The Contemporary Arab Reader on Political Islam

List of Contributors Editor's Introduction Part I: Toward a Theoretical Appreciation of Islamism in the Contemporary Arab World 1) Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti, Salafism is a Blessed Historical Phase Rather Than an Islamic Legal School; 2) Fathi Yakan, Toward a Unified and Universal Islamic Movement; 3) Ahmad Kamal Abu'l Majd, Towards a Modern Islamic Perspective Declaration of Principles; 4) Muhammad al-Ghazali, Women Between the People of Hadith and the People of Fiqh; Part II: Islamism, Jihad, and Martyrdom 5) Abdullah Anas, The Birth of 'Afghan-Arabs': An Algerian Perspective; 6) Abdullah Azzam, What Jihad Has Taught Me! 7) Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti, Jihad in Islam: How to Understand and Practice it? 8) Sayyid Muhammad Hussain Fadlallah, Islam and the Question of Power; Part III. Islamism and the Question of Israel/Palestine 9) Ismail R. Faruqi, Islam and Zionism; 10) Mustafa Abu Sway, From Basel to Oslo: Zionism and the Islamic Narrative; 11) Mohsen Saleh, Palestine/Lebanon], The Role of the Israeli Lobby; Part IV: Contemporary Islamism: Trends and Self-Criticism 12) Abdul Qadir Awdah, Islam Between Ignorant Followers and Incapable Scholars; 13) Ramadan Abdallah Shallah, The Islamic Movement and the Contemporary Challenges; 14) Umar Abdel Rahman, On the Present Rulers in the Muslim World; 15) Sami al-Arian, The Islamic Movement and Contemporary Crises: An Assessment and Correction; 16) Rashid Ghannoushi, Islamic Movements: Self-Criticism and Reconsideration; 17) Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Islamic Awakening Between Rejection and Extremism; 18) Jamil Hamami, The Islamic Movement: Hopes and Aspirations; Part V: Islamism, the West, the United States and 9/11 19) Abdel Wahab al-Masiri, Imperialism and the Contemporary Muslim world; 20) Ahmad Bin Yousuf, Islamists and the West: From Confrontation to Cooperation; 21) Munir Shafiq, Islam and the Challenges of Contemporary Decline; 22) Kamal Habib, Transformation of the Islamic Movement and

Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi' is the holder of the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities Chair of Islamic Studies at the University of Alberta. His many books include Intellectual Origins of Islamic Resurgence in the Modern Arab World (1996), Islam at the Crossroads (2003), The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought (2006), and Contemporary Arab Thought (Pluto Press, 2005).

A fascinating examination of a range of Arab interpretations of Islam and Islamism, including reflections on jihad, Israel/Palestine, and responses to the West since 9/11. Abu-Rabi's comprehensive introduction provides a cohesive context for these studies. Highly recommended for students of Islamist movements, contemporary political developments in the Middle East, and Islam in general. -- Jane Smith, Harvard Divinity School With a clear headed and judicious selection, Professor Abu-Rabi' has opened up a panorama of modern political thought that we scarcely knew existed. The result is an absolutely indispensible compendium on contemporary Islamist movements that no student of current affairs on a global scale can ignore. -- Hamid Dabashi, the Author of Islamic Liberation Theology: Resisting the Empire (2008) These essays by the actors and experts of Islamism are the most enlightening documents that I have ever read. The ideological and geographic range of the essays is unmatched in its richness and analytical depth. This is a volume which allows major figures of the Islamic movement to take the reader beyond the West's fixation on Qutb and his violent rendition of Islamic thought. -- Ghada Hashem Talhami, D. K. Pearsons Professor of Politics, Emerita Lake Forest College. Ibrahim Abu-Rabi', the leading scholar on contemporary Muslim thought, has drawn together the seminal writings on Islamism from across the Arab world. Finally, in one volume, we can engage the foundational and current thinking of a diverse movement that will demand the attention of both scholars and the educated public for many years to come. This book needs to be close at hand for all those working and thinking about the Islamist movement, Political Islam, modern trends in Islam and the Middle East. ... Most of the essays have been translated into English for the first time and the masterful introductory essay by Professor Abu-Rabi' is worth the price of the volume on its own. -- David J. Goa,