After September 11, Islam became nearly synonymous with fundamentalism in the eyes of Western media and literature. However widely held this view may be, it is at odds with Islam’s rich political history. Renowned Egyptian scholar Nasr Abû Zayd here considers the full breadth of contemporary Muslim writings to examine the diverse political, religious, and cultural views that inform discourse in the Islamic world. Reformation of Islamic Thought explores the writings of intellectuals from Egypt to Iran to Indonesia, probing their efforts to expand Islam beyond traditional and legalistic interpretations. Zayd reveals that many Muslim thinkers advocate culturally enlightened Islam with an emphasis on individual faith. He then investigates the extent of these Muslim reformers’ success in generating an authentic renewal of Islamic ideology, asking if such thinkers have escaped the traditionalist trap of presenting a negative image to the West. A fascinating and highly relevant study for our times, Reformation of Islamic Thought is an essential analysis of Islam’s present and future.
This volume brings together ten articles on contemporary Muslim thought written by authors from Europe and the Middle East, who are specialized in the fields of Islamic theology, Islamic studies and Political Sciences. The scope of the contributions is limited by two aspects: each contribution focuses either on the thought of a contemporaneous Muslim theologian, whose creative period came after 1950 or on a Muslim stream that is relevant today. Second, the contributions also consider the interdependence between theological debates and the larger context in which they take place. The issues addressed here are diverse in nature and the approaches adopted are various, but they are united in giving testimony to the continuing existence of plurality in Muslim theology. This volume will be especially useful for students and scholars of Islamic theology, Islamic studies, and contemporary Muslim thought, as well as the history of ideas.
The volume Middle East and North Africa: Climate, Culture and Conflicts focuses on the intricate interrelationships between nature, culture and society in this ecologically, historically and politically fragile region. As such, it debates ideas of eco-theology from Muslim and Jewish perspectives, followed by mythological interpretations and geo-archeological resp. historical analyses of the interrelationships and impacts of climate and other environmental factors on the development of ancient civilizations and cultures. The section “Present” addresses current conflict scenarios as a result of climate change, i.e. water scarcity, droughts, desertification and similar factors. The final section is concerned with potentials of international cooperation in pursuit of developing and ensuring sustainable energy resources and moves across different scales of environmental and religious education, from awareness raising to perspectives of best practice examples. Contributors are Katajun Amirpur, Helmut Brückner, Eckart Ehlers, Max Engel, Kerstin Fritzsche, Ursula Kowanda-Yassin, Tobias von Lossow, Ephraim Meir, Rosel Pientka-Hinz, Matthias Schmidt, and Franz Trieb.
This progressive volume furthers the inter-religious, international, and interdisciplinary understanding of the role of religion in the area of human rights. Building bridges between the often-separated spheres of academics, policymakers, and practitioners, it draws on the expertise of its authors alongside historical and contemporary examples of how religion's role in human rights manifests. At the core of the book are four case studies, dealing with Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Authors from each religion show the positive potential that their faith and its respective traditions has for the promotion of human rights, while also addressing why and how it stands in the way of fulfilling this potential. Addressed to policymakers, academics, and practitioners worldwide, this engaging and accessible volume provides pragmatic studies on how religious and secular actors can cooperate and contribute to policies that improve global human rights.
For centuries, Muslim countries and Europe have engaged one another through theological dialogues, diplomatic missions, political rivalries, and power struggles. In the last thirty years, due in large part to globalization and migration from Islamic countries to the West, what was previously an engagement across national and cultural boundaries has increasingly become an internalized encounter within Europe itself. Questions of the Hijab in schools, freedom of expression in the wake of the Danish Cartoon crisis, and the role of Shari'a have come to the forefront of contemporary European discourse. The Oxford Handbook of European Islam is the first collection to present a comprehensive approa...
This Festschrift brings together a range of scholars who congratulate Reinhard Schulze on the occasion of his 65th birthday, by shedding light and reflecting on the relation between Islam and modernity. Scholars from the fields of Islamic studies, religious studies, sociology and Arabic literature connect in various ways to Reinhard Schulze’s work to constructively criticize a Eurocentric understanding of modernity. The more specific aspects dealt with under the overarching topic of Islam and modernity make for the four thematic sections of this volume: the study of religion, Islam, and Islamic studies; Islamic knowledge cultures and normativity; language and literature as media of moderni...