The Exploration of the Politics and Ideas of Western Muslim Reformers: the Emergence of Islamic Reform in America
Introduction
The confrontation between Islam and modernity has been one of the major issues that Muslims still deal with it across the contemporary Muslim societies because the consequences of modernity have brought profound religious and socio-political challenges to many aspects of Islamic faith and life. Hence, the intellectuals of Muslim majority societies have engaged with modernity in a constant conversation through various approaches to reform many aspects of Islamic thought and practices in the last century, which have produced significant literature and diverse contributions to both modernity and Muslims’ discourses (Kurzman …show more content…
However, the recent mass migrations of Muslims toward western countries and the growth of Muslim population in America and Western Europe have opened a new and dynamic phase regarding the current engagements between Islam and modernity because we have witnessed the emergence of new type of Muslim intellectuals and their new significant approaches to reform Islamic socio-political thought in the western settings (Chehab and Whitaker 2014; Kersten 2011). The representation of Western Muslim reformers is a complex and diverse phenomenon mainly consisting of a number of Muslim American and some Western European academics and scholars with different reform discourse, agendas and priorities. Their common denominator is the idea that various aspects of the inherited pre-modern Islamic tradition, especially aspects of Islamic law, with respect to its underlying worldview assumptions, episteme, and various methodologies underpinning this body of knowledge, are not adequately equipped or need serious reform/rethinking in meeting the many challenges of Muslims are facing in modern societies, especially in the context of Muslim majority communities in non-Muslim societies (Duderija 2014; Kersten 2011; Rahman …show more content…
This feature leads the discourses of them from the periphery to the center, which underscores their increasing significance for not only the central role in shaping western Islamic identity and culture, but also suggesting alternative approaches and perspectives from the heart of modernity to global Muslim Ummah across the world (Kersten 2011:77). These Muslim thinkers emphasize to need to redefine Muslims itself away from the “Islam versus the West” or “Islamic tradition versus modernity” discourse and affirm the necessity of prosperous, educated and engaged
Introduction
The confrontation between Islam and modernity has been one of the major issues that Muslims still deal with it across the contemporary Muslim societies because the consequences of modernity have brought profound religious and socio-political challenges to many aspects of Islamic faith and life. Hence, the intellectuals of Muslim majority societies have engaged with modernity in a constant conversation through various approaches to reform many aspects of Islamic thought and practices in the last century, which have produced significant literature and diverse contributions to both modernity and Muslims’ discourses (Kurzman …show more content…
However, the recent mass migrations of Muslims toward western countries and the growth of Muslim population in America and Western Europe have opened a new and dynamic phase regarding the current engagements between Islam and modernity because we have witnessed the emergence of new type of Muslim intellectuals and their new significant approaches to reform Islamic socio-political thought in the western settings (Chehab and Whitaker 2014; Kersten 2011). The representation of Western Muslim reformers is a complex and diverse phenomenon mainly consisting of a number of Muslim American and some Western European academics and scholars with different reform discourse, agendas and priorities. Their common denominator is the idea that various aspects of the inherited pre-modern Islamic tradition, especially aspects of Islamic law, with respect to its underlying worldview assumptions, episteme, and various methodologies underpinning this body of knowledge, are not adequately equipped or need serious reform/rethinking in meeting the many challenges of Muslims are facing in modern societies, especially in the context of Muslim majority communities in non-Muslim societies (Duderija 2014; Kersten 2011; Rahman …show more content…
This feature leads the discourses of them from the periphery to the center, which underscores their increasing significance for not only the central role in shaping western Islamic identity and culture, but also suggesting alternative approaches and perspectives from the heart of modernity to global Muslim Ummah across the world (Kersten 2011:77). These Muslim thinkers emphasize to need to redefine Muslims itself away from the “Islam versus the West” or “Islamic tradition versus modernity” discourse and affirm the necessity of prosperous, educated and engaged