Author: Asma Barlas
Publisher: Global Media
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 154
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8188869090
Description
9/11 marks a tuning point in the public discourses on Islam in the west and in the relationship between Islam and the West. Along with the US wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, sweeping demonizations of Islam in the media, hate crimes against Muslims living in the U S, there also emerged an interest on the part not only of non-Muslims, but Muslims as well, in learning about Islam.
The author discusses at length the widening schism between Muslims and the west and the way the US has taken advantage of the deadly 9/11 strikes to take its War on terror to Muslim lands. She also discusses the marginalization of Muslim women in Muslim societies around the world and goes on to say that for the patriarchal Muslim society the other is not the Western infidel but the Muslim woman, while for Westerners, the Other has been Islam since early medieval times, much before the advent of any bin Laden.
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
INTRODUCTION
MUSLIMS AND THE US AFTER
The Academy, 9/11, and renewal
The excesses of Moderation
Mirror, Mirror, on the wall
Ignorance of a hegemonic imagination
The incidental Saddam Hussein
Margins and mainstreams
Winning the hearts of Muslims?
Why do they hate us?
Muslims in the US-I
Muslims in the US-II
Loving oneself to death
ISLAM, WOMEN AND EQUALITY
Islam, women and equality-I
Islam, women and equality-II
Islam, women and equality-III
Faces of oppression
Traditional Ignominies
RELIGION AND TERROR
Religion and our response to violence
Al-Ghazali on Tolerance
The Secular commitment to Islamic fundamentalism
UNDERSTANDING ISLAM
Interpreting the Qur’an
Interpreting religion and tradition
Reforming religious knowledge
Religious authorities in Islam
Educating the literate
Secularizing religion and sacralising politics
Uses (and abuses) of Muslim history in understanding Islam
Will the Real Islam please stand up?