Islam and Modernity

305 Pages·2012·1.28 MB·English

Islam
Modernity
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KEY ISSUES AND DEBATES
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Edited by Muhammad Khalid Masud, Armando Salvatore and Martin van Bruinessen a
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Recent events have focused attention on the perceived differences and tensions between the
Muslim world and the modern West. As a major strand of Western public discourse has it,
Islam appears resistant to internal development and remains inherently pre-modern.
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However, Muslim societies have experienced most of the same structural changes that have n
impacted upon all societies: massive urbanisation, mass education, dramatically increased d
communication, the emergence of new types of institutions and associations, some measure of
political mobilisation, and major transformations of the economy. These developments are M
accompanied by a wide range of social movements and by complex and varied religious and
ideological debates. o
This textbook is a pioneering study providing an introduction to and overview of the debates and d
questions that have emerged regarding Islam and modernity. Key issues are selected to give
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readers an understanding of the complexity of the phenomenon from a variety of disciplinary
perspectives. The various manifestations of modernity in Muslim life discussed include social r
change and the transformation of political and religious institutions, gender politics, changing n
legal regimes, devotional practices and forms of religious association, shifts in religious
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authority, and modern developments in Muslim religious thought.
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Key Features y
• Each chapter contains an overview of relevant secondary literature and concludes with a
summary of the key ideas presented and a set of questions
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• Contributing authors include some of the best-known academics from various disciplines
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in the field presenting state-of-the-art scholarship in their specialised areas rm and
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Muhammad Khalid Masudis Chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology in Islamabad. His do dit
recent publications include the edited volumes Travellers in Faith, Studies on Tablighi Jama’at S ed
(2000) and Leading Muslim Intellectuals of Eighteenth Century India(in Urdu, 2008). Armando alvat by M Modernity
Salvatoreis Associate Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the Oriental or u
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Studies University, Naples. Among his most recent books are The Public Sphere: Liberal a a
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Modernity, Catholicism, Islam(2007) and Public Islam and the Common Good(co-edited with d m
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Dale F. Eickelman, 2004). Martin van Bruinessenis Professor of the Comparative Study of a d
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(co-edited with Julia D. Howell, 2007). n B M
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ISBN 978 0 7486 3793 5 se
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Edinburgh University Press
22 George Square
Edinburgh
EH8 9LF E
www.euppublishing.com d Edited by Muhammad Khalid Masud,
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Jacket image: iStockphoto b
Jacket design: www.paulsmithdesign.com u Armando Salvatore and Martin van Bruinessen
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Islam and Modernity

Islam and Modernity
Key Issues and Debates
Edited by Muhammad Khalid Masud,
Armando Salvatore and Martin van Bruinessen
Edinburgh University Press
© in this edition Edinburgh University Press, 2009
© in the individual contributions is retained by the authors
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
www.euppublishing.com
Typeset in 11/13pt Monotype Baskerville by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and
printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 3792 8 (hardback)
ISBN 978 0 7486 3793 5 (paperback)
The right of the contributors to be identifi ed as authors of
this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Contents
Preface vi
Part 1. Conceptualising Modernity
1. Tradition and Modernity within Islamic Civilisation and
the West 3
Armando Salvatore
2. Western Scholars of Islam on the Issue of Modernity 36
Muhammad Khalid Masud and Armando Salvatore
Part 2. Negotiating Modernity
3. Political Modernity 57
Sami Zubaida
4. Islam, Modernity and the Politics of Gender 91
Deniz Kandiyoti
5. Sufi sm, ‘Popular’ Islam and the Encounter with Modernity 125
Martin van Bruinessen
6. Colonialism and Islamic Law 158
Ebrahim Moosa
Part 3. Debating Modernity
7. The Reform Project in the Emerging Public Spheres 185
Armando Salvatore
8. The Ulama and Contestations on Religious Authority 206
Muhammad Qasim Zaman
9. Islamic Modernism 237
Muhammad Khalid Masud
10. The Shifting Politics of Identity 261
Abdulkader Tayob
List of Contributors 285
Index 288
Preface
The idea of the present book emerged in 2002 when the editors began develop-
ing a postgraduate course on Islam and modernity at the International Institute
for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) in Leiden, The Netherlands.
Our aim was to engage with Western social thought as well as with the ideas
and visions of nineteenth- and twentieth-century thinkers in the Muslim world
concerning the political, socio-economic and cultural transformation of their
societies. We found that there was no single book we could use to introduce the
range of subjects that we thought essential for such a course. The scholarly litera-
ture on various aspects of Islam and modernity is rich and complex and rapidly
expanding, but there is a dearth of general works that offer an interdisciplinary
perspective and overview of the major questions and debates in this literature.
We convened a workshop at ISIM on ‘Islam and Modernity, Key Issues and
Debates’ in October 2004. The present book is an outcome of continued delib-
erations and revisions of the papers presented at the workshop.
The book aims to provide refl ections on major debates that have taken place
within and between the various scholarly disciplines that have addressed ques-
tions of modernity in connection with Islam and Muslim societies. The book is
organised in three parts. The fi rst part, ‘Conceptualising Modernity’, consists of
two chapters that introduce theoretical and general issues in modernity studies.
The four chapters in the second part, ‘Negotiating Modernity’, offer an analysis
of the processes of modernisation of Muslim societies, focusing on certain specifi c
aspects of their social and political dynamics. The four chapters in the third part,
‘Debating Modernity’, survey how Muslim scholars and intellectuals have per-
ceived and responded to issues of modernity. The contributors to the book are
drawn from among the best-known scholars in the fi eld, whose earlier work we
found most seminal and stimulating in our teaching.
The immediate background to the importance of producing such a textbook
is under everybody’s eyes. Dramatic events have focused public attention on the
potential tensions between the Muslim world and the modern West. Are such ten-
sions rooted in real differences or in distorted perceptions? Compared to the other
world religions, Islam appears either more resistant to internal development, with
less prospect of change or, in spite of all efforts at reform, inherently pre-modern.
Islam, it is frequently claimed, has experienced neither a major reformation, as
has Christianity, nor been touched by Enlightenment. Or, paradoxically, as some
observers would have it, Islam would no longer be Islam if truly reformed.
Preface vii
The new Islamist movements that emerged in the 1970s out of earlier reform
trends and forms of socio-political mobilization (most notably the organization
of the Muslim Brothers that saw the light in the late 1920s) appear to be prima-
rily directed against the modernising secular elites that have dominated most
Muslim societies during the fi rst decades of post-colonial independence. Some
observers (for example, Bruce Lawrence) have described these movements as a
‘revolt against modernity’. Other scholars, on the other hand (notably the British
philosopher John Gray, but also many others), have commented on the essential
modernity of these same movements
Muslim societies have been subjected to most of the structural changes that have
also impacted upon other societies in the world – such as massive urbanisation,
mass education, dramatically increased communication, the emergence of new
types of institutions and associations, erratic yet at times powerful waves of political
mobilisation and major transformations of the economy. These developments have
been accompanied by the emergence of a wide range of new social movements,
often matched by heated religious and ideological debates that were more complex
and varied than is commonly assumed in Western public discourse. The academic
literature on such topics is extensive and rapidly growing. One of the most conten-
tious issues being debated concerns the idea of the uniqueness and singularity of
Western modernity versus the notion of inherently multiple modernities unfold-
ing through a variety of trajectories. Yet both the literature and the debate are still
fragmented and inaccessible to a wider public. No consensus has emerged even
about the terms in which the debate should be carried on; the concept of modernity
remains ambiguous and risks becoming hostage to opposing paradigms.
Each of the chapters in this volume deals with some specifi c aspects of the
encounter of Muslim societies with modernity. Although each of the contributors
is inevitably more familiar with particular societies and regions than others, and
individual chapters may have a certain regional emphasis, the volume as a whole
does not privilege the Middle East or any other region but covers the entire
Muslim world. The chapters are thematically organised, and we have made an
effort to ensure that developments in all major regions are represented.
We wish to acknowledge ISIM’s fi nancial support for the initial workshop and
part of the editing process and thank especially Sanaa Makhlouf for her editorial
help. We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all our colleagues who
supported this project, especially David Waines for his invaluable cooperation
at the initial stages of this project. Lastly we wish to thank the students at ISIM,
whose participation in the course and discussions helped in the development of
this project.
Muhammad Khalid Masud
Armando Salvatore
Martin van Bruinessen

PART 1
Conceptualising Modernity