Critical Quran Studies
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Tuesday, April 28, 2009
The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff wrote last week about a Quran conference he attended at the University of Notre Dame. I don't usually agree with what Kristoff writes about, but this time much like him, I find it deplorable that conferences like this one (The Quran in Historical Contexts held last week) never take place in a Muslim country. What's even more lamentable was that Arab/Muslim media never bothered to cover such an important event. Not even a marginal mention at the bottom right corner of page 18 of a newspaper or a 30-second reader on a tv news broadcast. Why is it always the others who are providing the spaces where we could ask brave questions when we could do it in our own block?
Nasr Hamid Abu-Zayd, a well-known Egyptian whose critique of literalist readings of the Quran earned him the title of an apostate, keynoted at this conference. There are many other Muslim intellectuals who dare ask these questions, but their answers are often crippled by unfounded accusations of heresy and atheism: the Syrian Muhammad Shahrur, the Egyptian Gamal Al-Banna, Syrian philosopher Sadik Jalal Al-Azm, the Algerian Mohamed Arkoun, and many others. Scholars like these rarely come on television in Arab countries, and unless they do, Muslims will remain deprived of a real and progressive debate on Islamic thought and a possibility for an Islamic humanism and modernity.
What are we afraid of? I attended a wonderful panel at the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow Conference this weekend in New York City, in which author and activist Irshad Manji, journalist Mona Eltahawy, author Rania Idliby, and ASMA president Daisy Khan eloquently showed who can speak for Islam (not Muslims) today. Why are we afraid of dissenting voices within? These women were speaking from divergent vantage points and their discussion led to a constructive debate about the limits of our tolerance. We might be a diverse community of believers, but we're not necessarily a tolerant community of believers. As Edward Murrow once said, "No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices."
Nasr Hamid Abu-Zayd, a well-known Egyptian whose critique of literalist readings of the Quran earned him the title of an apostate, keynoted at this conference. There are many other Muslim intellectuals who dare ask these questions, but their answers are often crippled by unfounded accusations of heresy and atheism: the Syrian Muhammad Shahrur, the Egyptian Gamal Al-Banna, Syrian philosopher Sadik Jalal Al-Azm, the Algerian Mohamed Arkoun, and many others. Scholars like these rarely come on television in Arab countries, and unless they do, Muslims will remain deprived of a real and progressive debate on Islamic thought and a possibility for an Islamic humanism and modernity.
What are we afraid of? I attended a wonderful panel at the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow Conference this weekend in New York City, in which author and activist Irshad Manji, journalist Mona Eltahawy, author Rania Idliby, and ASMA president Daisy Khan eloquently showed who can speak for Islam (not Muslims) today. Why are we afraid of dissenting voices within? These women were speaking from divergent vantage points and their discussion led to a constructive debate about the limits of our tolerance. We might be a diverse community of believers, but we're not necessarily a tolerant community of believers. As Edward Murrow once said, "No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices."
Tags: "critical quran" islam "muslim leaders of tomorrow"
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I was born and raised in Morocco. My research focuses on the intersections between Islam, Arab popular culture and the media. I'm currently an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
