Forged in the age of empire, the relationship between Islam and liberalism has taken on a sense of urgency today, when global conflicts are seen as pitting one against the other. More than describing a civilizational fault-line between the Muslim world and the West, however, this relationship also offers the potential for consensus and the possibility of moral and political engagement or compatibility. The existence or extent of this correspondence tends to preoccupy academic as much as popular accounts of such a relationship.This volume looks however to the way in which Muslim politics and society are defined beyond and indeed after it. Reappraising the 'first wave' of Islamic liberalism during the nineteenth century, the book describes the long and intertwined histories of these categories across a large geographical expanse. By drawing upon the contributions of scholars from a variety of disciplines -- including philosophy, theology, sociology, politics and history -- it explores how liberalism has been criticised and refashioned by Muslim thinkers and movements, to assume a reality beyond the abstractions that define its compatibility with Islam.

Introduction Faisal Devji and Zaheer KazmiORIGINS1. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Cage Hussein Omar2. Corrupting Politics: Liberalism and the Arab Nahda Revisited Nadia Bou Ali3. Illiberal Islam Faisal DevjiDEBATES4. Postcolonial Prophets: Islam in the Liberal Academy Neguin Yavari5. A New Deal Between Mankind and its Gods Abdennour Bidar6. The Dissonant Politics of Religion, Circulation, and Civility in the Sociology of Islam Armando Salvatore7. Islamic Democracy By Numbers Zaheer KazmiTHE STATE8. Bourgeois Islam and Muslims without Mosques: Muslim Liberalism and its Discontents in Indonesia Carool Kersten9. Islamic Secularism and the Question of Freedom Arshin Adib-Moghaddam10. Militancy, Monarchy and the Struggle to Desacralize Kingship in Arabia Ahmed Dailami11. Islamotopia: Revival, Reform, and American Exceptionalism Michael Muhammad KnightRESISTANCE12. Preliminary Thoughts on Art and Society Sadia Abbas13. The Political Meanings of Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam Edward E. Curtis IV14. The Other Radical Islam: Contesting Liberation Theologies Peter Mandaville