Rethinking Islam today (Reprinted)

Islamic revivalism and the activities of those who are its real or perceived proponents have monopolized the discourse on Islam. This article explores how this focus has totally ignored an overwhelming majority of Muslims. Social scientists have failed to liberate Islamic studies from pro- and anti-Orientalism cliches. Islam is still imagined as inferior (to Jewish and Christian traditions), unchanging, and militant by the West; and superior, dynamic, and peace loving by Muslims. The article outlines a need to study Islam as an epistemological project. It argues for a new ijtihad for Muslim as well as non-Muslim scholars to initiate a process of new thinking on Islam with tools such as history of thought rather than political events or fixed parameters; to make unthinkable notions-a historical rather than a religious postulate-thinkable; and to relate secularism, religion, and culture to contemporary challenges rather than substituting one for the other.