Debating Moderate Islam : The Geopolitics of

After 9/11, many Americans took the view that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were the leading edge of a new war: Islam versus the West. Yet the attacks were also part of the current struggle within Islam between fundamentalist and moderate approaches and were staged for maximum effect in the Muslim world. This book is based on a special-topic issue of the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (Fall 2005), and brings together prominent Muslim voices from the policy and academic communities to debate the nature of moderate Islam and what moderation means in both a theological and a geopolitical sense. Participants reflect on the future of political Islam, its role in Muslim politics, western policies in the Muslim world, and the future of American-Muslim relations. This book and the debate it presents are vital to understanding these complex issues.

Preface	p. ix
Introduction
Debating Moderate Islam	p. 3
The Debate
Power or Ideology: What Islamists Choose Will Determine Their Future	p. 15
Moderate Muslims: A Mainstream of Modernists, Islamists, Conservatives, and Traditionalists	p. 25
Freedom and Security: Necessary Conditions for Moderation	p. 34
Moderate Islam: A Product of American Extremism	p. 42
Islamic Democracy and Moderate Muslims: The Straight Path Runs through the Middle	p. 51
The Rebuttals
Blaming the United States, Israel, or Capitalism Is Not the Solution	p. 65
The Clash of Ignorances: The War on Terror Must Not Compromise Muslim Rights	p. 70
The Erdogan Experiment in Turkey Is the Future	p. 74
Though Muslims Exist Today, Islam Does Not	p. 83
Moderate Muslims Are the Key to the Future of Islam and American-Muslim Relations	p. 88
Commentaries and Reflections on the Debate
In God We Trust: The Prospects for the Future of Islam and the West Are Positive	p. 95
Liberal Islam versus Moderate Islam: Elusive Moderates and the Siege Mentality	p. 102
Reflections on Ijtihad and Moderate Islam	p. 109
Culture Talk: Six Debates That Shape the Discourse on "Good" Muslims	p. 114
The Transformation of a Turkish Islamic Movement: From Identity Politics to Policy	p. 124
Reflections on the Debate	p. 131
The Last Word
Defining a Moderate	p. 139
Accommodating "Moderation": A Return to Authenticity or Recourse to Heresy?	p. 147
Contributors	p. 155
Index	p. 159
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Debating Moderate Islam : The Geopolitics of Islam and the West

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