In this updated paperback edition, Dale Eickelman and James Piscatori explore how the politics of Islam play out in the lives of Muslims throughout the world. They discuss how recent events such as September 11 and the 2003 war in Iraq have contributed to reshaping the political and religious landscape of Muslim-majority countries and Muslim communities elsewhere. As they examine the role of women in public life and Islamic perspectives on modernization and free speech, the authors probe the diversity of the contemporary Islamic experience, suggesting general trends and challenging popular Western notions of Islam as a monolithic movement. In so doing, they clarify concepts such as tradition, authority, ethnicity, pro-test, and symbolic space, notions that are crucial to an in-depth understanding of ongoing political events. This book poses questions about ideological politics in a variety of transnational and regional settings throughout the Muslim world. Europe and North America, for example, have become active Muslim centers, profoundly influencing trends in the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, and South and Southeast Asia. The authors examine the long-term cultural and political implications of this transnational shift as an emerging generation of Muslims, often the products of secular schooling, begin to reshape politics and society--sometimes in defiance of state authorities. Scholars, mothers, government leaders, and musicians are a few of the protagonists who, invoking shared Islamic symbols, try to reconfigure the boundaries of civic debate and public life. These symbolic politics explain why political actions are recognizably Muslim, and why "Islam" makes a difference in determining the politics of a broad swath of the world.

This book analyses and discusses the use of Islamic terms and symbols in the political party Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC). It is based on interviews with the leading members of the party and on analyses of the party’s official documents. It describes the history of Muslims in Sri Lanka, presents the analytical framework used, and discusses the official documents and narratives of party members, as well as the details of the Ashraff and Hakeem terms in Parliament. The book provides knowledge about the state of religion and politics in Sri Lanka, and provides insight into how a religious political Muslim party functions as a pragmatic rather than fundamentalist movement. Representing a recent study on the complex relationship between religion and politics, this book greatly advances our understanding of the power of religion and its effect on both individual lives and society.

There is a struggle for the hearts and minds of Muslims unfolding across the Islamic world. The conflict pits Muslims who support pluralism and democracy against others who insist such institutions are antithetical to Islam. With some 1.3 billion people worldwide professing Islam, the outcome of this contest is sure to be one of the defining political events of the twenty-first century. Bringing together twelve engaging essays by leading specialists focusing on individual countries, this pioneering book examines the social origins of civil-democratic Islam, its long-term prospects, its implications for the West, and its lessons for our understanding of religion and politics in modern times. Although depicted by its opponents as the product of political ideas "made in the West" civil-democratic Islam represents an indigenous politics that seeks to build a distinctive Islamic modernity. In countries like Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, and Indonesia, it has become a major political force. Elsewhere its influence is apparent in efforts to devise Islamic grounds for women's rights, religious tolerance, and democratic citizenship. Everywhere it has generated fierce resistance from religious conservatives. Examining this high-stakes clash, Remaking Muslim Politics breaks new ground in the comparative study of Islam and democracy. The contributors are Bahman Baktiari, Thomas Barfield, John R. Bowen, Dale F. Eickelman, Robert W. Hefner, Peter Mandaville, Augustus Richard Norton, Gwenn Okruhlik, Michael G. Peletz, Diane Singerman, Jenny B. White, and Muhammad Qasim Zaman.

This radical book argues that translocal forces are leading the emergence of a wider Muslim public sphere. It will be invaluable for researchers in international relations, Islamic studies, cultural studies, sociology, religion and politics.

Although there has emerged a huge interest in the Muslim communities in Britain since 9/11 and 7/7, few academic studies have focused on the political processes within Muslim communities and the impacts these have on civic engagement. This book examines the political biographies and religious identities of British Muslims of Pakistani descent.

This book studies the engagement of various Muslim communities with Bihar politics from colonial times to present-day India. It debunks several myths in highlighting Muslim resistance to the Two-Nation theory, and counters the ‘Isolation Syndrome’ faced by Muslim communities after Independence. Using rare archival sources and hitherto unexamined Urdu texts, this book offers a nuanced exploration of complex themes such as the struggle against Bengali hegemony, communalism, regionalism and alienation before Independence, recent language politics, the political assertion of low-caste Muslims in current Bihar, as well as their quest for social and gender justice. An important contribution to the study of South Asian Islam, this book will interest students and scholars of modern Indian history, politics, sociology, religion, gender, and minority studies.

Hamid Dalwai has been called a Muslim modernizer who relentlessly worked towards promoting reason and justice among Muslims. Historian Ram Guha writes, '[He] worked tirelessly to get Muslims to shed their social and religious prejudices. The pursuit of gender equality was of pre-eminent importance to him; and he waged a long battle against triple talaq.' Born in a lower-middle-class family in rural Maharashtra in 1932, Dalwai was a gifted writer who broke on to the Marathi literary scene as a highly promising writer. His novel Indhan is now recognized as a significant contribution to Marathi literature. Dalwai was attracted by the ideas of Ram Manohar Lohia and became an active member of the Socialist Party. Dalwai's writing displayed the same passion and forthrightness, eloquence and commitment, which informed all his actions as a social worker. Above all was his courage of conviction, which made him brave the various threats to his life and family. More than once was he physically assaulted. Dalwai's Muslim Politics in India is arguably the most perceptive analysis of Muslim politics to appear in post-Independence India. It retains the same freshness-and relevance-which it had when it was first published some three decades back. First published in 1968, an enlarged edition was later published under the title Muslim Politics in Secular India by Hind Pocket Books, Delhi, in 1972. This translation, the first of its kind, is a product of numerous meetings which Hamid Dalwai had with noted poet Dilip Chitre, during which the latter made extensive notes and rendered them into articles in English. It combines his most evocative and fiery essays, and emerges as a fine voice of reason relevant to our contemporary times.

Political liberalization and economic reform, the weakening of the state, and increased global interconnections have all had profound effects on Muslim societies and the practice of Islam in Africa. The contributors to this volume investigate and illuminate the changes that have occurred in Africa, through detailed case studies.

This book explains how religious politics, repressive institutions, and leaders' political strategies intersected in the US Global War on Terror.