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| Journey into Islam
ISBN: 9780815701330
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / Brookings Institution Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Islamic renewal; Globalization; Islam; Religious awakening;
In response to the events of September 11, 2001, Ahmed, Islamic studies professor at American University in Washington, D.C., set out last year to visit Muslim nations in the Middle East, South Asia and Far East Asia. Accompanied the entire way by two non-Islamic American students and occasionally by others-including one American student who was Islamic-the Pakistani-born professor hoped to improve his understanding of the contemporary Muslim realm in all its diversity. Not so incidentally, Ahmed also wanted to shatter the stereotype of the U.S. as a warmongering, Islam-hating nation. The result is a fascinating account of how he and his students braved danger to build mutual understanding in Pakistan, India, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Qatar, Malaysia and Indonesia. As academics, they administered detailed questionnaires to Muslims in each nation, while as social creatures, they sat through seminars, luncheons, dinners and casual conversations looking for a candid exchange of ideas about religious, political and cultural differences. Occasionally Ahmed lapses into academese, loses his humility or generalizes beyond what the evidence seems to support. But mostly he comes across as an honorable man who believes that "the future of the human race depends on international dialogue" between Muslims and non-Muslims. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is former high commissioner of Pakistan to Great Britain, and he has taught at Princeton, Harvard, and Cambridge Universities. |
