| Islams and Modernities Revised Edition Contributor(s): Al-Azmeh, Aziz (Author), Aozmah, Azaiz (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 1844673847 ISBN-13: 9781844673841 Publisher: Verso OUR PRICE: $99.00 Product Type: Hardcover Published: August 2009 Annotation: The author aligns himself with an anti-essentialist stance, meaning that he rejects the idea that Islam is a fixed body of beliefs or practices. He attacks both fundamentalists and Orientalists for promoting such a misleading view of Islam. Instead, he sees Islam as a living, changing, and constantly reinterpreted body of ideas. He is also skeptical of those who rely on arguments about culture and ethnicity, as if these are fixed categories. Political Islam, which has little to do with traditional models, is linked to the growth of petrodollars in the 1970s. Azmeh relentlessly picks apart conventional wisdom, challenging common cliches, and warning against the careless use of analytical categories. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Islamic Studies - Religion | Religion, Politics & State - Religion | Islam - General |
| Dewey: 306.697 |
| LCCN: 2012456164 |
| Physical Information: 234 pages |
| Themes: - Religious Orientation - Islamic |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Islam has become the new spectre haunting Europe. All too often, even well-meaning liberals portray the modern resurgence of Islam as the new "Green Menace" intolerant, medieval and barbaric which has replaced Communism as the main threat to Western civilization and values. For Aziz Al-Azmeh, this Orientalist and racist view of Islam is nothing but the mirror-image of the myths propagated by Islamic fundamentalists and radicals. Both views share an erroneous and a historical conception of Islam as an unchanging and monolithic entity. Surveying both its social origins and its intellectual genealogy, Al-Azmeh rethinks the relationship between Islam and the West, uncovering a rich actual history of interaction. In this expanded new edition, the author examines the discourse surrounding Islamism and irrationalism after 9/11. |