Summary
Contents
Subject index
Islam is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the West. Myths and stereotypes surround it. This clear and penetrating volume helps readers to make sense of Islam. It offers a penetrating guide to the diversity and richness of contemporary knowledge about Islam and Muslim society. Throughout, the emphasis is upon the value of pluralistic approaches to Islam, rather than condensing complexity with unifying concepts such as `Orientalism'. Interdisciplinary in scope and organization, the book cuts through the bewildering and seemingly anarchic diversity of contemporary knowledge about Islam and Muslim society. The methodological difficulties and advantages of Western researchers focusing on Islam are fully documented. The book demonstrates how gender, age, status and `insider' / `outsider' status impacts upon research and inflects research findings.
Researching the Radical: The Quest for a New Perspective
Researching the Radical: The Quest for a New Perspective
The focus on radicalism and the equation of Islam with an extremism that threatens to confront the West has become commonplace. Too often we are exposed in the media and the literature to a sensationalised, monolithic approach which reinforces facile generalisations and stereotypes rather than challenging our understanding of the ‘who’ and the ‘why’ of history, the specific causes or reasons behind the headlines. (Esposito 1992: 173)
This chapter, on researching and writing on radical Islam, will focus on a number of debates that currently characterize the discipline of politics and Islamic studies in general. At the heart of these debates is a central question that asks of us: ...
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