"Liberal Islam" is not a contradiction in terms; it is a thriving tradition and undergoing a revival within the last generation. This anthology presents the work of 32 Muslims who share parallel concerns with Western liberalism. Although the West has largely ignored the liberal tradition within Islam, many of these authors are well-known in their own countries as advocates of democracy and tolerance. Among these are: Abdulkarim Soroush, a leading oppositional figure in Iran; Nurcholish Madjid, a prominent Indonesian intellectual; Mahmud Mohamed Taha, a religious reformer executed by the Sudanese government; and ‘Ali ‘Abd al-Raziq, an Egyptian religious scholar whose writings on the separation of church and state have been controversial since the 1920s. In an analytical introduction, editor Charles Kurzman discusses the history of the liberal tradition in Islam and identifies the main currents in liberal Islamic thought.
This collection will be an important resource for scholars and students of Islam, the Middle East, and international affairs, and will also help to redress the imbalance in our perceptions of the Islamic world.