Overview

The Contemporary Arab Reader on Political Islam brings together the writings of highly influential figures in the field of Islamism in the contemporary Arab world, many of whose writings have never been available before in English. Addressing the key issues such as human rights, civil society, secularism, globalisation and ummah, and the impact of the West on the modern Arab world, this is the perfect starting point for students and academics looking to understand 'Political Islam' in contemporary Arab and Muslim societies. The contributors include such important Islamist thinkers and activists as Abdullah Azzam, central to the spread of Islamism in Afghanistan, Sayyid Muhammad Hussain Fadlallah, a major Shiite figure in contemporary Lebanon and Ahmad Bin Yousuf, a political advisor to Akram Haniyya in Gaza.

Full Product Details

Author:   Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi ,  Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi'
Publisher:   Pluto Press
Imprint:   Pluto Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.00cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 23.00cm
Weight:   0.496kg
ISBN:  

9780745328898

ISBN 10:   074532889
Pages:   352
Publication Date:   06 August 2010
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of Contributors Editor's Introduction Part I: Toward a Theoretical Appreciation of Islamism in the Contemporary Arab World 1. Muhammad Sa‘id Ramadan al-Buti, Salafism is a Blessed Historical Phase Rather Than an Islamic Legal School 2. Fathi Yakan, Toward a Unified and Universal Islamic Movement 3. Ahmad Kamal Abu’l Majd, Towards a Modern Islamic Perspective Declaration of Principles 4. Muhammad al-Ghazali, Women Between the People of Hadith and the People of Fiqh Part II: Islamism, Jihad, and Martyrdom 5. Abdullah Anas, The Birth of ‘Afghan-Arabs’: An Algerian Perspective 6. Abdullah Azzam, What Jihad Has Taught Me! 7. Muhammad Sa‘id Ramadan al-Buti, Jihad in Islam: How to Understand and Practice it? 8. Sayyid Muhammad Hussain Fadlallah, Islam and the Question of Power Part III. Islamism and the Question of Israel/Palestine 9. Ismail R. Faruqi, Islam and Zionism 10. Mustafa Abu Sway, From Basel to Oslo: Zionism and the Islamic Narrative 11. Mohsen Saleh, Palestine/Lebanon], The Role of the Israeli Lobby Part IV: Contemporary Islamism: Trends and Self-Criticism 12. Abdul Qadir Awdah, Islam Between Ignorant Followers and Incapable Scholars 13. Ramadan Abdallah Shallah, The Islamic Movement and the Contemporary Challenges 14. Umar Abdel Rahman, On the Present Rulers in the Muslim World 15. Sami al-Arian, The Islamic Movement and Contemporary Crises: An Assessment and Correction 16. Rashid Ghannoushi, Islamic Movements: Self-Criticism and Reconsideration 17. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Islamic Awakening Between Rejection and Extremism 18. Jamil Hamami, The Islamic Movement: Hopes and Aspirations; Part V: Islamism, the West, the United States and 9/11 19. Abdel Wahab al-Masiri, Imperialism and the Contemporary Muslim world 20. Ahmad Bin Yousuf, Islamists and the West: From Confrontation to Cooperation 21. Munir Shafiq, Islam and the Challenges of Contemporary Decline 22. Kamal Habib, Transformation of the Islamic Movement and the Current American Strategy 23. Yasser Za‘atira, The United States and Islamism: Before and After 9/11 24. Muhammad Hussain Fadlallah, Muslim Youth and the West: Between Original and Contemporary Values Part VI: Islamism in the Contemporary Arab World 25. Fahd al-Qahtani, Islam and Saudi Paganism 26. Muhammad al-Masa‘ari, Conclusive Evidences for the Illegality of the Saudi State 27. Abdel Qadim Zalloum, How to Revive Islamic Caliphate? 28. Zaki Ahmad, Recent Changes in the Arab-Islamist Movements 29. Ahmad al-Raysouni, The Islamic Movement in Morocco: Resurgence or Decline? 30. Shaykh Ali al-Bayanuni, The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood 31. Ishaq al-Farhan, The Future of Islamist Work: The Islamist Movement in the Context of International Transformations and the Gulf Crisis; 32. Yahia H. Zoubir, Islamist Political Parties in Contemporary Algeria 33. Sami Abdallah, The Islamic Movement in the Gulf Region 34. Tarik Hamdi Al-Azami, The Islamic Movement in Modern Iraq, Sunni Dimension 35. Malik Bennabi, The Ideational World and Its Impressed and Expressed Ideas

Reviews

Internationally known scholar Ibrahim Abu-Rabi has produced another important contribution to the study of Islamic movements in the modern and contemporary Arab world. The articles in this volume, most of which have been written in the last decade, range over a variety of topics and themes. Numerous and diverse, they provide a fascinating examination of a range of Arab interpretations of Islam and Islamism, including reflections on jihad, Israel/Palestine, and responses to the West since 9/11. Abu-Rabi’s comprehensive introduction provides a cohesive context for these studies. Highly recommended for students of Islamist movements, contemporary political developments in the Middle East, and Islam in general. —Jane Smith, Harvard Divinity School  Over the last two decades, Ibrahim Abu-Rabi has been a singularly trustworthy source of understanding modern Arab and Islamic intellectual history.  His newly edited reader on contemporary Islamism in the Arab world could

A fascinating examination of a range of Arab interpretations of Islam and Islamism, including reflections on jihad, Israel/Palestine, and responses to the West since 9/11. Abu-Rabi's comprehensive introduction provides a cohesive context for these studies. Highly recommended for students of Islamist movements, contemporary political developments in the Middle East, and Islam in general. -- Jane Smith, Harvard Divinity School With a clear headed and judicious selection, Professor Abu-Rabi' has opened up a panorama of modern political thought that we scarcely knew existed. The result is an absolutely indispensible compendium on contemporary Islamist movements that no student of current affairs on a global scale can ignore. -- Hamid Dabashi, the Author of Islamic Liberation Theology: Resisting the Empire (2008) These essays by the actors and experts of Islamism are the most enlightening documents that I have ever read. The ideological and geographic range of the essays is unmatched in its richness and analytical depth. This is a volume which allows major figures of the Islamic movement to take the reader beyond the West's fixation on Qutb and his violent rendition of Islamic thought. -- Ghada Hashem Talhami, D. K. Pearsons Professor of Politics, Emerita Lake Forest College. Ibrahim Abu-Rabi', the leading scholar on contemporary Muslim thought, has drawn together the seminal writings on Islamism from across the Arab world. Finally, in one volume, we can engage the foundational and current thinking of a diverse movement that will demand the attention of both scholars and the educated public for many years to come. This book needs to be close at hand for all those working and thinking about the Islamist movement, Political Islam, modern trends in Islam and the Middle East. ... Most of the essays have been translated into English for the first time and the masterful introductory essay by Professor Abu-Rabi' is worth the price of the volume on its own. -- David J. Goa, Director, Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion & Public Life, University of Alberta, Canada. 'This book presents a needed and valuable worldview of Islamism, as presented by many of its leading thinkers and ideologues. Most of the articles, written during the past ten years, here appear in English for the first time and cover wide-ranging topics. The interpretations are varied and, as put together in one volume, clearly and in a scholarly manner refute the simplistic and often incorrect generalizations about Islam and Islamism that are too often expressed in the Western world. Anyone interested in modern trends in Islam, the Middle East and/or comparative religious movements should read this book.' -- Norton Mezvinsky, Emeritus Professor of History and President, International Council for Middle East Studies. An excellent collection of recent articles, originally written in Arabic by contemporary Islamist thinkers and never-before-seen by an English-speaking audience. Translated specifically for this volume, these articles provide rich insight into the recent history and future prospects of the Islamic movement in the Arab world. Among other topics, the book explores the impact on the Islamic movement of the collapse of the Soviet Union and of the emergence of a unipolar New World Order; diversity within the Islamic movement; and relations between Islamism and the West. As well, it offers critical reflections on the contemporary Islamic movement and the ruling political elites in the Arab world. Studded with intellectual gems, this valuable volume will help the serious student of Islam-and of Islam as political discourse-to better understand not only the pluralistic nature of the Islamist movement, but also the complexity of political cross currents and political turmoil in the Arab world. -- Baha Abu-Laban, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Alberta

An excellent collection of recent articles, originally written in Arabic by contemporary Islamist thinkers and never-before-seen by an English-speaking audience. Translated specifically for this volume, these articles provide rich insight into the recent history and future prospects of the Islamic movement in the Arab world. Among other topics, the book explores the impact on the Islamic movement of the collapse of the Soviet Union and of the emergence of a unipolar New World Order; diversity within the Islamic movement; and relations between Islamism and the West. As well, it offers critical reflections on the contemporary Islamic movement and the ruling political elites in the Arab world. Studded with intellectual gems, this valuable volume will help the serious student of Islam-and of Islam as political discourse-to better understand not only the pluralistic nature of the Islamist movement, but also the complexity of political cross currents and political turmoil in the Arab world. -- Baha Abu-Laban, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Alberta 'This book presents a needed and valuable worldview of Islamism, as presented by many of its leading thinkers and ideologues. Most of the articles, written during the past ten years, here appear in English for the first time and cover wide-ranging topics. The interpretations are varied and, as put together in one volume, clearly and in a scholarly manner refute the simplistic and often incorrect generalizations about Islam and Islamism that are too often expressed in the Western world. Anyone interested in modern trends in Islam, the Middle East and/or comparative religious movements should read this book.' -- Norton Mezvinsky, Emeritus Professor of History and President, International Council for Middle East Studies. Ibrahim Abu-Rabi', the leading scholar on contemporary Muslim thought, has drawn together the seminal writings on Islamism from across the Arab world. Finally, in one volume, we can engage the foundational and current thinking of a diverse movement that will demand the attention of both scholars and the educated public for many years to come. This book needs to be close at hand for all those working and thinking about the Islamist movement, Political Islam, modern trends in Islam and the Middle East. ... Most of the essays have been translated into English for the first time and the masterful introductory essay by Professor Abu-Rabi' is worth the price of the volume on its own. -- David J. Goa, Director, Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion & Public Life, University of Alberta, Canada. These essays by the actors and experts of Islamism are the most enlightening documents that I have ever read. The ideological and geographic range of the essays is unmatched in its richness and analytical depth. This is a volume which allows major figures of the Islamic movement to take the reader beyond the West's fixation on Qutb and his violent rendition of Islamic thought. -- Ghada Hashem Talhami, D. K. Pearsons Professor of Politics, Emerita Lake Forest College. With a clear headed and judicious selection, Professor Abu-Rabi` has opened up a panorama of modern political thought that we scarcely knew existed. The result is an absolutely indispensible compendium on contemporary Islamist movements that no student of current affairs on a global scale can ignore. -- Hamid Dabashi, the Author of Islamic Liberation Theology: Resisting the Empire (2008) A fascinating examination of a range of Arab interpretations of Islam and Islamism, including reflections on jihad, Israel/Palestine, and responses to the West since 9/11. Abu-Rabi's comprehensive introduction provides a cohesive context for these studies. Highly recommended for students of Islamist movements, contemporary political developments in the Middle East, and Islam in general. -- Jane Smith, Harvard Divinity School

'The most enlightening documents that I have ever read. The ideological and geographic range of the essays is unmatched in its richness and analytical depth' -- Ghada Hashem Talhami, D. K. Pearsons Professor of Politics, EmeritaLake Forest College. 'Opens up a panorama of modern political thought that we scarcely knew existed. The result is an absolutely indispensable compendium on contemporary Islamist movements that no student of current affairs on a global scale can ignore' -- Hamid Dabashi, the Author of Islamic Liberation Theology: Resisting the Empire (2008) 'A fascinating examination of a range of Arab interpretations of Islam and Islamism, including reflections on jihad, Israel/Palestine, and responses to the West since 9/11' -- Jane Smith, Harvard Divinity School 'Draws together the seminal writings on Islamism from across the Arab world. Finally, in one volume, we can engage the foundational and current thinking of a diverse movement' -- David J. Goa, Director, Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion & Public Life, University of Alberta, Canada. 'Presents a needed and valuable world view of Islamism, as presented by many of its leading thinkers and ideologues' -- Norton Mezvinsky, Emeritus Professor of History and President, International Council for Middle East Studies. 'An excellent collection of recent articles, originally written in Arabic by contemporary Islamist thinkers and never-before-seen by an English-speaking audience' -- Baha Abu-Laban, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Alberta

Author Information

Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi' is the holder of the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities Chair of Islamic Studies at the University of Alberta. His many books include The Contemporary Arab Reader on Political Islam (Pluto, 2010), Myth and Reality in the Contemporary Islamist Movement (Pluto, 2005), and The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought (Blackwells, 2006).

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