Books Critical Of Islam

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Blaming Islam

Author : John R. Bowen
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262301105
Total Pages : 138 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (623 download)

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Book Synopsis Blaming Islam by : John R. Bowen

Download or read book Blaming Islam written by John R. Bowen and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-03-02 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why fears about Muslim integration into Western society—propagated opportunistically by some on the right—misread history and misunderstand multiculturalism. In the United States and in Europe, politicians, activists, and even some scholars argue that Islam is incompatible with Western values and that we put ourselves at risk if we believe that Muslim immigrants can integrate into our society. Norway's Anders Behring Breivik took this argument to its extreme and murderous conclusion in July 2011. Meanwhile in the United States, state legislatures' efforts to ban the practice of Islamic law, or sharia, are gathering steam—despite a notable lack of evidence that sharia poses any real threat. In Blaming Islam, John Bowen uncovers the myths about Islam and Muslim integration into Western society, with a focus on the histories, policy, and rhetoric associated with Muslim immigration in Europe, the British experiment with sharia law for Muslim domestic disputes, and the claims of European and American writers that Islam threatens the West. Most important, he shows how exaggerated fears about Muslims misread history, misunderstand multiculturalism's aims, and reveal the opportunism of right wing parties who draw populist support by blaming Islam.

Religion as Critique

Author : Irfan Ahmad
Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 1469635100
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (696 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion as Critique by : Irfan Ahmad

Download or read book Religion as Critique written by Irfan Ahmad and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2017-11-20 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Irfan Ahmad makes the far-reaching argument that potent systems and modes for self-critique as well as critique of others are inherent in Islam--indeed, critique is integral to its fundamental tenets and practices. Challenging common views of Islam as hostile to critical thinking, Ahmad delineates thriving traditions of critique in Islamic culture, focusing in large part on South Asian traditions. Ahmad interrogates Greek and Enlightenment notions of reason and critique, and he notes how they are invoked in relation to "others," including Muslims. Drafting an alternative genealogy of critique in Islam, Ahmad reads religious teachings and texts, drawing on sources in Hindi, Urdu, Farsi, and English, and demonstrates how they serve as expressions of critique. Throughout, he depicts Islam as an agent, not an object, of critique. On a broader level, Ahmad expands the idea of critique itself. Drawing on his fieldwork among marketplace hawkers in Delhi and Aligarh, he construes critique anthropologically as a sociocultural activity in the everyday lives of ordinary Muslims, beyond the world of intellectuals. Religion as Critique allows space for new theoretical considerations of modernity and change, taking on such salient issues as nationhood, women's equality, the state, culture, democracy, and secularism.

Islām and the People of the Book Volumes 1-3

Author : John Andrew Morrow
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1527509672
Total Pages : 1782 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (275 download)

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Book Synopsis Islām and the People of the Book Volumes 1-3 by : John Andrew Morrow

Download or read book Islām and the People of the Book Volumes 1-3 written by John Andrew Morrow and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2018-04-18 with total page 1782 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Islam and the People of the Book features three dozen scholarly studies on the treaties that the Prophet Muhammad concluded with Jewish, Samaritan, Christian, and Zoroastrian communities, along with translations of Six Covenants of the Prophet in over a dozen languages. The combined effort of over forty-five academics, intellectuals, and translators from around the world, this work powerfully confirms the conclusions drawn by Dr John Andrew Morrow in his critically-acclaimed book on The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World, offers unprecedented insight into the original intent of the Messenger of God, and sheds light on the pluralistic nature of the constitutional state that he created.

Why I Am Not a Muslim

Author : Ibn Warraq
Publisher : Prometheus Books
ISBN 13 : 1615920293
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (159 download)

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Book Synopsis Why I Am Not a Muslim by : Ibn Warraq

Download or read book Why I Am Not a Muslim written by Ibn Warraq and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2010-09-30 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Those who practice the Muslim faith have resisted examinations of their religion. They are extremely guarded about their religion, and what they consider blasphemous acts by skeptical Muslims and non-Muslims alike has only served to pique the world's curiosity. This critical examination reveals an unflattering picture of the faith and its practitioners. Nevertheless, it is the truth, something that has either been deliberately concealed by modern scholars or buried in obscure journals accessible only to a select few.

The Trouble with Islam

Author : Irshad Manji
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 9780312326999
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (269 download)

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Book Synopsis The Trouble with Islam by : Irshad Manji

Download or read book The Trouble with Islam written by Irshad Manji and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2004-01-16 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I have to be honest with you. Islam is on very thin ice with me....Through our screaming self-pity and our conspicuous silences, we Muslims are conspiring against ourselves. We're in crisis and we're dragging the rest of the world with us. If ever there was a moment for an Islamic reformation, it's now. For the love of God, what are we doing about it?" In blunt, provocative, and deeply personal terms, Irshad Manji unearths the troubling cornerstones of mainstream Islam today: tribal insularity, deep-seated anti-Semitism, and an uncritical acceptance of the Koran as the final, and therefore superior, manifesto of God. In this open letter to Muslims and non-Muslims alike, Manji asks arresting questions. "Who is the real colonizer of Muslims - America or Arabia? Why are we all being held hostage by what's happening between the Palestinians and the Israelis? Why are we squandering the talents of women, fully half of God's creation? What's our excuse for reading the Koran literally when it's so contradictory and ambiguous? Is that a heart attack you're having? Make it fast. Because if more of us don't speak out against the imperialists within Islam, these guys will walk away with the show." Manji offers a practical vision of how the United States and its allies can help Muslims undertake a reformation that empowers women, promotes respect for religious minorities, and fosters a competition of ideas. Her vision revives Islam's lost tradition of independent thinking. This book will inspire struggling Muslims worldwide to revisit the foundations of their faith. It will also compel non-Muslims to start posing the important questions without fear of being deemed "racists." In more ways than one, The Trouble with Islam is a clarion call for a fatwa-free future.

Early Islam

Author : Karl-Heinz Ohlig
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 161614825X
Total Pages : 650 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (161 download)

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Book Synopsis Early Islam by : Karl-Heinz Ohlig

Download or read book Early Islam written by Karl-Heinz Ohlig and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This successor volume to The Hidden Origins of Islam (edited by Karl-Heinz Ohlig and Gerd-R. Puin) continues the pioneering research begun in the first volume into the earliest development of Islam. Using coins, commemorative building inscriptions, and a rigorous linguistic analysis of the Koran along with Persian and Christian literature from the seventh and eighth centuries--when Islam was in its formative stages--five expert contributors attempt a reconstruction of this critical time period. Despite the scholarly nature of their work, the implications of their discoveries are startling: -Islam originally emerged as a sect of Christianity. -Its central theological tenets were influenced by a pre-Nicean, Syrian Christianity. -Aramaic, the common language throughout the Near East for many centuries and the language of Syrian Christianity, significantly influenced the Arabic script and vocabulary used in the Koran. -Finally, it was not until the end of the eighth and ninth centuries that Islam formed as a separate religion, and the Koran underwent a period of historical development of at least 200 years.Controversial and highly intriguing, this critical historical analysis reveals the beginning of Islam in a completely new light.

The Atheist Muslim

Author : Ali A. Rizvi
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1250094445
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis The Atheist Muslim by : Ali A. Rizvi

Download or read book The Atheist Muslim written by Ali A. Rizvi and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-11-22 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In much of the Muslim world, religion is the central foundation upon which family, community, morality, and identity are built. The inextricable embedment of religion in Muslim culture has forced a new generation of non-believing Muslims to face the heavy costs of abandoning their parents’ religion: disowned by their families, marginalized from their communities, imprisoned, or even sentenced to death by their governments. Struggling to reconcile the Muslim society he was living in as a scientist and physician and the religion he was being raised in, Ali A. Rizvi eventually loses his faith. Discovering that he is not alone, he moves to North America and promises to use his new freedom of speech to represent the voices that are usually quashed before reaching the mainstream media—the Atheist Muslim. In The Atheist Muslim, we follow Rizvi as he finds himself caught between two narrative voices he cannot relate to: extreme Islam and anti-Muslim bigotry in a post-9/11 world. The Atheist Muslim recounts the journey that allows Rizvi to criticize Islam—as one should be able to criticize any set of ideas—without demonizing his entire people. Emotionally and intellectually compelling, his personal story outlines the challenges of modern Islam and the factors that could help lead it toward a substantive, progressive reformation.

Letters to a Young Muslim

Author : Omar Saif Ghobash
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 1250119839
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (51 download)

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Book Synopsis Letters to a Young Muslim by : Omar Saif Ghobash

Download or read book Letters to a Young Muslim written by Omar Saif Ghobash and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2017-01-03 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **A New York Times Editor's Pick** From the Ambassador of the UAE to Russia comes Letters to a Young Muslim, a bold and intimate exploration of what it means to be a Muslim in the twenty-first century. In a series of personal and insightful letters to his sons, Omar Saif Ghobash offers a vital manifesto that tackles the dilemmas facing not only young Muslims but everyone navigating the complexities of today’s world. Full of wisdom and thoughtful reflections on faith, culture and society. This is a courageous and essential book that celebrates individuality whilst recognising it is our shared humanity that brings us together. Written with the experience of a diplomat and the personal responsibility of a father; Ghobash’s letters offer understanding and balance in a world that rarely offers any. An intimate and hopeful glimpse into a sphere many are unfamiliar with; it provides an understanding of the everyday struggles Muslims face around the globe. *One of Time's Most Anticipated Books of 2017, a Bustle Best Nonfiction Pick for January 2017, a Chicago Review of Books Best Book to Read in January 2017, a Stylist Magazine Best Book of 2017, included in New Statesman's What to Read in 2017*

Islam and the Future of Tolerance

Author : Sam Harris
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674737067
Total Pages : 145 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (747 download)

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Book Synopsis Islam and the Future of Tolerance by : Sam Harris

Download or read book Islam and the Future of Tolerance written by Sam Harris and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A civil but honest dialogue...As illuminating as it is fascinating.” —Ayaan Hirsi Ali Is Islam a religion of peace or war? Is it amenable to reform? Why do so many Muslims seem to be drawn to extremism? And what do words like jihadism and fundamentalism really mean? In a world riven by misunderstanding and violence, Sam Harris—a famous atheist—and Maajid Nawaz—a former radical—demonstrate how two people with very different religious views can find common ground and invite you to join in an urgently needed conversation. “How refreshing to read an honest yet affectionate exchange between the Islamist-turned-liberal-Muslim Maajid Nawaz and the neuroscientist who advocates mindful atheism, Sam Harris...Their back-and-forth clarifies multiple confusions that plague the public conversation about Islam.” —Irshad Manji, New York Times Book Review “It is sadly uncommon, in any era, to find dialogue based on facts and reason—but even more rarely are Muslim and non-Muslim intellectuals able to maintain critical distance on broad questions about Islam. Which makes Islam and the Future of Tolerance something of a unicorn...Most conversations about religion are marked by the inability of either side to listen, but here, at last, is a proper debate.” —New Statesman

iMuslims

Author : Gary R. Bunt
Publisher : Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 0807887714
Total Pages : 375 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (78 download)

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Book Synopsis iMuslims by : Gary R. Bunt

Download or read book iMuslims written by Gary R. Bunt and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2009-04-30 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Not Peace But a Sword

Author : Robert Spencer
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781938983283
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (832 download)

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Book Synopsis Not Peace But a Sword by : Robert Spencer

Download or read book Not Peace But a Sword written by Robert Spencer and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some Christians view Islam as a sister religion, a branch of the same Abrahamic tree lacking the fullness of revelation but nonetheless a religion of peace. Others are more critical of Islamic teachings but still see Muslims as valuable partners in the global fight against secularization and the Culture of Death. In Not Peace but a Sword, Robert Spencer argues they're both wrong and warns Christians against the danger of thinking that Islam is an easy ally. Many Christian groups, including the Catholic Church, do recognize whatever is good and true in Islam, and their leaders rightly pursue peaceful accord and common ground with all religions. Spencer argues, however, that real peace can come only from truth. Where there is falsehood in Islamic doctrine, morals, and practice, papering over the truth actually hurts the cause of peace. And so Spencer, the New York Times best-selling author of more than a dozen books dealing with Islam and the West, shines the light of truth on areas where Christians and Muslims don't just quibble over small details but fundamentally disagree, including: The character of God, Jesus, and divine revelation The nature of truth and the source of moral law Religious freedom and other basic human rights Life issues, marriage, and sexual morality The rights and dignity of women He demonstrates how these differences are not academic but real-world. They are critical and drive Muslim behavior toward Christians and others. If we fail to open our eyes to these differences, we do so at our peril.

What Is Islam?

Author : Shahab Ahmed
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400873584
Total Pages : 629 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis What Is Islam? by : Shahab Ahmed

Download or read book What Is Islam? written by Shahab Ahmed and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-17 with total page 629 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold new conceptualization of Islam that reflects its contradictions and rich diversity What is Islam? How do we grasp a human and historical phenomenon characterized by such variety and contradiction? What is "Islamic" about Islamic philosophy or Islamic art? Should we speak of Islam or of islams? Should we distinguish the Islamic (the religious) from the Islamicate (the cultural)? Or should we abandon "Islamic" altogether as an analytical term? In What Is Islam?, Shahab Ahmed presents a bold new conceptualization of Islam that challenges dominant understandings grounded in the categories of "religion" and "culture" or those that privilege law and scripture. He argues that these modes of thinking obstruct us from understanding Islam, distorting it, diminishing it, and rendering it incoherent. What Is Islam? formulates a new conceptual language for analyzing Islam. It presents a new paradigm of how Muslims have historically understood divine revelation—one that enables us to understand how and why Muslims through history have embraced values such as exploration, ambiguity, aestheticization, polyvalence, and relativism, as well as practices such as figural art, music, and even wine drinking as Islamic. It also puts forward a new understanding of the historical constitution of Islamic law and its relationship to philosophical ethics and political theory. A book that is certain to provoke debate and significantly alter our understanding of Islam, What Is Islam? reveals how Muslims have historically conceived of and lived with Islam as norms and truths that are at once contradictory yet coherent.

Misquoting Muhammad

Author : Jonathan A.C. Brown
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1780744218
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (87 download)

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Book Synopsis Misquoting Muhammad by : Jonathan A.C. Brown

Download or read book Misquoting Muhammad written by Jonathan A.C. Brown and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-08-07 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AN INDEPENDENT BEST BOOKS ON RELIGION 2014 PICK Few things provoke controversy in the modern world like the religion brought by Prophet Muhammad. Modern media are replete with alarm over jihad, underage marriage and the threat of amputation or stoning under Shariah law. Sometimes rumor, sometimes based on fact and often misunderstood, the tenets of Islamic law and dogma were not set in the religion’s founding moments. They were developed, like in other world religions, over centuries by the clerical class of Muslim scholars. Misquoting Muhammad takes the reader back in time through Islamic civilization and traces how and why such controversies developed, offering an inside view into how key and controversial aspects of Islam took shape. From the protests of the Arab Spring to Istanbul at the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and from the ochre red walls of Delhi’s great mosques to the trade routes of the Indian Ocean world, Misquoting Muhammad lays out how Muslim intellectuals have sought to balance reason and revelation, weigh science and religion, and negotiate the eternal truths of scripture amid shifting values.

When Islam Is Not a Religion

Author : Asma T Uddin
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1643131745
Total Pages : 291 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (431 download)

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Book Synopsis When Islam Is Not a Religion by : Asma T Uddin

Download or read book When Islam Is Not a Religion written by Asma T Uddin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Muslim religious liberty lawyer Asma Uddin has long considered her work defending people of all faiths to be a calling more than a job. Yet even as she seeks equal protection for Evangelicals, Sikhs, Muslims, Native Americans, Jews, and Catholics alike, she has seen an ominous increase in attempts to criminalize Islam and exclude Muslim Americans from those protections.Somehow, the view that Muslims aren’t human enough for human rights or constitutional protections is moving from the fringe to the mainstream—along with the claim “Islam is not a religion.” This conceit is not just a threat to the First Amendment rights of American Muslims. It is a threat to the freedom of all Americans.Her new book reveals a significant but overlooked danger to our religious liberty. Woven throughout this national saga is Uddin’s own story and the stories of American Muslims and other people of faith who have faced tremendous indignities as they attempt to live and worship freely.Combining her experience of Islam as a religious truth and her legal and philosophical appreciation that all individuals have a right to religious liberty, Uddin examines the shifting tides of American culture and outlines a way forward for individuals and communities navigating today’s culture wars.

A Concise Guide to the Quran

Author : Ayman S. Ibrahim
Publisher : Baker Books
ISBN 13 : 1493429280
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (934 download)

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Book Synopsis A Concise Guide to the Quran by : Ayman S. Ibrahim

Download or read book A Concise Guide to the Quran written by Ayman S. Ibrahim and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2020-11-03 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is so unique about Islam's scripture, the Quran? Who wrote it, and when? Can we trust its statements to be from Muhammad? Why was it written in Arabic? Does it command Muslims to fight Christians? These are a few of the thirty questions answered in this clear and concise guide to the history and contents of the Quran. Ayman Ibrahim grew up in the Muslim world and has spent many years teaching various courses on Islam. Using a question-and-answer format, Ibrahim covers critical questions about the most sacred book for Muslims. He examines Muslim and non-Muslim views concerning the Quran, shows how the Quran is used in contemporary expressions of Islam, answers many of the key questions non-Muslims have about the Quran and Islam, and reveals the importance of understanding the Quran for Christian-Muslim and Jewish-Muslim interfaith relations. This introductory guide is written for anyone with little to no knowledge of Islam who wants to learn about Muslims, their beliefs, and their scripture.

Muslim Cool

Author : Su'ad Abdul Khabeer
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1479894508
Total Pages : 285 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (798 download)

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Book Synopsis Muslim Cool by : Su'ad Abdul Khabeer

Download or read book Muslim Cool written by Su'ad Abdul Khabeer and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2016-12-06 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interviews with young Muslims in Chicago explore the complexity of identities formed at the crossroads of Islam and hip hop This groundbreaking study of race, religion and popular culture in the 21st century United States focuses on a new concept, “Muslim Cool.” Muslim Cool is a way of being an American Muslim—displayed in ideas, dress, social activism in the ’hood, and in complex relationships to state power. Constructed through hip hop and the performance of Blackness, Muslim Cool is a way of engaging with the Black American experience by both Black and non-Black young Muslims that challenges racist norms in the U.S. as well as dominant ethnic and religious structures within American Muslim communities. Drawing on over two years of ethnographic research, Su'ad Abdul Khabeer illuminates the ways in which young and multiethnic US Muslims draw on Blackness to construct their identities as Muslims. This is a form of critical Muslim self-making that builds on interconnections and intersections, rather than divisions between “Black” and “Muslim.” Thus, by countering the notion that Blackness and the Muslim experience are fundamentally different, Muslim Cool poses a critical challenge to dominant ideas that Muslims are “foreign” to the United States and puts Blackness at the center of the study of American Islam. Yet Muslim Cool also demonstrates that connections to Blackness made through hip hop are critical and contested—critical because they push back against the pervasive phenomenon of anti-Blackness and contested because questions of race, class, gender, and nationality continue to complicate self-making in the United States.

Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment

Author : Ahmet T. Kuru
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108419097
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment by : Ahmet T. Kuru

Download or read book Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment written by Ahmet T. Kuru and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-08 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzes Muslim countries' contemporary problems, particularly violence, authoritarianism, and underdevelopment, comparing their historical levels of development with Western Europe.