Travelling Home: Essays on Islam in Europe

Abdal Hakim Murad

Paperback

9781872038209

This book was one of the titles selected for the Wardah Books Islamic Civilisation Book Club 2022.

'Probably the most important book ever published by a European Muslim scholar. Traditionally enlightened, mercifully uncompromising with the truth, intellectually and spiritually challenging, these eleven essays show the way forward in a dark and dangerous age.' – Professor Yahya Michot, Hartford Seminary

How should we react to the new Islamophobic movements now spreading in the West? Everywhere the far right is on the march, with nationalist and populist parties thriving on the back of popular anxieties about Islam and the Muslim presence. Hijab and minaret bans, mosque shootings, hostility to migrants, and increasingly scornful media stereotypes seem to endanger the prospects for friendly coexistence and the calm uplifting of Muslim populations.

In this series of essays, Abdal Hakim Murad dissects the rise of Islamophobia on the basis of Muslim theological tradition. Although the proper response to the current impasse is clearly indicated in Qur’an and Hadith, some have lost the principle of trust in divine wisdom and are responding with hatred, fearfulness, or despair. Abdal Hakim Murad shows that a compassion-based approach, rooted in an authentic theology of divine power, could transform the current quagmire into a bright landscape of great promise for Muslims and their neighbours.

Contents

1: Can Liberalism Tolerate Islam?

2: Muslims and National Populism

3: British Muslims and the Rhetoric of Indigenisation

4: Islamophobia and the Bosnian War

5: The Venomous Bid'a of Tanfir

6: Good Anger, Bad Anger, and Shirk al-Asbab

7: 'Push Back with Something More Beautiful' (Qur'an 41: 34): Minority Muslims from Complainants to Therapists

8: A Theology of the Ahl al-Kidhab

9: Seeking Knowledge: the Multiple Horizons of British Islamic Studentship

10: Creation Spirituality

11: Zakat in the Postmodern Economy