CM02: The Idea of Islam

Ziauddin Sardar argues why Islamic reform is necessary, Bruce Lawrence sees Muslim cosmopolitanism as the future, Parvez Manzoor declares jihad on the idea of ‘the political’, Samia Rahman gets to the root of Muslim misogyny, Michael Muhammad Knight explains his taqwacore beliefs, Soha al-Jurf has problems with orthodoxy, Carool Kersten suggests that critical thinkers and reformers are often seen as heretics, and Ben Gidley on what keeps Muslims and Jews apart and what can bring them together.

Also in this issue: Stuart Sim takes a sledgehammer to the ‘profit motive’, Andy Simons argues that Jazz is just as Muslim as it is American, Robin Yassin-Kabbab meets the new crop of Iraqi writers in Erbil, Said Adrus visits a Muslim cemetery in Woking, Ehsan Masood confesses he spent his youth reading the extremist writer Maryam Jameelah, Iftikhar Malik dismisses pessimism about Pakistan, Hassan Mahamdallie explores what it means to be an American, Jerry Ravetz discovers the Arabic Maimonides, Vinay Lal assesses the legacy of Edward Said, and Merryl Wyn Davies takes a train to 9/11. Plus a brilliant new story from Aamer Hussein and four poems by the celebrated Mimi Khalvati.

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In this issue

The Idea of Islam

Ziauddin Sardar argues why Islamic reform is necessary, Bruce Lawrence sees Muslim cosmopolitanism as the future, Parvez Manzoor declares jihad ...

The Race of Women by Samia Rahman

As an array of condoms burst out of her handbag, a skimpily dressed Samantha flails about on her knees scrambling to retrieve her ...

What's The Big Idea? by Ziauddin Sardar

So what is your idea of Islam? To what extent and in what way is there or should there be a choice? Do you agree with Mohammad Sidique Khan or ...

Muslim Cosmopolitanism by Bruce Lawrence

Muslim cosmopolitanism seemed to me the most natural of dinner table top­ics. But my family and friends around the dinner table...

The Tyranny of Profit by Stuart Sim

In the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in 2009 the media tycoon James Murdoch delivered a devastating ...

All That Muslim Jazz by Andy Simons

‘Jazz album by Pakistan music veterans tops western charts’. Underneath the heading, the Guardian article of August 2011 declared: ...

Maryam and the Maulana by Ehsan Masood

It is a scene that still carries fond memories: the sight of the postman stand¬ing outside the front door of my grandfather’s Karachi ...

Heretics by Carool Kersten

In 2009, the Moroccan-born Anouar Majid, a professor of English at the University of New England in Maine, capped off his earlier pleas for a ...

The Man From Beni Mora

Desert, white sand rippling, reddish sky. A figure, on a white horse, head wrapped in a scarf and covered in a hat, wearing an assortment of ...