The Quran and the Secular Mind

The Quran and the Secular Mind
Author: Shabbir Akhtar
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 411
Release: 2007-10-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134072562

This book is concerned with the rationality and plausibility of the Muslim faith and the Qur'an, and in particular how they can be interrogated and understood through Western analytical philosophy. It also explores how Islam can successfully engage with the challenges posed by secular thinking. The Quran and the Secular Mind will be of interest to students and scholars of Islamic philosophy, philosophy of religion, Middle East studies, and political Islam.

The Quran and the Secular Mind

The Quran and the Secular Mind
Author: Shabbir Akhtar
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 813
Release: 2007-10-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134072554

This book is concerned with the rationality and plausibility of the Muslim faith and the Qur'an, and in particular how they can be interrogated and understood through Western analytical philosophy. It also explores how Islam can successfully engage with the challenges posed by secular thinking. The Quran and the Secular Mind will be of interest to students and scholars of Islamic philosophy, philosophy of religion, Middle East studies, and political Islam.

Islam as Political Religion

Islam as Political Religion
Author: Shabbir Akhtar
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2010-10-18
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1136901434

This book provides a survey of contemporary Islam from a theological and philosophical perspective. Engaging with critics of contemporary Islam as he sets out an agenda of what his religion is and could be as a political entity, the author tackles philosophical, religious and political thinkers and covers a raft of issues faced by Muslims in an increasingly secular society.

A Faith for All Seasons

A Faith for All Seasons
Author: Shabbir Akhtar
Publisher:
Total Pages: 272
Release: 1990
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

"An intelligent, erudite argument in which Mr. Akhtar (whose writings won the praise of Graham Greene and other British authors) challenges his fellow Muslims to bring their faith into the modern world. In the process he offers a clear and concise explanation of Islam's basic religious tenets."

The Atheist Muslim

The Atheist Muslim
Author: Ali A. Rizvi
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2016-11-22
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1250094445

In much of the Muslim world, religion is the central foundation upon which family, community, morality, and identity are built. The inextricable embedment of religion in Muslim culture has forced a new generation of non-believing Muslims to face the heavy costs of abandoning their parents’ religion: disowned by their families, marginalized from their communities, imprisoned, or even sentenced to death by their governments. Struggling to reconcile the Muslim society he was living in as a scientist and physician and the religion he was being raised in, Ali A. Rizvi eventually loses his faith. Discovering that he is not alone, he moves to North America and promises to use his new freedom of speech to represent the voices that are usually quashed before reaching the mainstream media—the Atheist Muslim. In The Atheist Muslim, we follow Rizvi as he finds himself caught between two narrative voices he cannot relate to: extreme Islam and anti-Muslim bigotry in a post-9/11 world. The Atheist Muslim recounts the journey that allows Rizvi to criticize Islam—as one should be able to criticize any set of ideas—without demonizing his entire people. Emotionally and intellectually compelling, his personal story outlines the challenges of modern Islam and the factors that could help lead it toward a substantive, progressive reformation.

Secularism Confronts Islam

Secularism Confronts Islam
Author: Olivier Roy
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780231141024

"The denunciation of fundamentalism in France, embodied in the law against the veil and the deportation of imams, has shifted into a systematic attack on all Muslims and Islam. This hostility is rooted in the belief that Islam cannot be integrated into French - and, consequently, secular and liberal - society. However, as Olivier Roy makes clear in this book, Muslim intellectuals have made it possible for Muslims to live concretely in a secularized world while maintaining their identities as "true believers." They have formulated a language that recognizes two spaces: that of religion and that of secular society." "Roy's rare portrait of the realities of immigrant Muslim life offers a necessary alternative to the popular specter of an "Islamic threat." Supporting his arguments with his extensive research on Islamic history, sociology, and politics, Roy demonstrates the limits of our understanding of contemporary Islamic religious practice in the West and the role of Islam as a

Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty

Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty
Author: Mustafa Akyol
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2011-07-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0393081974

“A delightfully original take on…the prospects for liberal democracy in the broader Islamic Middle East.”—Matthew Kaminski, Wall Street Journal As the Arab Spring threatens to give way to authoritarianism in Egypt and reports from Afghanistan detail widespread violence against U.S. troops and women, news from the Muslim world raises the question: Is Islam incompatible with freedom? In Islam without Extremes, Turkish columnist Mustafa Akyol answers this question by revealing the little-understood roots of political Islam, which originally included both rationalist, flexible strains and more dogmatic, rigid ones. Though the rigid traditionalists won out, Akyol points to a flourishing of liberalism in the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire and the unique “Islamo-liberal synthesis” in present-day Turkey. As he powerfully asserts, only by accepting a secular state can Islamic societies thrive. Islam without Extremes offers a desperately needed intellectual basis for the reconcilability of Islam and liberty.

The Qur'an and the Christian

The Qur'an and the Christian
Author: Matthew Aaron Bennett
Publisher: Kregel Publications
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2022-04-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0825477565

Understanding Islam's sacred text is integral to understanding your Muslim neighbor Cross-cultural missionary and scholar Matthew Aaron Bennett blends the insights of Islamic believers, secular Qur'an scholars, and missionaries to Muslims, making The Qur'an and the Christian like no other resource for Christian ministry to Muslims. Combining these perspectives in one guide better equips Christians to communicate the biblical gospel to friends and neighbors who are adherents to Islam--both in and out of majority-Muslim cultures. The Qur'an and the Christian addresses issues both simple and profound, such as: 1. How the Qur'an came to be, including Muhammed and the Qur'an's textual precursors 2. The major themes of the Qur'an and how these shape the practice of Islam 3. The presence of Bible characters, Jews, and Christians in the Qur'anic text 4. Whether and how a Christian should read the Qur'an 5. Avoiding miscommunication with Muslims when the Qur'an and Christian teaching seem to overlap This book will help Christians learn how to explore Islamic faith with missiological wisdom and biblical precision. The Qur'an and the Christian will give believers the insight to deepen friendships, promote understanding, and clarify the biblical gospel among Muslim friends and neighbors.