Delicate Debates on Islam

by Otto, Jan Michiel; Mason, Hannah

• ISBN13: 9789087281175
• ISBN10: 908728117X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-08-15
• Publisher: Leiden Univ Pr

Summary

Delicate debates on Islam are all around us: Opinions seem readily formed, but what are they based on? How do prominent policy makers like Job Cohen, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Nikolaos van Dam or academics like John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed react to these urgent questions? This book shows some of the nagging questions from policymakers who face complex issues in their day-to-day operations. The book shows that the picture of Islam is often distorted. Many Western countries, including the Netherlands with its former reputation of tolerance and cosmopolitanism, have seen an increasing polarisation in the past decade. Delicate Debates on Islam offers the reader the academic responses of the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Islam and Society, LUCIS, to a selection of hotly-contested issues including Islam and democracy, the position of women and human rights. With these topics Delicate Debates on Islam addresses the relation between academics and policymakers in a debate dominated by media and politics that will continue to dominate in the years to come.

Table of Contents

Foreword: About LUCIS	p. 7
Delicate Debates on Islam. Policymakers and Academics Speaking with Each Other: an Introduction	p. 9
A Policymaker's Pressing Questions about Islam	p. 23
Challenges for NATO's Operations in the Muslim World	p. 27
The (Ir) Relevance of Academic Research to Foreign Policymaking	p. 31
Dynamism in Islamic Activism: Some Reflections on the Advisory Report by the WRR (Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy)	p. 41
Excerpts from the Cabinet's Reaction to the WRR report Dynamism in Islamic Activism: Reference Points for Democratization and Human Rights	p. 47
Historical Diversity in the Muslim World	p. 53
Islamic Studies in the Dutch Public Sphere	p. 61
æTaki-What? What Are You Talking About?'	p. 69
Sharia and Law in a Bird's-Eye View: Reform, Moderation and Ambiguity	p. 73
Who Speaks for Islam? Learning What Most Muslims Think, and Some Lessons for Policymaking	p. 77
Islam Studies, Foreign Policy and the Muslim World: From Bush to Obama	p. 85
About the Authors	p. 97
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