Dr. Oweidat speaks about her upcoming book, Reform and Its Perils in Contemporary Islam: The Case of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (working title).
This book concerns the efforts of Muslim intellectuals to reconcile their religious identities with liberal values in the contemporary world. Ever since the Islamic world first encountered Western liberalism, the intellectual field of Islamic thought has witnessed vibrant debates and a multiplicity of perspectives on the relationship between Islam and modernity.
Many scholars of Islamic thought have attempted to integrate liberal values, such as equality, freedom of thought, and freedom of conscience, with the Islamic tradition. Muslim modernists argue that these ideals represent the most accurate expression of Islam when it is properly understood, even if the sacred texts and historical realities of Muslim communities seem to contradict their claims.
Dr. Oweidat’s book identifies and analyzes one particular intellectual current that espouses an apolitical view of Islam and a separation between religion and the public sphere and the adoption of liberal values in Muslim communities. It focuses on the prominent Muslim scholar, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (1943-2010), whose case illustrates the resistance, even enmity, directed toward Muslim intellectuals who attempt to subject the Islamic tradition to academic scrutiny. A professor of Islamic thought in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at Cairo University, as well as a practicing Muslim, Abu Zayd became well known in Egypt and globally when the Egyptian Court of Appeals declared him an apostate in 1995, a judgment which in mainstream interpretations of the Islamic law can carry the death penalty. To protect his own life and that of his wife, Abu Zayd fled to the Netherlands.With Abu Zayd as a case study, the book analyzes the intellectual trends that propose a reconciliation between liberal values and Islam. It examines in depth the roadblocks and challenges to liberalizing Islamic thought, both externally in the form of oppressive regimes and an intolerant religious arena, as well as internally at the level of intellectual arguments. A critical analysis of the logic of liberal Islamic thought has been a missing element in current academic study. One reason for this shortage could be the fact that the majority of these works have not been translated into English, making them available only to fluent Arabic speakers. The recent publication of a translation of one of Abu Zayd’s most controversial books, Critique of Religious Discourse (2018) by Yale University Press, is likely to lead to more interest in this subject. Providing a critical exploration of this important intellectual trend is significant for understanding the strengths and weakness of reform efforts in Islamic thought, whether in the academy or beyond.
