Tension &Transition in Muslim World
By: Louay Safi
Tensions and Transitions in the Muslim World provides an alternative reading of Middle Eastern politics and political culture by focusing on the dynamics of change and examining the role of Islam in the emerging modern Middle East. Louay Safi contends that by focusing on radical and traditionalist Islam, Middle East specialists often overlook the liberal manifestations of Islam, which, though marginalized, constitute the driving force in the sociopolitical development of the Middle East. To capture the dynamics of progress in the Middle East, Safi examines the impact of the ideological struggle and intellectual debate between the forces of modernism and
The place of Islamic law (shari’a) in historical Muslim society is often misconstrued, mainly because the failure to understand how Islamic law related to both civil society and the state. This book examines how Islamic law was perceived by early Muslim scholars, particularly Islamic rationalists, and then shed light on the purpose and structure of both the state and political society.