An Iranian scholar and political scientist examines the role of religion in Iranian culture and politics through the twentieth century and beyond. Islamism and Modernism captures the metamorphosis of the Islamic movement in Iran leading up to the Islamic Revolution of 1979, as well as its changing influence in the country today. Its analysis ranges from encounters with Great Britain and the United States in the 1920s to today’s struggles between reformers and hardliners. Capturing the views of four generations of Muslim activists, Farhang Rajaee describes how the extremism of the 1960s gave confidence to Islam-minded Iranians and radicalized the Muslim world. Presenting thought-provoking discussions of religious thinkers such as Ha’eri, Burujerdi, Bazargan, and Shari‘ati, along with contemporaries such as Kadivar, Soroush, and Shabestari, Rajaee sheds light on contemporary Islamic thinking in Iran. A comprehensive study of politics, religion, society, and identity, Islamism and Modernism offers crucial new insight into the aftermath of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution—and its ramifications— for the newest generation of Iranians to face the crossroads of modernity and Islamic discourse.

"These essays by Charles Adams, a sympathetic American academic, examine Islamic reformism in Egypt through the work of 'Abduh (1849-1905), revealing the influences that moulded his thought and tracing his transformation from someone who was "buried in mystic visions" to a leading champion of Islamic reform. This work serves as an intellectual biography of a man whose thought and legacy had a profound impact on subsequent Islamic thought and political movements, even those who ostensibly reject much of what he stood for." -- BOOK JACKET.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

With resurgent interest in the Muslim world and in particular political Islam, this collection of translated essays by major Muslim thinkers from the Middle East and South Asia demonstrates the ongoing and contentious debate between modernizers seeking to adapt Western ways and fundamentalists who rejected them. From Jamal al-Din al-Afghani in the nineteenth-century to Ayatollah Khomeini in the twentieth, the selections provide an opportunity to examine a diversity of Muslim thinkers thoughts on important topics like jurisprudence, politics, relations with the west, and women in their own words.

A major intellectual current in the Muslim world during the 19th and 20th centuries, proponents of modernist Islam typically believed that it was imperative to show how "modern" values and institutions could be reconciled with authentically Islamic ideals. This text collects their writings.

Haroro J. Ingram journeys through over a century of history, from the Islamist modernists of the late-1800s into the 21st century, in the first full length examination of the charismatic leadership phenomenon in Islamist radicalism and militancy. Exhaustively researched and founded upon a suite of innovative multidisciplinary paradigms, this book features case studies of Hassan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Abdullah Azzam, Osama Bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki. At a micro-level, Ingram argues that charismatic leaders act as vehicles for the evolution of modern Islamist radicalism and militancy. At a macro-level, he argues that the transformative charisma phenomenon in Islamist radicalism and militancy produces complex chains of charismatic leaders as individual figures rise by leveraging, to varying degrees, the charismatic capital of preceding charismatic leaders. Within these case studies, Ingram offers new approaches to understanding the nuances of these complex phenomena; from his ideal-types of charismatic leadership in Islamist militancy (spiritual guides, charismatic leaders and neo-charismatic leaders) to his framing of al-Qaeda as a ’charismatic adhocracy’. The result is an authoritative analysis of a phenomenon largely ignored by scholars of both charismatic leadership and Islamism. Ultimately, this ground-breaking investigation offers important insights into the complex nuances that drive the rise and evolution of not only Islamist militancy but radical and militant groups more broadly.

In this compelling book, Rafik Abdessalem unpacks two major lines of thought. Firstly, he examines why many Westerners dismiss Islam’s vast intellectual, social, theological and cultural heritage as flawed, violent, rigid and fanatical, despite knowing virtually nothing about it. He usefully traces the genesis of this attitude, focusing on how scholars such as Weber, Habermas and others have helped to consolidate the West’s view of itself as civilised, superior, developed and progressive, and how the demonisation of Islam acts as a necessary foil for these notions. Secondly, he explains that Islam is subject to a variety of interpretive choices and schools of thought ranging from legalistic fundamentalism, through rigid rationalism, to spiritual Sufism. By treating Islam, secularity and modernity as distinct and separate, rather than as interconnected and overlapping, Abdessalem makes no attempt to reconcile Islam with modernity or secularity, nor does he place one in opposition to the other. Instead, he looks at the interconnections between these broad and complex subjects. Abdessalem’s analysis is useful in encouraging us to rethink both modernity and Islam, and their relationship with each other. In this rethinking lies the potential for a better understanding of the geopolitics of what is often called ‘the Muslim world’, including the MENA region.

This book starts with the prevailing idea of a conflicting relationship between Islam and the Western concept of democracy, both in theory and in practice. With this backdrop, the author addresses the crucial question—Is Islam compatible with democracy? The book offers very useful discussions in framing the contemporary debates surrounding Islam and democracy, treads through diverse theoretical Islamic texts like the ‘Quran’ and ‘Sunnah’, discusses the historical evolution of the concept of Shura—the primary source of democratic ethics in Islam, provides an assessment of the views and visions of some selected Muslim scholars (from 19th to 21st centuries) on Islam–democracy compatibility, and examines the elements of compatibility between Islam and democracy without ignoring the basic differences that exist between the Western approach to democracy and Islamic political thought.

Islamism has emerged as one of the most significant political ideologies of the 21st century. This book offers a rigorous and balanced analysis of how and why Islamism has risen to the fore and what accounts for the often vastly different political agendas, tactical choices and strategic objectives of individual Islamist groups.

Murden (strategic studies and international affairs, Britannia Royal Naval College) examines how the "remorseless march of the globalized Western hegemony" is changing Muslim politics and culture and how Muslim peoples are reacting to it. After critically examining the West's cultural discourse about Islam, he discusses the way that U.S. projects military power in the Middle East and looks at varying responses by Muslim states and Islamic activists. Islamic engagement with the global economic order is also explored. The tensions between Islamists and authoritarian secular states is examined with special attention paid to the democratization attempts taking place in Iran. Finally, the possibilities for the Islamic countries to push counterhegemonic plans is negatively evaluated. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR