The Qur'an Problem and Islamism: Reflections of a Dissident Muslim

by Salim Mansur

Overview

Salim Mansur’s The Qur’an Problem and Islamism is about religion and politics, about Muslims and Islam, and the internal debate within the world of Islam about Islamic reform and what it entails. The author discusses the difference between Islam, as a world religion within the Abrahamic tradition of monotheism, and Islamism, as a political ideology and a theology of jihad, and how historically Islam as a religion was turned into the ideology of Islamism, or political Islam. The sacred text of Islam is the Qur’an, and the challenge of any text lies in how it is read, understood, and practiced. The “Qur’an problem” has been right from the outset of Islamic history following the demise of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, in how to read, understand, interpret, and apply the meaning of the Qur’an in the lives of Muslims, and how this “Qur’an problem” remains the source of violence among Muslims at the present time as it has been in the past. It is the contention of the author that any reform of Islam that will assist Muslims reconcile with the modern world of science and democracy, and contribute to peace among them and with the rest of the world, must begin with a positive resolution of the “Qur’an problem.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781927618080
Publisher:	Mantua Books Ltd.
Publication date:	12/20/2017
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.47(d)

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements ............................................................. 1

Introduction ....................................................................................................... 5

I. Islam and Islamism ..................................................................................... 15

II. On the Historical Muhammad ............................................................ 22

III. On the Historical Qur’an ...................................................................... 39

IV. The Qur’an Problem .............................................................................. 55

V. Arab and Muslim AntiSemitism ....................................................... 102

VI. ISIS, Saudi Arabia and the West .................................................... 133

VII. Islamism in the Rear-View Mirror ............................................. 169

VIII. An Afterword ......................................................................................... 187

Notes ...................................................................................................................... 193

Select Glossary .................................................................................................. 210

Suggested Readings 213

Editorial Reviews

Many in the West, including even some Muslims, think that they can discuss Islam and its needs on the basis of a few words fished at random out of the Qur’an. Barack Obama took an excerpt literally when he spoke of Islam as a religion of peace. That proved, he said, that the so-called Islamic State could not be Islamic. But Mansur’s book shows that over the centuries Islam has believed many ideas, not all of them consistent with others.

In careful, clear prose, Mansur takes us through the tangle of theories and inner conflicts that have shaped Islam, in which Islamists have played a large plot. It’s a pathology that encourages conflict with others who can be seen as enemies, such as Jews. This compulsion has “turned into Muslim-on-Muslim violence, a raging sectarian conflict of Sunnis against Shi’ites and ethnic conflicts of tribes against tribes or nations against nations.” Many of these have come accompanied by new or altered doctrine.

At the end of the 20th century, most of us viewed Muslims as adherents of an outdated but harmless religion, limited to one region and one cultural group, the Arabs. Since the eruptions that followed 2001 we have been learning how wrong we were. Mansur’s cool, intelligent overview of his own faith tells us we still have a lot to learn.

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https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/books/how-salim-mansur-is-trying-to-clarify-the-theories-and-inner-conflicts-that-have-shaped-islam

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Robert Fulford is a Toronto author, journalist, broadcaster, and editor. He writes a regular column for The National Post and is a frequent contributor to Queen's Quarterly.

From the Publisher