Scientific and Political Freedom in Islam: A Critical Reading of the Modernist-Apologetic School

204 Pages·2017·1.88 MB·English

by  Uriya Shavit

Highly recommended reading not only for scholars and students interested in the
history of modern Islamic ideas but to anybody who cares about the proper rela-
tionship between religious faith, science and politics in the Islamic world today.
Professor Torkel Brekke, author of Fundamentalism: Prophecy
and Protest in an Age of Globalization (2012)
Uriya Shavit shows with great erudition that the modernist-apologists are not a
thing of the past. The discourse of ‘Abduh and Rida still inspires Arab Muslim
scholarsandintellectualstoformulate alternatives to both secularism and intransigent
Islamism.
Professor Martin Riexinger, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
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SCIENTIFIC AND POLITICAL FREEDOM
IN ISLAM
Themodernist-apologetic approachtotherelation between revelationandscience,
and revelation and politics, has been a central part of Arab discourses on the future
of Muslim societies for over a century. This approach introduced historical and
theological narratives and interpretative mechanisms that contextualize reason and
freedom in Islamic terms to argue that, unlike with Christianity, it is possible for
Muslim societies to be technologically and politically advanced without forfeiting
revelation as an all-encompassing, legally binding guide.
Scientific and Political Freedom in Islam critically examines the coherence and con-
sistency of modernist-apologeticscholars.Thisisdonethroughadiscussionoftheir
generaltheorizingonreasonandfreedom,which isthenfollowedbydiscussionsof
their commentaries on specific scientific and political issues in light of their general
theorizing.Regardingtheformer,thefocusisDarwin’stheoryofevolution,whilethe
universality of the Flood, the heliocentric model, the Big Bang model and Freu-
dianismarealsodiscussed.Regardingthelatter,thefocusisIslam’sdesiredstructureof
governmentandconceptofparticipatorypolitics,whileindividualfreedomsarealso
discussed.Thebookarguesthatthemodernist-apologeticapproachhasgreatpoten-
tialtobeaforceforliberalization,butalsopossesses inherent limitations that render
its theory on the relation between revelation and freedom self-contradictory.
Introducing a significant body of new information on the reasons for the failure
of secularism and democracy and the attitudes towards Darwinism in the Arab
world, this book is a valuable resource for students and scholars of Islamic Studies,
comparative religion, democracy studies and evolution studies.
Uriya Shavit is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and Head of the Graduate
PrograminReligious StudiesatTelAvivUniversity. Hismainresearch interestslie
in the study of modern Islamic theology, law and politics and the sociology of
Muslim minorities in the West. His most recent books are Islamism and the West,
Shari‘a and Muslim Minorities and Zionism in Arab Discours.es
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SCIENTIFIC AND
POLITICAL FREEDOM
IN ISLAM
A Critical Reading of the
Modernist-Apologetic School
Uriya Shavit
K ~~o~;J~n~~~up
ORKYOR LLONODONNLODNDOONN
Y
LONDONANDNEWYORK
Firstpublished2017
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
andbyRoutledge
711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2017UriyaShavit
TherightofUriyaShavittobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeenasserted
bytheminaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,Designsand
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Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor
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infringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Names:Shavit,Uriya,author.
Title:Scientificandpoliticalfreedominislam:acriticalreadingofthe
modernist-apologeticschool/UriyaShavit.
Description:MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon;NewYork,NY:Routledge,2017.
|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2016041414|ISBN9781138286030(hardback)|ISBN
9781138286047(pbk.)|ISBN9781315268668(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Islamicmodernism.|Islamandscience.|Islamiccivilization.
Classification:LCCBP166.14.M63S532017|DDC297.2/6–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2016041414
ISBN:978-1-138-28603-0(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-138-28604-7(pbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-26866-8(ebk)
TypesetinBembo
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
To my parents, Zohar and Yaacov
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments x
Introduction 1
1 A Quest for Reason and Freedom 8
2 Islam and Science 59
3 Islam and Democracy 107
Conclusion 165
Bibliography 170
Index 186