Islam, Democracy, and Cosmopolitanism: At Home and in the World

This book presents a critical study of citizenship, state, and globalization in societies that have been historically influenced by Islamic traditions and institutions. Interrogating the work of contemporary theorists of Islamic modernity such as Mohammed Arkoun, Abdul an-Na'im, Fatima Mernissi, Talal Asad, Saba Mahmood, and Aziz Al-Azmeh, this book explores the debate on Islam, democracy, and modernity, contextualized within contemporary Muslim lifeworlds. These include contemporary Turkey (following the 9/11 attacks and the onset of war in Afghanistan), multicultural France (2009-10 French burqa debate), Egypt (the 2011 Tahrir Square mass mobilizations), and India. Ali Mirsepassi and Tadd Ferne critique particular counterproductive ideological conceptualizations, voicing an emerging global ethic of reconciliation. Rejecting the polarized conceptual ideals of the universal or the authentic, the authors critically reassess notions of the secular, the cosmopolitan, and democracy. Raising questions that cut across the disciplines of history, anthropology, sociology, and law, this study articulates a democratic politics of everyday life in modern Islamic societies.

Author: Ali Mirsepassi, Tadd Graham Fernée
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 07/28/2016
Pages: 234
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.49d
ISBN: 9781107645875

About the Author
Mirsepassi, Ali: - Ali Mirsepassi is Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Sociology at the Gallatin School, New York University. He is the author of Political Islam, Iran, and the Enlightenment: Philosophies of Hope and Despair (Cambridge, 2011).Fernée, Tadd Graham: - Tadd Graham Fernée is an independent scholar and was a 2010 research fellow at the Jawaharlal Nehru University Institute of Advanced Studies, New Delhi, India.