One out of five people in the world is
Muslim; only 18 percent of those,
however, are Arab. Ernst moves away from
a Middle Eastern bias, addressing the
pluralistic nature of Muslim societies
and thought. Framing his argument in
terms of religious studies, Ernst
describes how Protestant definitions of
religion and anti-Muslim prejudice have
affected views of Islam in Europe and
America. Ernst also covers the
contemporary importance of Islam in both
its traditional settings and its new
locations and provides a context for
understanding extremist movements like
fundamentalism.
'An excellent job of providing a
historical and country-wide account
which is not only descriptive but
analytical. It is fluently written and
easily accessible to a wide range of
readers and has the potential of
becoming the initial reference text for
people starting research in the area as
well as a required text for university
courses.' -- Jorgen S. Nielsen,
Professor of Islamic Studies, University
of Birmingham
Challenges what has come to be viewed as the
'Islamic problem' - the widespread perception or construction of
Muslims as a troubled and troublesome minority - by asking what
Muslims have to be hopeful about today, and how others might
share this hope.
"This book offers the
first sustained comparative perspective
on the `ulama and their increasingly
crucial religious and political
activism. It shows how issues of
religious authority are debated in
contemporary Islam, how Islamic law and
tradition are continuously negotiated in
a rapidly changing world, and how the
`ulama both react to and shape larger
Islamic social trends. Introducing
previously unexamined facets of
religious and political thought in
modern Islam, it clarifies the complex
processes of religious change unfolding
in the contemporary Muslim world and
goes a long way toward explaining their
vast social and political
ramifications."
Uniquely ennobled as the Sheikh of Islam of the British Isles by
the Ottoman caliph Sultan Abdul Hamid II, Abdullah Quilliam
(1856-1932), as a charismatic preacher, created a remarkable
community of Muslims in Victorian Liverpool, which included a
substantial number of converts. A successful solicitor, Quilliam
fought for the rights of the city's poor and, in the high noon
of European colonialism, defended the Ottoman caliphate and
independent Muslim states through his two international
publications, "The Crescent" and "The Islamic World".
Tasneem Wiki Project by Yunus Yakoub Islam is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. Based on a work at www.bayyinat.org.uk. 
