Praise for Joseph Massad's ''Islam in Liberalism''

"This is a powerfully--often passionately--written text. . . . The only book that I can think of in comparison is Edward Said's Covering Islam--but Massad’s book is far richer both in terms of the literature covered (much of which was of course not yet available when Said wrote his book) and the range of questions engaged.”

For Massad's forthcoming book please click here

An International Symposium in Honor of Talal Asad at AUB (9/2014)

This september witnessed a great celebration of Prof. Asad's works at AUB which will hopefully turn into a collection of essays.

The Idea of Islam Today: Towards Non-Orientalist Genealogies

An International Symposium in Honor of Talal Asad Inaugurating its new program in Islamic Studies, the AUB is hosting an international symposium in honor of Talal Asad entitled "The Idea of Islam Today: Towards Non-Orientalist Genealogies." Talal Asad is perhaps best known for his interventions in the anthropology of religion and secularism, but his theoretical reflections are not bound by disciplinary strictures. Encompassing texts and translation, law, ethics, war, history, political economy, humanitarianism, postcolonial studies, as well as contemporary politics, Asad’s work has been critical in shaping a generation of scholars from across the academy. As it celebrates the work of this inspiring scholar, the meeting aims to think through the idea of Islam in and from the region. For the full program click HERE

Praise for Ovamir Anjum's ''Politics, Law, and Community in Islamic Thought: The Taymiyyan Moment''

"Politics, Law, and Community in Islamic Thought is a valuable contribution to the history of Islamic political experience. It approaches this rich history as a tradition of conflicting interpretations and debates that culminates in a fascinating re-examination of Ibn Taymiyya's creative response to the politics and thought of his turbulent time. In this account Ibn Taymiyya emerges as an original political thinker who restored (and elaborated on) the central role of the community in theories of Islamic governance. This book deserves to be widely read not only by specialists in medieval Islamic history but also by all who are interested in contemporary Islamic thought."

Ovamir Anjum's book came out from Cambridge UP - MORE INFO

Praise for Hussein Ali Agrama's “Questioning Secularism: Islam, Sovereignty, and the Rule of Law in Modern Egypt”

“Questioning Secularism is a mind-widening book. It is not simply a contestation or reconstruction of the doctrines of secularism but an enquiry into the ways in which it continually generates questions—about necessary limitations to public expression, about the dangers of religious politics, about the place of the Shari‘a in a liberal state, and so forth. At the center of these questions, says Agrama, is the concern to determine the line between politics and religion. Agrama explores this theme brilliantly in the context of contemporary Egypt by drawing on a rich body of ethnographic and historical data, and presents the reader with valuable insights into the ways sovereignty, public order, and state of exception are implicated (often in contradictory ways) in the question of secularism in that country. The most innovative part of this impressive work is the comparison between the Egyptian family court and the Fatwa Council, both based on understandings of the Shari‘a but each very different in its conditions of existence and its orientation. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in secularism today.”

Questioning Secularism: 

Islam, Sovereignty, and the Rule of Law in Modern Egypt

Hussein Ali Agrama 

University of Chicago Press, 2012