Full Description
The study of Islam and Muslims in Europe and North America has expanded greatly in recent decades, becoming a passionately debated and divided field. This collection critically assesses the development of the field of Islamic Studies and its place in society. Featuring contributions from anthropologists, historians and scholars of religion, each chapter contains new empirical material and discusses approaches to the study of Islam, past and present. The book situates Islamic Studies within broader discussions of the construction of identity and its political implications in Europe and North America. Authors also address tensions between normative and non-normative approaches to the study of Islam and Muslims and consider how these might be reconciled.
Contents
IntroductionLeif Stenberg and Philip Wood
There is No Data for Islam: Testing the Utility of a CategoryAaron Hughes
Critics as Caretakers, Religion as CritiqueCarool Kersten
Talal Asad and the Question of Islamic SecularitiesHadi Enayat
Territory at Stake! In Defence of 'Religion' and 'Islam'Susanne Olsson and Leif Stenberg
Power Practices and Pop: The Islam of Zain BhikhaJonas Otterbeck
History and Contemporary Discourses on Islam, the Quran and Modern ScienceLeif Stenberg
Paradigms of Religion and the Swift Birth of Islam: William Cantwell Smith RevisitedPhilip Wood
Prospects for a New Idiom for Islamic HistoryShahzad Bashir
Constructing Islamic Studies: Gender, Power and Critique as Ethical ToolsJuliane Hammer
