Studying the Qur'an in the Muslim Academy

Abstract

Abstract This book sheds light on how the study of Islam in the Muslim lands become an exercise in politics and pious apologetics. It also displays the way modern critical historical approach to the Qurʾān is under threat across the world. The author shows the combination of traditional practices, sectarian rivalry, prejudice and outdated attitudes—reflexive censorship, mutual systemic exclusion by Sunni and Shi‘i traditions of each other’s points of view along with lack of interest in work done outside the Middle East and a fixation on a narrow and flawed interpretation of Orientalism, Edward W. Said’s classic study of imperialist cultural representation. It discusses the influence of oil-funded conservative inroads into religious studies programs in the West. It provides readers with a powerful case for understanding the sources and dynamics of “Islamic Apologetics” and the threat to critical historical methodologies particularly in the West as an essential first step toward protecting then strengthening modern scholarship, East and West.