Seeking the Muslim Gandhi: Asghar Ali Engineer and the Shifting Positions on 11 September 2001 Debates on Islam and Violence

This paper examines the question of Islam and its relationship to violence in Muslim reformer Asghar Ali Engineer's pre- and post-11 September 2001 works in response to the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. We argue that that while his pre-9/11 approach...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Authors: Esack, Farid 1956- (Author) ; Kunnummal, Ashraf (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Brill [2019]
In: Religion & theology
Year: 2019, Volume: 26, Issue: 3/4, Pages: 282-309
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Engineer, Asghar Ali 1939-2013 / Islam / Liberation theology / Eleventh of September terrorist attack / Non-violence / Debate
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AG Religious life; material religion
BJ Islam
Further subjects:B liberal Islam
B Muslim Gandhi
B Asghar Ali Engineer
B Islamic liberation theology
B Islam and violence
B bad Muslim / good Muslim
B 11 / Muslims and 9
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:This paper examines the question of Islam and its relationship to violence in Muslim reformer Asghar Ali Engineer's pre- and post-11 September 2001 works in response to the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. We argue that that while his pre-9/11 approach to violence offers a much more historical and systemic account of violence by viewing it as a societal problem involving a number of different agents, the post-9/11 evocation of Gandhi does the opposite. By evoking the figure of Gandhi in a post-9/11 context, Engineer not only addresses the issue of violence as a peculiarly Muslim one but forecloses any possibility to understanding violence as a historically evolving and systemically operating phemonenon. In ignoring this, Engineer finds himself well accommodated within the larger politics of Empire and its dehistoricised, naturalised, and individualised interpretation of Muslim related violence.
ISSN:1574-3012
Contains:Enthalten in: Religion & theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15743012-02603002