Beyond Modernity: Critical Perspectives on Islam, Tradition and Power

The book proposes competing and persuasive perspectives for interpreting what Muslims say, do, and think in collective settings or in the light of common frames of reference, reflecting a diversity of disciplines and interests. It challenges the notion of a monolithic Islam and reveals a far from monolithic Islam to which all things Islamic can be reduced.

Format: Hardback
Length: 220 pages
Publication date: 26 October 2023
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

A contest is afoot in Muslim discourses around the world in the twenty-first century, with prevalent norms and acts subject to competing motivations, trends, and forces. The image of a monolithic Islam is thus wholly inadequate to identify and interpret the different expressions of Muslim thought and practice in their specific yet connected contexts. This book proposes competing and persuasive perspectives for interpreting what Muslims say, do, and think in collective settings or in the light of common frames of reference. The chapters contained in this book reflect a diversity of disciplines and interests, but a common thread of the preoccupation with meanings in context unites the contributors and the approaches to their chosen examples. Islam is not a discrete category that is taken for granted, but rather, the cacophony of voices in the Muslim world situated in specific contexts, variously national, regional, or global, is allowed to inform each chapter. Here, one encounters contemporary Muslims participating in discourses with a contested character that create opportunities to augment or question orthodox dictates or transmit or alter existing beliefs and practices. What emerges are nuanced portraits of contemporary Muslim thought and practice that reveal a far from monolithic Islam to which all things Islamic can be reduced.

Weight: 522g
Dimension: 238 x 159 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538150948