Remaking Muslim Politics Pluralism, Contestation, Democratization by Robert W. Hefner, ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. 358 pages.)

Abstract

We can sense, Robert Hefner announces in the introduction to this edited
volume, “a new dynamic of popular participation and contestative pluralism
… inspiring dreams of a Muslim politics that is civil and democratic” (p.
11). Herein lies the book’s singular thesis. Since 9/11, scholars have spilled
enormous quantities of ink in convincing western audiences that radical violence
and ideological intolerance do not characterize mainstream Islam. Yet
the quest to delineate Islam’s compatibility with democracy often meant
ignoring the complexity of ideas within the stream of democratic Muslim
thought. This eclectic collection fills this gap, bringing together twelve
authors who demonstrate the rise of new Islamic voices promoting civic pluralism
within the boundaries of religious tradition. However, they also show
that such views have triggered fierce contestation from more conservative interlocutors. In laying out a sweeping map of these battles, the volume performs
a necessary service to general scholars of Islamic politics ...