'The Idea of European Islam: Religion, Ethics, Politics, and Perpetual Modernity'
- Published 1 July 2018
- eBook Published 24 July 2018
- London, Routledge
- 330 pages
- eBook ISBN 9781351604017
Suspicions about the integration of Islam into European cultures have been steadily on the rise, and dramatically so since 9/11. One reason lies in the visibility of anti-Western Islamic discourses of salafi origin, which have monopolized the debate on the "true" Islam, not only among Muslims but also in the eyes of the general population across Europe; these discourses combined with Islamophobic discourses reinforce the so-called incompatibility between the West and Islam.
This book breaks away from this clash between Islam and the West, by arguing that European Islam is possible. It analyzes the contribution that European Islam has made to the formation of an innovative Islamic theology that is deeply ethicist and modern, and it clarifies how this constructed European Islamic theology is able to contribute to the various debates that are related to secular-liberal democracies of Western Europe. Part I introduces four major projects that defend the idea of European Islam from different disciplines and perspectives: politics, political theology, jurisprudence and philosophy. Part II uses the frameworks from three major philosophers and scholars to approach the idea of European Islam in the context of secular-liberal societies: British scholar George Hourani, Moroccan philosopher Taha Abderrahmane and the American philosopher John Rawls. The book shows that the ongoing efforts of European Muslim thinkers to revisit the concept of citizenship and political community can be seen as a new kind of political theology, in opposition to radical forms of Islamic thinking in some Muslim-majority countries.
Opening a new path for examining Islamic thought "in and of" Europe, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Islamic Studies, Islam in the West and Political Theology.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction: From Islam in Europe to European Islam
- Voices of European Islam
- Cultural modernity for religious reform and Euro-Islam
- From adaptive to transformative reform and European Islam
- Geotheology and the minoritization of Islam 1
- Self Islam, Islamic existentialism, and overcoming religion 1
- European Islamic thought and the formation of perpetual modernity paradigm
- Ontological revolution and epistemological shift in European Islamic thought 1
- Conceptualizing the idea of European Islam
- Taha Abderrahmane’s trusteeship critique for overcoming classical dichotomous thought
- Consolidating the idea of European Islam through perpetual modernity paradigm 1
- European Islam as a Rawlsian reasonable comprehensive doctrine
- Conclusion: From European Islam to Arab Islam
Professor Hashas' researches interests focus on the Arab-Islamic world, culture, and politics in Islam, European Islam, and Mediterranean Studies.
[full biography]