Makers of Contemporary Islam

268 Pages·2001·10.63 MB·English

by  John L. Esposito

Makers of Contemporary Isle
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MAKERS OF
CONTEMPORARY
ISLAM
John L. Esposito
John 0. Voll
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
2OOI
OXPORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town
Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris
Sao Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw
and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 2001 by John L. Esposito and John 0. Voll
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Esposito, John L.
Makers of contemporary Islam / John L. Esposito and John 0. Voll.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-514127-x; 0-19-514128-8 (pbk)
i. Scholars, Muslim—Islamic countries—Biography. 2. Intellectuals—Islamic
countries—Biography. 3. Islam and secularism—Islamic countries.
4. Islam—2Oth century. I. Voll, John Obert, 1936- II. Title.
BPjo .E86 2001
297.2'og2'2—dc2i 00-056674
[B]
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Forjeanette P. Esposito
andSarahEVoll
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The research support for this study came from a generous grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities. We are grateful to the endow-
ment, which is, of course, not responsible for any of the views expressed in
this work. The result of our travels, interviews, and research was both
Islam and Democracy and Makers of Contemporary Islam. We are indebted to
all those connected with the project who were generous with their time
and candid in their responses. In addition, we are grateful to the Council
on Foreign Affairs in New York for permission to publish an earlier and
now expanded version of Valla Vakili's chapter Abdolkarim Soroush and
Critical Discourse in Contemporary Iran, whose original title was "Debat-
ing Religion and Politics in Iran: The Political Thought of Abdolkarim
Soroush" and to The Muslim World for permission to publish a revised ver-
sion of our "Khurshid Ahmad: Muslim Activist-Economist." Natana De-
Long-Bas, research assistant for parts of this project, did an excellent job.
Cynthia A. Read, our editor at Oxford and her colleagues have been espe-
cially helpful in expediting publication. Finally, a special thank you to
Jeanette P. Esposito and Sarah P. Voll.
John L. Esposito
John 0. Voll
Washington, D. C.
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CONTENTS
Introduction: Muslim Activist Intellectuals
and Their Place in History, 3
1 Ismail Ragi al-Faruqi: Pioneer in Muslim-Christian
Relations, 23
2 Khurshid Ahmad: Muslim Activist-Economist, 39
3 Maryam Jameelah: A Voice of Conservative Islam, 54
4 Hasan Hanafi: The Classic Intellectual, 68
5 Rashid Ghannoushi: Activist in Exile, 91
6 Hasan al-Turabi: The Mahdi-Lawyer, 118
7 Abdolkarim Soroush and Critical Discourse in Iran,
by Valla Vakili, 150
8 Anwar Ibrahim: Activist Moderate, 177
9 Abdurrahman Wahid: Scholar-President, 199
Notes, 217
Suggestions for Further Reading, 241
Index, 245