Review of Aaron W. Hughes, Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction: London and New York: Routledge, 2014. viii, 146 pp. ISBN 978-1-84465-790-2

Cont Islam (2016) 10:119121

DOI 10.1007/s11562-015-0330-6

Review of Aaron W. Hughes, Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction

London and New York: Routledge, 2014. viii, 146 pp. ISBN 978-1-84465-790-2

Nickolas P. Roubekas

Published online: 14 April 2015# Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Aaron Hughes, currently the Philip S. Bernstein Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Rochester, is known for his criticisms towards a group of scholars working in Islamic Studies and associated with the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the largest academic body in the field. Among the very few scholars who work and publish in both Judaism and Islam, Hughes has engaged in various debates with these scholars over the years, most recently (February 2014) with Omid Safi, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in the form of blog exchanges at the Bulletin for the Study of Religion online blog, which resulted in a special volume dealing with the debate per se and the issues that arose from this exchange (see the papers in Bulletin for the Study of Religion 43.4 [2014]).

Hughess disagreement, as he argues, is Bideological and scholarly^ (p. 121) and touches upon a very important and highly problematic issue that has increasingly dominated the field of modern Islamic Studies, especially after the 9/11 attacks. The academic study of Islam, as he argues, Bhas become more, not less, insular and apologetic^ (p. 2) with some scholars (among those criticized one finds Tariq Ramadan, Omid Safi, Carl Ernst, and John Esposito) manufacturing a liberal Islam that is tolerant, promoting gender justice and equality, and respectful of human rights while, at the same time, purposely overlooking Bthe complex processes whereby competing Islams or interpretations of Islam interact with and confront one another^ (p. 2). This results in an academic study of Islam that has Blargely ceased to function as an academic discipline, preferring instead to propagate a theological and apologetical representation of the religion^ (p. 3).

Before unpacking Hughess arguments I must note that Theorizing Islam is a book that predominantly deals with and argues against the way Islamic Studies are being transformed in the post-9/11 North American academic context and does not address the conversations in Islamic Studies outside Hughess academic milieu, i.e.,...