Moderate and Radical Islamic Fundamentalism
Moderate and Radical Islamic Fundamentalism
The Quest for Modernity, Legitimacy, and the Islamic State
“The slyest, and therefore smartest, assessment of Islamic fundamentalism currently available.”—International Journal of Middle East Studies
“A very careful and thoughtful study of various trends in contemporary Arab Islamic fundamentalism.”—Journal of Palestine Studies
“Full of innovative views and ideas about how to read various texts of Islamic fundamentalism. One concludes from it that ‘radicals’ and ‘moderates’ are not clear-cut categories for a classification of Islamic fundamentalists.”—Middle East Studies Association Bulletin
“This book is recommended to all those interested in overcoming conventional and simplified views of the political discourse of Islamism.”—Middle East Journal
“Highly recommended to academic and public libraries that aim to keep abreast of pressing foreign policy issues involving religion and culture.”—Choice
Basing his argument largely on Arabic documents, Ahmad Moussalli analyzes the basic concerns of fundamentalism—epistemology, knowledge, philosophy, modernity, science, and politics. Redefining the bases and scope of modern Islamic thought, he suggests that Islamic fundamentalism might prove to be a liberating theology for the modern Islamic world.
Ahmad S. Moussalli is professor of political science at the American University of Beirut.
