Book: Alternative Islamic Discourse and Religious Authority

This book argues that the centre of gravity of many of these alternative Islamic discourses is shifting from the Arabic-speaking ‘heartland’ towards the geographical peripheries of the Muslim world and expatriate Muslims in North America and Europe.

Like anywhere else, the present-day Islamic world too is grappling with modernity and postmodernity, secularisation and globalisation. Muslims are raising questions about religious representations and authority. This has given rise to the emergence of alternative Islamic discourses which challenge binary oppositions and dichotomies of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, continuity and change, state and civil society. It also leads to a dispersal of authority, a collapse of existing hierarchical structures and gender roles. This book further argues that the centre of gravity of many of these alternative Islamic discourses is shifting from the Arabic-speaking ‘heartland’ towards the geographical peripheries of the Muslim world and expatriate Muslims in North America and Europe. At the same time, in view of recent seismic shifts in the political constellation of the Middle East, the trends discussed in this book hold important clues for the possible direction of future developments in that volatile part of the Muslim world.

Carool Kersten is Senior Lecturer in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World at King’s College London and Research Associate at the Centre for South East Asian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). He has also been an affiliate of the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: alternative Islamic discourses and religious authority, Carool Kersten and Susanne Olsson;

Ijtihad and the derivation of new jurisprudence in contemporary Shi’ism: the rulings of Ayatollah Bujnurdi, Liyakat Takim;

 Judicial and rational challenges of the doctrine of jurist’s rule, Mohammad Fazlhashemi;

Muslim perception of Fethullah Gulen and the Hizmet movement: accommodating or hindering modern Turkey?, Zeki Saritoprak;

A Turkish Mahdi? Apocalypticism in Harun Yahya’s Da’wah enterprise, Anne Ross Solberg;

`Amr Khaled on individual proactively, Susanne Olsson;

Harmonious being: a space for an alternative way of exploring religion, Abdullah Hamidaddin;

Islamic post-traditionalism in Indonesia: revisiting tradition and the future of Islam, Carool Kersten;

Women’s agency in transforming religious discourse: gender-sensitive interpretations of Islam in Indonesia, Ann Kull;

Treading a dangerous path? The use of Islam in women’s rights advocacy, Nida Kirmani

Bibliographic Information

Title: Alternative Islamic Discourse and religious Authority

Editors: Carool Kersten and Susanne Olsson

Publisher: Routledge, 2016

Language: English

Length: 220 pages

ISBN: 978-1138261754

Pub. Date: November 17, 2016