New Directions in Islamic Thought: Exploring Reform and Muslim Tradition PDF
Preview New Directions in Islamic Thought: Exploring Reform and Muslim Tradition
New Directions in IslamicThought nneeww ddiirreeccttiioonnss iinn iissllaammiicc tthhoouugghhtt..iinndddd ii 1155//1100//22000088 0011::2288::5544 nneeww ddiirreeccttiioonnss iinn iissllaammiicc tthhoouugghhtt..iinndddd iiii 1155//1100//22000088 0011::2299::0055 New Directions in IslamicThought Exploring Reform and MuslimTradition Edited by Kari Vogt, Lena Larsen and Christian Moe nneeww ddiirreeccttiioonnss iinn iissllaammiicc tthhoouugghhtt..iinndddd iiiiii 1155//1100//22000088 0011::2299::0055 Publishedin2009byI.B.Tauris&CoLtd 6SalemRoad,LondonW24BU 175Fi(cid:127)hAvenue,NewYorkNY10010 www.ibtauris.com IntheUnitedStatesandCanadadistributedbyPalgraveMacmillan,adivisionofSt.Martin(cid:146)sPress, 175Fi(cid:127)hAvenue,NewYorkNY10010 Copyright'KariVogt,LenaLarsen,ChristianMoe,2009 (cid:129)erightofKariVogt,LenaLarsenandChristianMoetobeidenti(cid:141)edastheeditorsofthisworkhas beenassertedbytheminaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview,thisbook,oranypartthereof,maynot bereproduced,storedinorintroducedintoaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorby anymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise,withoutthepriorwritten permissionofthepublisher. ISBN9781845117399 AfullCIPrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary AfullCIPrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress LibraryofCongresscatalogcard:available TypesetinMinionbyStilmanDavis PrintedandboundinGreatBritainbyTJInternationalLtd,Padstow,Cornwall nneeww ddiirreeccttiioonnss iinn iissllaammiicc tthhoouugghhtt..iinndddd iivv 1155//1100//22000088 0011::2299::0055 Contents Credits vii Anoteontransliteration viii Introduction KariVogt,LenaLarsenandChristianMoe 1 Part One:The Changeable and the Unchangeable 7 1 The changeable and the unchangeable AbdolkarimSoroush 9 2 “Hold(ing)fastbythebestintheprecepts” –The Qur an and method AsmaBarlas 17 3 Law and ethics in Islam –The role of the maq!"id MohammadHashimKamali 23 4 Human rights and intellectual Islam MohsenKadivar 47 nneeww ddiirreeccttiioonnss iinn iissllaammiicc tthhoouugghhtt..iinndddd vv 1155//1100//22000088 0011::2299::0055 vi PartTwo: The Challenge of Equality 75 5 Classical (cid:127)qh,contemporary ethics and gender justice ZibaMir-Hosseini 77 6 Timeless texts and modern morals – Challenges in Islamic sexual ethics KeciaAli 89 7 Gender equality and Islamic law –The case of Morocco A(cid:239)chaElHajjami 101 8 Historical and political dynamics of the“women and Islam” issue –TheTurkish case Nazife!i"man 113 PartThree: Authority and Islamic Normativity 127 9 Islamic authority KhaledAbouElFadl 129 10 A theory of Islam,state and society AbdullahiA.An-Na#im 145 11 A call for a moratorium on corporal punishment –The debate in review TariqRamadan 163 12 Negotiating gender rights under religious law in Malaysia ZainahAnwar 175 13 The changing concepts of caliphate – Social construction of Shari#a and the question of ethics MuhammadKhalidMasud 187 Part Four: Dialogue on New Directions 207 14 Can the State enforce Shari(cid:145)a? –A discussion inYogyakarta KariVogt,LenaLarsenandChristianMoe 209 Contributors 221 Notes 227 Index 257 nneeww ddiirreeccttiioonnss iinn iissllaammiicc tthhoouugghhtt..iinndddd vvii 1155//1100//22000088 0011::2299::0055 vii Credits An earlier version of Zainah Anwar(cid:146)s chapter appeared under the title (cid:147)Law- Making in the Name of Islam: Implications for Democratic Governance(cid:148) in K.S. Nathan and Mohammad Hashim Kamali (eds), Islam in Southeast Asia: Political, SocialandStrategicChallengesforthe21stCentury(Singapore:InstituteofSouth- eastAsianStudies,2006),pp.121(cid:150)34.!eupdatedandrevisedversionispublished here with the kind permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singa- pore(http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg). KhaledAbouElFadl(cid:146)schapterisadaptedfrompartsofhisbookSpeakinginGod’s Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women (Oxford: Oneworld, 2001), ' Khaled AbouElFadl2001. nneeww ddiirreeccttiioonnss iinn iissllaammiicc tthhoouugghhtt..iinndddd vviiii 1155//1100//22000088 0011::2299::0055 viii A note on transliteration Transliteration of Arabic words in this book follows the example of the Interna- tionalJournalofMiddleEastStudies.Wedistinguishbetweentechnicalterms,on the one hand, and names and titles, on the other. Only italicised technical terms arefullytransliterated,withdiacriticsindicatinglongvowels(!,",#)andemphatic consonants($,%,&,’,().Names,booktitlesandsimilararecapitalised;diacritics are not used, but )ayn and hamza are marked. (In the latter category fall words suchasQur!an,Shi"i,SunniandShari"a.)#et!*marb#’aandinitialhamzaarenot transliteratedand!isusedbothwithalifandalifmaq&#ra. nneeww ddiirreeccttiioonnss iinn iissllaammiicc tthhoouugghhtt..iinndddd vviiiiii 1155//1100//22000088 0011::2299::0055 Introduction Kari Vogt, Lena Larsen and Christian Moe A ll over the world, Muslims experience tensions between their roles as citizens and their religious a!liation and identity. Urged to respond to contemporary challenges, they o"en lack the requisite grounding in the Islamicsciencestocriticisethetraditionwithcon#dence. $is book is concerned with the internal, constructive critiques that seek to addressthisgapbyreformulatingIslamicnotionsinawayconsistentwithmodern understandingsofequality,justiceandpluralism.$eyareraisedbyMuslimswith areligiouscommitment,whotakeseriouslyboththetraditiontheyseektoreform andthemodernhumanrightsethic,andwhoseektodevelopcoherentandprin- cipledjusti#cationsforreform.$esearchingquestionstheyaskofbothtradition and modernity, and the o"en subtle and complex answers they give, do not lend themselvestotheeasya!rmationofthesuperiorityofacollectiveidentity. Inthis,theircriticismofthetraditionalunderstandingofIslamicnormsdi%ers frommuchofthecriticismofIslamthatiswidespreadbothintheMuslimworld and in the West. Western media and policy circles currently give much attention to critics from a Muslim cultural background who make their o"en sweeping demandsforreligiousreformfromasecularmodernistpositionratherthanfrom nneeww ddiirreeccttiioonnss iinn iissllaammiicc tthhoouugghhtt..iinndddd bbooddyy11 1155//1100//22000088 0011::2299::0055 2 New Directions in IslamicThought afaithcommitment.OnthepublicsceneoftheMuslimworld,ontheotherhand, thosewhogainprominenceasvoicesofreformareo(cid:127)enapologistswhorea(cid:129)rm restrictivereligiousnormsinmoderntermsofrightsandfreedomswithoutcaring what those terms entail. (cid:141)e religious reformist thinkers in this book take more complexpositionsandarethereforeexposedtoattacksfrombothsides. (cid:141)ere are many Muslim experts who are already committed to responding to the challenges of pluralist societies, but they are o(cid:127)en isolated, lacking access to the main institutions reproducing and disseminating Islamic knowledge, or even the modest resources needed to meet among themselves and publish their (cid:143)nd- ings.AsMehranKamravahasnoted,notonlydotheylackinstitutionalsupport, but they are actively resisted, by at least three di(cid:144)erent forces: 1) religious estab- lishments guarding the orthodoxies on which their own legitimacy rests, 2) state authorities hostile to any talk of democratic freedoms and 3) anti-Islamic voices gaining strength in the West.1 (cid:141)e current international climate, especially since thetragedyof11September2001,hasonlyexacerbatedtheseproblems. (cid:141)e increasingly strident calls for Islamic reform, then, are not matched by a willingness to listen attentively to reformist voices. As they touch upon sensitive issues, however, the opportunities for them to debate, publish and disseminate ideas are o(cid:127)en limited. (cid:141)e longer the growth of these ideas is stunted, the less reformistswillbeabletomakeuseoffutureopportunitiesthatmayopenupwhen thepoliticalclimateshi(cid:127)s. (cid:127)e New Directions project (cid:141)e project (cid:147)New Directions in Islamic (cid:141)ought and Practice(cid:148) o(cid:144)ered Muslim reform thinkers a forum where they could present and discuss their ideas and develop strategies for further action, according to their own agenda, in a broad intra-religiousdialogueacrosstraditionsanddisciplines.ItwasbackedbytheOslo CoalitiononFreedomofReligionorBelief,acoalitionofexpertsandrepresenta- tivesfromreligiousandotherlife-stancecommunities,academia,NGOs,interna- tionalorganisationsandcivilsociety.BasedattheUniversityofOsloandfunded bytheNorwegiangovernment,theOsloCoalitioncarriesoutanumberofprojects topromotefreedomofreligionorbeliefworldwide.2 (cid:141)eprojectbroughttogethersomeoftheleadingvoicesofIslamicreformism insomeofthemostpluralisticanddynamicinstitutionsofIslamicthoughtduring threeinternationalworkshopsinYogyakarta,Indonesia(2004);Sarajevo,Bosnia- Herzegovina(2005);andIstanbul,Turkey(2007).Itprovedpossibletohavefree, frank and friendly exchanges of views. We are grateful to the people and insti- tutions who were our hosts and partners in this enterprise: Dr Amin Abdullah, nneeww ddiirreeccttiioonnss iinn iissllaammiicc tthhoouugghhtt..iinndddd bbooddyy22 1155//1100//22000088 0011::2299::0055
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