Dynamics Of Islam

This is a general academic work pertaining to the dynamic character of Islamic civilization in relation to both Semitic and non-Semitic civilizations in socio-religious and politico-ethical matters.

This multidisciplinary volume seeks to document and analyze an astonishingly diverse array of Muslim voices, practices and institutions that demonstrate the dynamic interaction of Muslims with the epistemological shifts, political challenges and cultural transformations of the modern world.

The book discusses the demographic changes in Muslim countries. It thereby focuses on topics such as the demographic dividend and the demographic transition, labour market challenges, health care, universal education and gender issues. These challenges are addressed at a country level and include policy implications for the large majority of the Muslim countries covered in this book. Moreover, political consequences for Europe with respect to the integration of Muslims are presented to the reader.

This concise but enormously valuable work lays down the nature, logic and dynamic of the Islamic movement in the context of Iman and Jihad.

Muslim,s according to the 1981 Census, constitute 11.35 per cent of India's population and are thus the largest minority group in the country. They are also a tradition bound and backward community. In India, the social and cultural life of the Muslims displays a distinctive character as it is influenced by both the Islamic as well as the local traditions. A masterly exposition of society and culture of the Muslims of Bengal in particular and India in general, this volume is based on an intensive empirical study of the social organizations among the Muslims of three villages in three different eco-cultural zones of West Bengal. It presents an analysis of structure and organization of Muslim society in Bengal on the basis of groupings, inter-relations nad interactions among various units of Muslim society in different field situations. The volume also anlayses the interaction of the great tradition of Islam with the little tradition of the region in the framework of the Muslim society. Concerned not only with the nature of segmentation and stratification in Bengal Muslim society, it also examines in detail, the aspects of overall soliderity of various Muslim groups as a specific community.

Dynamics of Islam in the Modern World scrutinizes and analyzes Islam in context. It posits Muslims not as independent and autonomous, but as relational and interactive agents of change and continuity who interplay with Islamic(ate) sources of self and society as well as with resources from other traditions. Representing multiple disciplinary approaches, the contributors to this volume discuss a broad range of issues, such as secularization, colonialism, globalization, radicalism, human rights, migration, hermeneutics, mysticism, religious normativity and pluralism, while paying special attention to three geographical settings of South Asia, the Middle East and Euro-America.

Contemporary Islam provides a counterweight to the prevailing opinions of Islamic thought as conservative and static with a preference for violence over dialogue. It gathers together a collection of eminent scholars from around the world who tackle issues such as intellectual pluralism, gender, the ethics of political participation, human rights, non-violence and religious harmony. This is a highly topical and important study which gives a progressive outlook for Islam's role in modern politics and society.

Dynamic Islam analyzes the lives and works of four of the most influential liberal diaspora Muslim intellectuals of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries--Fatima Mernissi, Leila Ahmed, Fazlur Rahman, and Mohammed Arkoun. These prolific scholars are among the first generation of Muslims writing in Western languages who have intentionally directed their works toward audiences in the West, as well as the Muslim world. Jon Armajani examines the way these cutting-edge scholars have interpreted the Quran, Hadith, and Islamic history as they have constructed their visions for Islam in the modern world. Armajani vividly describes their perspectives on women and gender, veiling, Islamic revivalism, Islam and democracy, and Islamic mysticism. The volume also situates their ideas with respect to conservatively minded western Muslims and Islamic revivalists.