Social Justice in Islam By Deina Abdelkader (Herndon, VA: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2000. 216 pages.)

Abstract

The dynamics of Islamic revival/activism have been the subject of renewed
interest in the aftermath of the 9/ I I tragedy. Most of this interest has been
confined to media sound bites that present little or no appreciation for the
linkages between cause and effect, despite appeals by some conscientious
commentators for balanced analysis. Deina Abdelkader's Social Justice in
Islam, therefore, is a fresh contribution to studies on Islamic revivalism in
its contemporary context. Even though the study covers the period from
1988 to 1993, its examination of revivalist (or, as Abdelkader prefers,
activist) sentiment and activities in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey through the
dual lens of maqasid al-Shari 'ah (aims of Shari'ah) and the legal doctrine
of maslahah (public good) is timely, for it connects popular sentiment to
expression. The legal convention of maslahah and the paradigm of the
maqasid serve as baselines from which the author seeks to create a method
to understand the revivalists' thoughts and actions, as well as the feedback
mechanisms created by them to understand how they must function in
future contexts.
Abdelkader uses statistical analyses to examine the data in order to
study the relationship between the maqasid and the levels of activism measured
in each country. This lends her work credibility beyond the use of
anecdotes, which is needed in contemporary social science research. The
work is comprised of seven chapters followed by appendices that present
the data collected for Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey. The chapters focus on
theories of Islamic activism, the relationship between activism and public
expectations, and the research methodology used. A glossary of Arabic
tenns is included, as well as an extensive bibliography. A preface is pr<r
vided by Taha Jabir al-Alwani.
Abdelkader's first task is to review theories of lslamic activism/revival
in order to provide the reader with an understanding of its real causes. She
reviews three approaches used in the study of l slamic activism/revival: the
modernization/economic development approach, which focuses on the
dynamics of modernization; the popular discontent approach, which examines
the sources and degree of mobilization oflslamic activism/revival; and
the cultural studies approach, which emphasizes the customs and traditions ...