Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations

**Rev. of The Future of Islam (Oxford University Press, 2010) by J. Esposito. Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. 23 (1):99-100.**

The future of Islam, by John L. Esposito, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010, 234 pp.,

$24.95 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-19-516521-0

Throughout his long career, John Esposito has dedicated himself to fostering Christian–Muslim relations and to offering an accurate picture of Islam to Western publics. The future of Islam is a continuation – or as the author proposes a ‘culmination’ – of this work, aimed at dispelling stereotypes and the conflation of Islam and Muslims with jihadist fringe elements and global terrorism. Written in Esposito’s clear jargon-free style, The future of Islam is critical because it addresses head-on the rise in now openly declared Islamophobic sentiments and discourse in the post-9/11 Western world. It is this that provided the impetus for writing the book, and also shaped its structure and content, as the author consciously set out to attend to the recurrent questions persistently addressed to him and in public discourse since the attacks. Broaching such issues as whether mainstream Muslims condemn terrorism, whether Islam is compatible with democracy and gender equality, or even whether Islam is capable of reform, Esposito not only answers the questions but also examines the often problematic subtexts that underlie them.

The author’s capacity to see the world from many perspectives, including that or those of Muslims, constitutes the book’s real strength. However, the reader clearly senses that Esposito, who has worked alongside and befriended Muslims for decades, is not so much driven by ideology as by a healthy pragmatism grounded in facts. It is after all only common sense to realize, in light of the growing numbers of Muslims worldwide, and their ever increasing visibility in North America and Europe, that there is no alternative but to develop a modus vivendi. The biggest impediment to this, as Esposito notes, is the difficulty Western societies have in seeing themselves honestly and adopting more even-handed and less short-sighted policies and practices towards Muslims and the Muslim world. If the book is admittedly more tailored to a Western readership, it nonetheless does not ignore the many problems present within Muslim communities and Muslim-majority countries.

The future of Islam will be of interest to specialists in various disciplines: diplomacy and international affairs, strategic studies, sociology, Islamic studies, religious studies and its various offshoots such as interfaith or peace studies, as well as to the informed general public attempting to better understand the present-day world. In addition to its stylistic clarity, the book’s structure also increases its accessibility to a wider public: the four chapters, although connected by their shared objective, nevertheless stand alone and may also be read independently. The first chapter paints an overview of Islam and Muslims, stressing the diversity present within both while also articulating the discrepancy between what mainstream Muslims think, believe, and practice, and the Islam that is the object of endemic Western fear. The following chapter explains the role Islam has played in modern politics and how it has been instrumentalized by authoritarian regimes. In the discussion of political Islam, Esposito draws a link between Islamism and terrorism and Western foreign policy. Chapter 3 is the most interesting, as it introduces a diverse and global array of reformers, many unknown to a Western readership. The portraits of these leaders from Egypt, the United States, Britain, Switzerland, Pakistan, and Indonesia evince the plurality of the sometimes conflicting legal opinions and methodologies that are possible within Islam. Highlighting the pressing challenges facing contemporary Muslims, the chapter simultaneously contests a monolithic conception of ‘Islam’ and, more significantly, the presumption that Western secular modernity offers the single normative and universal model of culture, democracy, and governance. The last chapter, ‘America and the Muslim world: building a new way forward’, discusses how the West and the Muslim world might rethink and renegotiate their relationship beyond the polarization fostered by various Western political parties, interest groups, and media outlets and a number of Islamist and extremist groups.

Esposito advocates – as others have before him – a wiser, more balanced foreign policy that will allow democracy to take hold in the Muslim world and a resolution to emerge of the ongoing Israel–Palestinian conflict, a core grievance used to legitimize injustice, terrorism, and war. Recognizing improved Muslim–West relations as a vital key in securing a peaceful future, The future of Islam, without disregarding the difficulties ahead, remains hopeful. This fact alone, in light of the present state of global affairs, makes it well worth the read.

Unholy war: terror in the name of Islam, by John L. Esposito, New York, Oxford University Press, 2002, 198 pp., $19.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-0195168860

Unholy war examines several crucial questions raised about Islam and the Muslim world after 9/11. Questions now frequently asked are: Why does Islam appear to be more militant than other religions? Does the Qur’an condone violence and terrorism of the kind the world has witnessed? Is there a clash of civilizations between the West and the Muslim world? What does the Quran have to say about jihad or holy war? It has become more important than ever to remove misperceptions about Islam and to attempt to identify the underlying reasons for any Islamic-related terrorism. John L. Esposito is among the few authors with the credibility to write on these matters. In this book he discusses major issues currently confronting the West and the Muslim world.

Esposito believes that the twenty-first century will be dominated by a global encounter between the two major and rapidly-growing religions: Islam and Christianity. Simultaneously, the forces of globalization will strain relations between the West and the rest of the world. It is not a time for provoking a clash of civilizations; it is rather a time for a global engagement and coalition-building to actively promote peaceful co-existence and co-operation. With Western pressure for winning the global war against terrorism at any cost, how Islam and the Muslim world are understood will affect the way in which the causes of terrorism and anti-Americanism are addressed.

The making of the most prominent modern terrorist, Osama bin Laden, is considered in detail. In giving bin Laden’s background, the author discusses how he played on the Muslim sense of historic oppression, occupation and injustice at the hands of the West. The core of bin Laden’s jihad against America was formed by his outrage at the injustice in his homeland of Saudi Arabia – the infidel’s occupation of sacred territory and its support for a corrupt, un-Islamic government. Osama bin Laden, like leaders of other terrorist organizations, often used the past to legitimize his agenda and tactics. In the late twentieth and the twenty-first centuries the word ‘jihad’ has gained fresh currency, with resistance, liberation and terrorist movements alike using it to legitimize their cause and motivate their followers. Jihad is often simply translated as, and so simplistically equated with, aggressive holy war. For many in the West, it has become the symbol of Islam as inherently a religion of violence and fanaticism. Religious extremists and terrorists reinforce this belief as they freely declare jihad to justify attacks against all who disagree with them. Terrorists may attempt to hijack Islam and the doctrine of jihad; that is no more legitimate than Christian and Jewish extremists committing acts of terrorism in their own unholy wars in the name of Christianity or Judaism.

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On: 24 January 2012, At: 10:38
Publisher: Routledge
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