Book #1: Religion and State by L. Carl Brown

[jmm99]

I found Maududi a long time ago - and will continue to consult his works; and perhaps even Qutb.

In the meantime, I've other things to do; purchasing a new car not being among them.

Regards

Mike

[graphei]

Jmm if you want to continue reading Maududi, or Qutb, or even Rida, Iqbal, Asad, al-Bana, or Safavi- don’t let me stop you by any means. I was offering advice based on my experience teaching this topic.

Just to clarify, I apologize if you took my words to mean you were cherry-picking through Maududi. Rather, Maududi and Qutb have the reputation for the cherry-picking.

Now, since I underestimated the groups ability so terribly, let's try something different.

Next book: Fazlur Rahman’s controversial work "Islam and Modernity: The Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition". ISBN: 0226702847. All of you should be able to chew through that in 3 weeks with no problem. Since you’re all familiar with the concepts and thinkers he references, let’s up the ante a bit more and play a little game we did in grad school: Cite only sources from from Islamic thinkers and/or the Muslim world. This book generated enough talk where that shouldn’t be hard at all. Whether you love or revile him, Rahman can't be ignored.

I’m going to read this book again on Sunday (the 27th), and by the 31st, I’ll have prepared a list of questions for all of you to keep in mind as you make your way through. Let’s continue the change up and say you should have this book in your hot hands by November 17. We can talk as you all read instead of waiting till the end.

As for articles, I am in the process of requesting permission from a few publishers to use articles. I want to keep everything on the up-and-up here, and want to avoid bringing the wrath of a publisher down on our gracious host. Hopefully, this first article will be December/January’s reading. It’s light; Only 16 or so pages. You can crush it during a lunch break.

I’ll post the book recommendations in the appropriate thread as well.

[omarali50]

Just wanted to add that now that I have read most of the book, I must say I like it. Minor "niceness" and lapses are of little consequence. As a quick summary of Islamic political history and thought, its really very good. So my vote is "highly recommended". More when I get some time..