Islam in Liberalism - Softcover

Massad, Joseph A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 022637954X ISBN 13: 9780226379548

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2016

Synopsis

In the popular imagination, Islam is often associated with words like oppression, totalitarianism, intolerance, cruelty, misogyny, and homophobia, while its presumed antonyms are Christianity, the West, liberalism, individualism, freedom, citizenship, and democracy. In the most alarmist views, the West’s most cherished values—freedom, equality, and tolerance—are said to be endangered by Islam worldwide.

Joseph Massad’s Islam in Liberalism explores what Islam has become in today’s world, with full attention to the multiplication of its meanings and interpretations. He seeks to understand how anxieties about tyranny, intolerance, misogyny, and homophobia, seen in the politics of the Middle East, are projected onto Islam itself. Massad shows that through this projection Europe emerges as democratic and tolerant, feminist, and pro-LGBT rights—or, in short, Islam-free. Massad documents the Christian and liberal idea that we should missionize democracy, women’s rights, sexual rights, tolerance, equality, and even therapies to cure Muslims of their un-European, un-Christian, and illiberal ways. Along the way he sheds light on a variety of controversial topics, including the meanings of democracy—and the ideological assumption that Islam is not compatible with it while Christianity is—women in Islam, sexuality and sexual freedom, and the idea of Abrahamic religions valorizing an interfaith agenda. Islam in Liberalism is an unflinching critique of Western assumptions and of the liberalism that Europe and Euro-America blindly present as a type of salvation to an assumingly unenlightened Islam.

About this title

About the Author

Joseph A. Massad is professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history in the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University. He has written many books, including Desiring Arabs, also published by the University of Chicago Press. 

Review

“This erudite, at times frustrating, but always challenging, work of scholarship should be essential reading for all scholars of Islam and Middle East politics.” (Cambridge Review of International Affairs)

“Islam in Liberalism raises important questions about the power and influence of Western NGOs and the humanitarian missions of Western governments. Massad is on unimpeachable ground in arguing that these institutions are not simply altruistic vehicles for do-goodism, and that those who claim that the West has a mission and a burden to save women, gays, or the oppressed in the Muslim world are necessarily rehashing old Orientalist tropes. In unearthing the unconscious motives and unspoken cultural assumptions underlying human rights and international organizations, Islam in Liberalism should be required reading for NGO workers the world over.” (Haaretz)

“Here’s a book that Donald Trump should read. At the heart of Massad’s Islam in Liberalism is a narrative about terms, translation and global imperialism. This empire is largely cultural but can turn territorial, and it belongs to the ‘liberal’ West. Massad argues, with relentless pace, that the West’s drive to hegemony is supported by a series of images in political, media and scholarly discourse that position ‘liberalism’ and ‘Islam’ as antithetical to each other. . . . Massad’s relentless interrogation of Western stereotypes of Islam, Muslims and the ‘Muslim world’ is much needed at a time when the Republican front-runner can win votes by subjecting Muslims to yet more demonization.” (Theos)

“Islam in Liberalism is a timely nuanced book, written in the same spirit and comprehensiveness of Massad’s previous work. Here, he continues his scrutiny of the relationship between knowledge and power and succeeds in becoming one of the most articulate scholars of critical studies. The book is a blast on much of the taken-for-granted solid boundaries that previous generation of scholars have erected to eroticize Islam and Muslims and make both the antithesis of Western liberalism. . . . This is a dense book full of powerful evidence, arguments, claims and interpretations. It maps the genealogy of a complex intellectual history entrenched in imperialism, colonialism, domination and resistance. There is a dark side to this history that is so clear in Massad’s book. The story of Islam in Liberalism is a narrative not only about liberal fears and anxieties but also about racism, phobia, and negation of the agency of those who are labelled Muslims. . . . Islam in Liberalism is a landmark in the field of post-colonial studies.” (Madawi Al-Rasheed, Politics, Religion and Ideology)

“Massad provides an objective and convincing analysis of the West’s exploitation and distortion of Islam for the purpose of promoting liberalism, basing himself and his points of view on old and new [historical] examples, events, and evidence framed in a coherent and fluid presentation.” (Al-Hayat)

“It’s hard to imagine a more necessary and timely book. Massad’s work is likely to become the sine qua non of studies on how Islam and liberalism interface in politics and culture.” (Flavorwire)

“Massad’s Islam in Liberalism provides a far more nuanced and complex reappraisal of this tumultuous history in a brilliant and impressive synthesis of recent post-colonial, psychoanalytic, feminist, and political theoretical literatures.” (Marc Aziz Michael, Politics, Religion and Ideology)

“This is a dense and densely argued book, in the best way, full of lively histories of the political, intellectual and cultural twists and turns that have enabled Western liberalism to so clearly dominate the discourse on Islam, and to claim it as the evil opposite while in fact feeding off that projection in order to strengthen itself. Islam in Liberalism provides a sophisticated set of analyses and critiques for those wrestling with the liberalism that overlays international matters, especially on Israel and Palestine.” (Electronic Intifada)

“This indispensable compendium of rich, critical insights and readings is as learned as it is now necessary. Massad has recreated the scholarly and political context in which understanding of the relationships between Liberalism and Islam will be conducted.” (Paul Gilroy King's College London)

"This is a powerfully—often passionately--written text. . . . The only book that I can think of in comparison is Edward Said's Covering Islam—but Massad’s book is far richer both in terms of the literature covered (much of which was of course not yet available when Said wrote his book) and the range of questions engaged.” (Talal Asad Graduate Center, City University of New York)

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 022637954X
• ISBN 13: 9780226379548
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 404