Citizen Islam

Citizen Islam PDF Author: Zeyno Baran
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1441157867
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Book Description
Since September 11, Western governments have legitimized and empowered "nonviolent Islamists" as representatives of Islam for all Muslims in the West, an approach that has worried Muslim moderates. Citizen Islam addresses the implications of this approach. The book opens with an overview of the theology and history of Islam, to show that violence and intolerance are not fundamental aspects of the religion. It then explains the growth of Islamism in Europe and in the United States before suggesting that both are finally beginning to recognize the threat posed by nonviolent Islamists. Lastly, it outlines steps that Western and Muslims leaders can take to strengthen moderate Islam and counter the threat of Islamism. Written by Zeyno Baran, a Turkish-born Muslim, Citizen Islam sheds a sharp light on Muslim communities in the West. It concludes that there is much that Western governments can still do to reverse the spread of Islamism. But they must act quickly.

What Is an American Muslim?

What Is an American Muslim? PDF Author: Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199895694
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

Book Description
Abdullah An-na'im offers a pioneering exploration of American Muslim citizenship and identity, arguing against the prevalent emphasis on majority-minority politics and instead promoting a shared citizenship that both accommodates and transcends religious identity. Many scholars and community leaders have called on American Muslims to engage with or integrate into mainstream American culture. Such calls tend to assume that there is a distinctive, monolithic, minority religious identity for American Muslims. Rejecting the closed categories that determine the minority status of a particular group and that, in turn, impede active, engaged citizenship, An-na'im draws attention to the relational nature of identity, emphasizing a common base of national membership and advancing a legal approach to a public recognition of a person's status as citizen. Rather than perceive themselves or accept being perceived by others as a monolithic minority, he argues, American Muslims should view themselves as American citizens who happen to be Muslims. As American citizens, they share a vast array of identities with other American citizens, whether ethnic, political, or socio-economic. But none of these identities qualify or limit their citizenship. An-na'im urges members of the American Muslim community to take a proactive, affirmative view of their citizenship in order to realize their rights fully and fulfill their obligations in social and cultural as well as political and legal terms. He shows that the freedom to associate with others in order to engage in civic action to advance rights and interests is integral to the underlying rationale of citizenship and not something that must be relinquished to become an American citizen. What Is an American Muslim? provides acute insight into the nature of citizenship and identity, the place of religious affiliation in American society, and what it means to share in a collective identity.

Creating the Desired Citizen

Creating the Desired Citizen PDF Author: Ihsan Yilmaz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108832555
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351

Book Description
A comparative analysis of the nation-building projects in Turkey under both Ataturk and Erdogan, concentrating on the concept of the desired, undesired and tolerated citizen. This shows how resulting historical traumas, victimhood, insecurities, anxieties, and fears have had influenced both state and society throughout these different periods.

Muslims and Citizens

Muslims and Citizens PDF Author: Ian Coller
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300249535
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Book Description
A groundbreaking study of the role of Muslims in eighteenth‑century France “This elegant, braided history of Muslims and French citizenship is urgently needed. It will be a ‘must read’ for students of the French Revolution and anyone interested in modern France.”— Carla Hesse, University of California, Berkeley From the beginning, French revolutionaries imagined their transformation as a universal one that must include Muslims, Europe’s most immediate neighbors. They believed in a world in which Muslims could and would be French citizens, but they disagreed violently about how to implement their visions of universalism and accommodate religious and social difference. Muslims, too, saw an opportunity, particularly as European powers turned against the new French Republic, leaving the Muslim polities of the Middle East and North Africa as France’s only friends in the region. In Muslims and Citizens, Coller examines how Muslims came to participate in the political struggles of the revolution and how revolutionaries used Muslims in France and beyond as a test case for their ideals. In his final chapter, Coller reveals how the French Revolution’s fascination with the Muslim world paved the way to Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Egypt in 1798.

Citizen Islam

Citizen Islam PDF Author: Zeyno Baran
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1441130500
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Book Description
Since September 11, Western governments have legitimized and empowered "nonviolent Islamists" as representatives of Islam for all Muslims in the West, an approach that has worried Muslim moderates. Citizen Islam addresses the implications of this approach. The book opens with an overview of the theology and history of Islam, to show that violence and intolerance are not fundamental aspects of the religion. It then explains the growth of Islamism in Europe and in the United States before suggesting that both are finally beginning to recognize the threat posed by nonviolent Islamists. Lastly, it outlines steps that Western and Muslims leaders can take to strengthen moderate Islam and counter the threat of Islamism. Written by Zeyno Baran, a Turkish-born Muslim, Citizen Islam sheds a sharp light on Muslim communities in the West. It concludes that there is much that Western governments can still do to reverse the spread of Islamism. But they must act quickly.

Creating the Desired Citizen

Creating the Desired Citizen PDF Author: Ihsan Yilmaz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108963161
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 351

Book Description
A comparative analysis of the nation-building projects in Turkey under both Ataturk and Erdogan, concentrating on the concept of the desired, undesired and tolerated citizen. This shows how resulting historical traumas, victimhood, insecurities, anxieties, and fears have had influenced both state and society throughout these different periods.

Muslim Citizens of the Globalized World

Muslim Citizens of the Globalized World PDF Author: Robert Hunt
Publisher: Tughra Books
ISBN: 1597846147
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 198

Book Description
Exploring the response and contributions of Muslims and Turkish Muslims to globalization?including areas such as democratization, scientific revolution, changing gender roles, and religious diversity?this study identifies the common values and visions of peace Muslims share. This study places specific analysis on the Glen movement?a growing approach to the reunification of faith and reason with hopes for a peaceful coexistence between liberal democracies and the religiously diverse.

Islam and Liberal Citizenship

Islam and Liberal Citizenship PDF Author: Andrew F. March
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199838585
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 361

Book Description
Some argue that Muslims have no tradition of separation of church and state and therefore can't participate in secular, pluralist society. At the other extreme, some Muslims argue that it is the duty of all believers to resist western forms of government and to impose Islamic law. Andrew F. March demonstrates that there are very strong and authentically Islamic arguments for accepting the demands of citizenship in a liberal democracy, many of them found even in medieval works of Islamic jurisprudence. In fact, he shows, it is precisely the fact that Rawlsian political liberalism makes no claim.

Indonesian Pluralities

Indonesian Pluralities PDF Author: Robert W. Hefner
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268108633
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Book Description
The crisis of multiculturalism in the West and the failure of the Arab uprisings in the Middle East have pushed the question of how to live peacefully within a diverse society to the forefront of global discussion. Against this backdrop, Indonesia has taken on a particular importance: with a population of 265 million people (87.7 percent of whom are Muslim), Indonesia is both the largest Muslim-majority country in the world and the third-largest democracy. In light of its return to electoral democracy from the authoritarianism of the former New Order regime, some analysts have argued that Indonesia offers clear proof of the compatibility of Islam and democracy. Skeptics argue, however, that the growing religious intolerance that has marred the country’s political transition discredits any claim of the country to democratic exemplarity. Based on a twenty-month project carried out in several regions of Indonesia, Indonesian Pluralities: Islam, Citizenship, and Democracy shows that, in assessing the quality and dynamics of democracy and citizenship in Indonesia today, we must examine not only elections and official politics, but also the less formal, yet more pervasive, processes of social recognition at work in this deeply plural society. The contributors demonstrate that, in fact, citizen ethics are not static discourses but living traditions that co-evolve in relation to broader patterns of politics, gender, religious resurgence, and ethnicity in society. Indonesian Pluralities offers important insights on the state of Indonesian politics and society more than twenty years after its return to democracy. It will appeal to political scholars, public analysts, and those interested in Islam, Southeast Asia, citizenship, and peace and conflict studies around the world. Contributors: Robert W. Hefner, Erica M. Larson, Kelli Swazey, Mohammad Iqbal Ahnaf, Marthen Tahun, Alimatul Qibtiyah, and Zainal Abidin Bagir

Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an

Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an PDF Author: Denise Spellberg
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307388395
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Book Description
In this original and illuminating book, Denise A. Spellberg reveals a little-known but crucial dimension of the story of American religious freedom—a drama in which Islam played a surprising role. In 1765, eleven years before composing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson bought a Qur’an. This marked only the beginning of his lifelong interest in Islam, and he would go on to acquire numerous books on Middle Eastern languages, history, and travel, taking extensive notes on Islam as it relates to English common law. Jefferson sought to understand Islam notwithstanding his personal disdain for the faith, a sentiment prevalent among his Protestant contemporaries in England and America. But unlike most of them, by 1776 Jefferson could imagine Muslims as future citizens of his new country. Based on groundbreaking research, Spellberg compellingly recounts how a handful of the Founders, Jefferson foremost among them, drew upon Enlightenment ideas about the toleration of Muslims (then deemed the ultimate outsiders in Western society) to fashion out of what had been a purely speculative debate a practical foundation for governance in America. In this way, Muslims, who were not even known to exist in the colonies, became the imaginary outer limit for an unprecedented, uniquely American religious pluralism that would also encompass the actual despised minorities of Jews and Catholics. The rancorous public dispute concerning the inclusion of Muslims, for which principle Jefferson’s political foes would vilify him to the end of his life, thus became decisive in the Founders’ ultimate judgment not to establish a Protestant nation, as they might well have done. As popular suspicions about Islam persist and the numbers of American Muslim citizenry grow into the millions, Spellberg’s revelatory understanding of this radical notion of the Founders is more urgent than ever. Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an is a timely look at the ideals that existed at our country’s creation, and their fundamental implications for our present and future.