Theorizing Islam

Scholars of Islam have largely overlooked those discourses within the larger field of Religious Studies that do not take the category "religion" as a given but contend that its study ought to occur within larger social, cultural and ideological structures. Instead, the academic study of Islam has migrated toward the more regnant ecumenical and phenomenological discourses that still largely define the field of Religious Studies, a field that is still interested in adjudicating truth, authenticity, experience and meaning. The result is that the academic study of Islam has become more, not less, insular and apologetic. It is within this context that scholars of Islam have presented themselves to their colleagues, to the media and to the public as the de facto interpreters of Islam. They have largely invoked their authority to elevate their particular and idiosyncratic interpretation of Islam (e.g., liberal and egalitarian) over others and, in the process, deemed their version as somehow more authentic and normative. On one level, given the anger and hostility directed toward Islam and Muslims post-9/11 this is certainly understandable. In this respect, many Islamicists have tried to correct the blatant and often hostile misrepresentations that frequently circulate in the media and public opinion. However, on another level, problems inevitably arise when, to correct such misrepresentations, the only Islam that is presented as normative is the one that they have largely constructed in their own image. This volume seeks to redress such oversights and apologetics. It examines how scholars of Islam working in departments of Religious Studies manufacture such a normative Islam, the rhetorical moves they make, and the often hidden ideological assumptions behind such moves. Yet, rather than just point these shortcomings out, another important feature of these essays is that they are constructive, providing new approaches to the material in question. The end result is a controversial volume that functions as a catalyst for the theoretical and methodological repositioning of the academic study of Islam carried out in departments of Religious Studies.

Aaron W. Hughes is the Gordon and Gretchen Gross Professor and Director of the Religious Studies Program at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. His publications include The Texture of the Divine: Imagination in Medieval Islamic and Jewish Thought, Situating Islam: On the Past and Future of an Academic Discipline, Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History and Muslim Identities.