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Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook. BY CHARLES KURZMAN, EDITOR. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Liberal Islam A Sourcebook is a collection of essays by Muslim scholars, politicians, thinkers, and social activists who are concerned with the modern Islamic world. In this book, Charles Kurzman, a trained sociologist, collected thirty-two works of contemporary Muslims who fall under his category of "liberal Islam." In the introduction, Kurzman consistently emphasizes the distinct place of these "liberals' as being very important in the Islamic context; their voices challenge the revivalist movements and traditional Islamic practices. Aside from a few problems in his classification and choice of terms, this is a favorable sourcebook for those interested in modern Islamic thought in areas of politics and religion.
One of the many positive aspects of this book is its diverse selection of Muslim writers who are actively engaged in responding to modernity in terms of contemporary religious thought and practice. This book not only demonstrates a progressive development amongst Muslim thinkers, but the ongoing meaningful contributions by these scholars in areas of theology, politics, law, and epistemology. Kurzman incorporated a wide range of works by Muslims such as Benazir Bhutto, Mehdi Bazargan, Nazira Zein-ed-Din and Mahmud Taleqani. This variety is problematic in terms of the assortment of writers and the level of critical discourse in modern Islamic thought.
This book does not pretend to frame...