Are Muslims Distinctive?

Are Muslims Distinctive? PDF Author: M. Steven Fish
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199769206
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
How, if at all, do Muslims and non-Muslims differ? The question spurs spirited discussion among people the world over, in Muslim and non-Muslim lands alike, but we still lack answers based on sound empirical evidence. This book engages a set of the biggest issues using rigorous methods and data drawn from around the globe. It reveals that in some areas Muslims and non-Muslims differ less than is commonly imagined, and shows that Muslims are not unusually religious or inclined to favor the fusion of religious and political authority. Nor are Muslims especially prone to mass political violence. Yet in some areas Muslims and non-Muslims diverge: Gender inequality is more severe among Muslims, Muslims are unusually intolerant of homosexuality and other controversial behaviors, and democracy is rare in the Muslim world. Other areas of divergence bear the marks of a Muslim advantage: Violent crime and class-based inequities are less severe among Muslims than non-Muslims. Committed to discovering social facts rather than either stoking prejudices or stroking political sensibilities, Are Muslims Distinctive? represents the first major scientific effort to assess how Muslims and non-Muslims differ--and do not differ--in the contemporary world. Its findings have vital implications for human welfare, interfaith understanding, and the foreign policies of the United States and other Western countries.

Are Muslims Distinctive?

Are Muslims Distinctive? PDF Author: M. Steven Fish
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199769206
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 402

Get Book

Book Description
How, if at all, do Muslims and non-Muslims differ? The question spurs spirited discussion among people the world over, in Muslim and non-Muslim lands alike, but we still lack answers based on sound empirical evidence. This book engages a set of the biggest issues using rigorous methods and data drawn from around the globe. It reveals that in some areas Muslims and non-Muslims differ less than is commonly imagined, and shows that Muslims are not unusually religious or inclined to favor the fusion of religious and political authority. Nor are Muslims especially prone to mass political violence. Yet in some areas Muslims and non-Muslims diverge: Gender inequality is more severe among Muslims, Muslims are unusually intolerant of homosexuality and other controversial behaviors, and democracy is rare in the Muslim world. Other areas of divergence bear the marks of a Muslim advantage: Violent crime and class-based inequities are less severe among Muslims than non-Muslims. Committed to discovering social facts rather than either stoking prejudices or stroking political sensibilities, Are Muslims Distinctive? represents the first major scientific effort to assess how Muslims and non-Muslims differ--and do not differ--in the contemporary world. Its findings have vital implications for human welfare, interfaith understanding, and the foreign policies of the United States and other Western countries.

Are Muslims Distinctive?

Are Muslims Distinctive? PDF Author: Michael Steven Fish
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780190252502
Category : Islam
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
This study assesses how Muslims and non-Muslims differ - and do not differ - in the contemporary world. Using rigorous methods and data drawn from around the globe, the text reveals that in some areas Muslims and non-Muslims differ less than is commonly imagined. Muslims are not inclined to favour the fusion of religious and political authority nor are especially prone to mass political violence. Yet there are differences. These include gender inequality, democracy, homicide rates, and class-based inequities

Are Muslims Distinctive?

Are Muslims Distinctive? PDF Author: M. Steven Fish
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199773009
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Are Muslims Distinctive? represents the first major scientific effort to assess how Muslims and non-Muslims differ--and do not differ--in the contemporary world. Using rigorous methods and data drawn from around the globe, M. Steven Fish reveals that in some areas Muslims and non-Muslims differ less than is commonly imagined. Muslims are not inclined to favor the fusion of religious and political authority or especially prone to mass political violence. Yet there are differences: Gender inequality is more severe among Muslims, Muslims are unusually averse to homosexuality and other controversial behaviors, and democracy is rare in the Muslim world. Other areas of divergence bear the marks of a Muslim advantage: Homicide rates and class-based inequities are less severe among Muslims than non-Muslims. Fish's findings have vital implications for human welfare, interfaith understanding, and international relations.

Religion and State

Religion and State PDF Author: L. Carl. Brown
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231529376
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
If Westerners know a single Islamic term, it is likely to be jihad, the Arabic word for "holy war." The image of Islam as an inherently aggressive and xenophobic religion has long prevailed in the West and can at times appear to be substantiated by current events. L. Carl Brown challenges this conventional wisdom with a fascinating historical overview of the relationship between religious and political life in the Muslim world ranging from Islam's early centuries to the present day. Religion and State examines the commonplace notion—held by both radical Muslim ideologues and various Western observers alike—that in Islam there is no separation between religion and politics. By placing this assertion in a broad historical context, the book reveals both the continuities between premodern and modern Islamic political thought as well as the distinctive dimensions of modern Muslim experiences. Brown shows that both the modern-day fundamentalists and their critics have it wrong when they posit an eternally militant, unchanging Islam outside of history. "They are conflating theology and history. They are confusing the oughtand the is," he writes. As the historical record shows, mainstream Muslim political thought in premodern times tended toward political quietism. Brown maintains that we can better understand present-day politics among Muslims by accepting the reality of their historical diversity while at the same time seeking to identify what may be distinctive in Muslim thought and action. In order to illuminate the distinguishing characteristics of Islam in relation to politics, Brown compares this religion with its two Semitic sisters, Judaism and Christianity, drawing striking comparisons between Islam today and Christianity during the Reformation. With a wealth of evidence, he recreates a tradition of Islamic diversity every bit as rich as that of Judaism and Christianity.

Islam Is a Foreign Country

Islam Is a Foreign Country PDF Author: Zareena Grewal
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479800562
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
Considers the question: what does it mean to be Muslim and American? In Islam Is a Foreign Country, Zareena Grewal explores some of the most pressing debates about and among American Muslims: what does it mean to be Muslim and American? Who has the authority to speak for Islam and to lead the stunningly diverse population of American Muslims? Do their ties to the larger Muslim world undermine their efforts to make Islam an American religion? Offering rich insights into these questions and more, Grewal follows the journeys of American Muslim youth who travel in global, underground Islamic networks. Devoutly religious and often politically disaffected, these young men and women are in search of a home for themselves and their tradition. Through their stories, Grewal captures the multiple directions of the global flows of people, practices, and ideas that connect U.S. mosques to the Muslim world. By examining the tension between American Muslims’ ambivalence toward the American mainstream and their desire to enter it, Grewal puts contemporary debates about Islam in the context of a long history of American racial and religious exclusions. Probing the competing obligations of American Muslims to the nation and to the umma (the global community of Muslim believers), Islam is a Foreign Country investigates the meaning of American citizenship and the place of Islam in a global age.

iMuslims

iMuslims PDF Author: Gary R. Bunt
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 9780807887714
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
Exploring the increasing impact of the Internet on Muslims around the world, this book sheds new light on the nature of contemporary Islamic discourse, identity, and community. The Internet has profoundly shaped how both Muslims and non-Muslims perceive Islam and how Islamic societies and networks are evolving and shifting in the twenty-first century, says Gary Bunt. While Islamic society has deep historical patterns of global exchange, the Internet has transformed how many Muslims practice the duties and rituals of Islam. A place of religious instruction may exist solely in the virtual world, for example, or a community may gather only online. Drawing on more than a decade of online research, Bunt shows how social-networking sites, blogs, and other "cyber-Islamic environments" have exposed Muslims to new influences outside the traditional spheres of Islamic knowledge and authority. Furthermore, the Internet has dramatically influenced forms of Islamic activism and radicalization, including jihad-oriented campaigns by networks such as al-Qaeda. By surveying the broad spectrum of approaches used to present dimensions of Islamic social, spiritual, and political life on the Internet, iMuslims encourages diverse understandings of online Islam and of Islam generally.

Islamic Exceptionalism

Islamic Exceptionalism PDF Author: Shadi Hamid
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1466866721
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
In Islamic Exceptionalism, Brookings Institution scholar and acclaimed author Shadi Hamid offers a novel and provocative argument on how Islam is, in fact, "exceptional" in how it relates to politics, with profound implications for how we understand the future of the Middle East. Divides among citizens aren't just about power but are products of fundamental disagreements over the very nature and purpose of the modern nation state—and the vexing problem of religion’s role in public life. Hamid argues for a new understanding of how Islam and Islamism shape politics by examining different models of reckoning with the problem of religion and state, including the terrifying—and alarmingly successful—example of ISIS. With unprecedented access to Islamist activists and leaders across the region, Hamid offers a panoramic and ambitious interpretation of the region's descent into violence. Islamic Exceptionalism is a vital contribution to our understanding of Islam's past and present, and its outsized role in modern politics. We don't have to like it, but we have to understand it—because Islam, as a religion and as an idea, will continue to be a force that shapes not just the region, but the West as well in the decades to come.

What's Right with Islam

What's Right with Islam PDF Author: Feisal Abdul Rauf
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061755850
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
An American imam offers answers for today's toughest questions about Islam, and a vision for a reconciliation between Islam and the West. One of the pressing questions of our time is what went wrong in the relationship between Muslims and the West. Continuing global violence in the name of Islam reflects the deepest fears by certain Muslim factions of Western political, cultural, and economic encroachment. The solution to the current antagonism requires finding common ground upon which to build mutual respect and understanding. Who better to offer such an analysis than an American imam, someone with a foot in each world and the tools to examine the common roots of both Western and Muslim cultures; someone to explain to the non-Islamic West not just what went wrong with Islam, but what's right with Islam. Focused on finding solutions, not on determining fault, this is ultimately a hopeful, inspiring book. What's Right with Islam systematically lays out the reasons for the current dissonance between these cultures and offers a foundation and plan for improved relations. Wide-ranging in scope, What's Right with Islam elaborates in satisfying detail a vision for a Muslim world that can eventually embrace its own distinctive forms of democracy and capitalism, aspiring to a new Cordoba - a time when Jews, Christians, Muslims, and all other faith traditions will live together in peace and prosperity.

Malay Muslims

Malay Muslims PDF Author: Robert Day McAmis
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 9780802849458
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
McAmis also gives attention to the history of their relationship with Christians - a history that is key to understanding the current state of religious and social life in places like Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Since Muslims and Christians together comprise ninety-four percent of the Malay population, peaceful interaction and cooperation between mosque and church are crucial to realizing the economic and political goals of the entire region.".

Reel Bad Arabs

Reel Bad Arabs PDF Author: Jack G. Shaheen
Publisher: Interlink Publishing
ISBN: 1623710065
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 637

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Book Description
A groundbreaking book that dissects a slanderous history dating from cinema’s earliest days to contemporary Hollywood blockbusters that feature machine-gun wielding and bomb-blowing "evil" Arabs Award-winning film authority Jack G. Shaheen, noting that only Native Americans have been more relentlessly smeared on the silver screen, painstakingly makes his case that "Arab" has remained Hollywood’s shameless shorthand for "bad guy," long after the movie industry has shifted its portrayal of other minority groups. In this comprehensive study of over one thousand films, arranged alphabetically in such chapters as "Villains," "Sheikhs," "Cameos," and "Cliffhangers," Shaheen documents the tendency to portray Muslim Arabs as Public Enemy #1—brutal, heartless, uncivilized Others bent on terrorizing civilized Westerners. Shaheen examines how and why such a stereotype has grown and spread in the film industry and what may be done to change Hollywood’s defamation of Arabs.