Key Islamic Political Thinkers
The title is a book Edited by John L. Esposito and Emad El-Din Shahin concerning with major contemporary Islamic Political Thinkers. The following is a report of the book.[1]
Overview
• Provides a guide to key Muslim intellectual figures from various schools of contemporary political Islam
• Includes an introduction and essays from leading scholars in the field
• Offers a counter to superficial and sensationalist understandings of Islam
Description
Islam has become a potent political force around the world since it reemerged in the late 1960's and 1970's as a religio-political alternative to failed nationalist ideologies. In countries throughout the world, individuals and movements have attempted to reconstruct the political, economic, and social dimensions of their societies along Islamic lines, taking different approaches to the shari`a and to the questions of whether and how to establish an Islamic state.
Key Islamic Political Thinkers offers an examination of some of the leading intellectuals behind the resurgence of political Islam. The essays in this volume cover a selection of thinkers that is representative of the main strands of contemporary Muslim political thought. It starts with the forefathers of contemporary political Islam, Hasan al-Banna and Abu al A`la al-Mawdudi, analyzes the revolutionary ideas of Sayyid Qutb, Ali Shari`ati, and Ayatollah Khomeini, and ends with the "intellectuals" of political Islam, Hassan al-Turabi, Rashid al-Ghannoushi, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Muhammad Khatami, and Abdolkarim Soroush, who exemplify the diversity and complexity of contemporary Muslim political discourse. This volume provides a valuable guide to the most important intellectual architects of the Islamic revival.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I: Founders of Political Islam
Chapter 1: Hassan Al-Banna
Ahmad Moussalli
Chapter 2: Mawlana Mawdudi
Joshua T. White and Niloufer Siddiqui
Part II: Revolutionary Ideologues
Chapter 3: Sayyid Qutb
Shahrough Akhavi
Chapter 4: Ali Shari'ati
Shahrough Akhavi
Chapter 5: Ayatollah Khomenei
Mojtaba Mahdavi
Part III: The "Intellectuals" of Political Islam
Chapter 6: Hassan al-Turabi
Peter Woodward
Chapter 7: Rashid al-Ghannoushi
Azzam Tamimi
Chapter 8: Yusuf al-Qaradawi
Bettina Gräf
Chapter 9: Muhammad Khatami
Mahmoud Sadri and Ahmad Sadri
Chapter 10: Abdolkarim Soroush
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Index
Author Information
Edited by John L. Esposito, University Professor, Professor of Religion and International Affairs and of Islamic Studies, Georgetown University, and Emad El-Din Shahin, Dean of College of Islamic Studies, Hamad bin Khalifa University
John L. Esposito is University Professor, Professor of Religion and International Affairs and of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University. He is the author or editor of more than 45 books, including What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam and The Future of Islam and is Editor in Chief of Oxford Islamic Studies Online.
Emad El-Din Shahin is the Dean of the College of Islamic Studies, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Qatar Foundation and a Senior Fellow at Georgetown University.
Contributors
Shahrough Akhavi is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science at the University of South Carolina.
John L. Esposito is Professor of Religion and International Affairs and Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi is Professor of Sociology and History at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Bettina Gräf is a Researcher of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany.
Mojtaba Mahdavi is the ECMC Chair in Islamic Studies and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta.
Ahmad Moussalli is Professor of Political Studies at American University of Beirut.
Ahmad Sadri is Gorter Professor of Islamic World Studies and Professor of Sociology at Lake Forest College.
Mahmoud Sadri is Professor of Sociology at the Federation of North Texas Universities.
Emad El-Din Shahin is the Dean of the College of Islamic Studies, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Qatar Foundation and a Senior Fellow at Georgetown University.
Niloufer Siddiqui is a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Political Science at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany-SUNY.
Azzam Tamimi is an academic and political activist, and the former director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought.
Joshua T. White is Associate Professor of the Practice of South Asia Studies and Senior Fellow at the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asia Studies at Johns Hopkins SAIS.
Peter Woodward is Professor of Politics at the University of Reading.
Reviews and Awards
"This edited collection provides an insightful yet concise review of the diversity of political Islamic thinking from the 20th century. For those, especially in the West, who lump all Islamic thought together, this is a terrific book that provides an initial introduction to thinking about political Islam ... Excellent for collections on religion, politics, Islam, and the Middle East ... Recommended." - D. Schultz, CHOICE
"Key Islamic Political Thinkers is one of the most comprehensive, richly informative, single-volume, wide-ranging, reference work on various dimensions of 'Political Islam', which will prove helpful to every serious student and scholar of Islam and politics, contemporary Islamic political thought, political Islam, the like areas and subjects." - Dr Tauseef Ahmad Parray, Kashmir Reader