by Khaled Abou El Fadl
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Product Description
We suddenly find ourselves with very little knowledge of a religion and culture that continues to have an enormous impact on our world. Through a close reading of the Qur'an, Khaled Abou El Fadl shows that injunctions to violence against nonbelievers stem from misreadings. Even jihad, or so-called holy war, has no basis in Qur'anic text or Muslim theology, but instead was an outgrowth of social and political conflict.
Reading the holy text in the appropriate moral and historical contexts shows that Islamic civilization has long been pluralistic, and even usually tolerant of other religions. Leading scholars of Islam offer nuanced commentary
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent. Thought provoking., 2008-03-19
Excellent, thought provoking collection of essays by various well-known thinkers, scholars and leaders in the world-wide Muslim community. A must-read for anyone wanting to understand the state of affairs in the Muslim community.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 More valuable than most, 2007-09-15
This book is much more valuable than a lot of the polemics floating around on the new-found hot topic of Islam. Fadl's work demonstrates the rich diversity of contrasting ideologies within Islam and demonstrates that the vision of one band of fanatics cannot be painted onto a global community, despite the best efforts of countless fear-mongers.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A MUST READ for exploring the question of peace in Islam, 2007-06-11
This is an excellent read for those who are interested in exploring different ways to think and speak of the question of peace and tolerance within the context of Islam. This book (written post-9/11) is an anthology of Muslim writers (one of which is a woman) responding to Khaled Abou El Fadl's piece (the first writing in this book) on his own view of the peace question.
For example, Abou El Fadl states, "... the Qur'anic text assumes that readers will bring a preexisting, innate moral sense to the text. Hence, the text will morally enrich the reader, but only if the reader will morally enrich the text," (pg. 15); "Consequently, the meaning of the text is often only as moral as its reader. If the reader is intolerant, hateful, or oppressive, so will be the interpretation of the text," (pg. 22-23). Therefore, the "burden and blessing" of moral action within Islam is the responsibility of contemporary Muslims (pg. 23).
Some of the writers of this book responding to Abou El Fadl agree with his statements, but many disagree and/or bring differing perspectives to the table. Undoubtedly, all the writers believe their religion is very peaceful, though some argue this is not the proper question to ask in grand scheme of things. For example, R. Scott Appleby says that, "... the impoverishment of the Islamic educational system and the growing illiteracy of the Muslim masses," is largely the problem in regards to those Muslims who are intolerant (pg. 86-87). Tariq Ali believes, "The answer (regarding peace & tolerance in Islam) has very little to do with religion, but a great deal to do with history and politics," (pg. 38); "We need to move beyond discussing whether or not the Qur'an promotes tolerance and grapple with the urgent social and political problems that affect the Muslim world," (pg. 41). Abid Ullah Jan asks, "Why are the lectures on tolerance directed at Islam alone? Simply because the victim of September 11 was the United States," (pg. 46).
At the end of the book, the first writer, Abou El Fadl, has the chance to respond to his critics. He responds, in part, by asking, "After all, isn't the real question whether non-Muslims are willing to tolerate Muslims, instead of the other way around?" (pg. 96).
This book is an interesting conversation (albeit one-sided) between Muslims as to the various ways and problems of thinking of peace and tolerance within Islam. As a non-Muslim American woman who sees the beauty in this religion, my eyes have been opened further upon reading this book. Those of us who respect the religion of Islam must not only assert that it is a peaceful religion; we must also learn how to ask and point out the right and respectful questions in regards to this matter.
3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
 A noble effort, but...no., 2006-03-17
Since September 11th of 2001, there has never been a greater need for a scholarly piece of work on the tolerance and mercy of Islam. With media and political parties painting Islam in a negative light and fueling the portrayal of Muslims as extremists and haters of the West, I was elated to read an academic piece of work that portrayed them in a more objective light. I am unclear if I have found that in The Place of Tolerance in Islam.
The book opens with a twenty-page title essay by El Fadl that proclaims Islam to be an inherently tolerant religion, and he tries valiently to support his thesis with historical, textual evidence. The remainder of the book is divided into a number of scholarly essays that respond to El Fadl's claims of a tolerant Islam, composed of a relatively mainstream selection of scholars that range from "insiders" of the Islamic faith to American scholars who comment from an external point of view.
Theoretically, this widespread selection would give a well-rounded and thorough examination of the argument of tolerance in Islam; however, the brevity of the responses (at an average of five pages each) gives little chance for any of the respondents to fully articulate their point or strengthen it with evidence.
A better structure would have given El Fadl more pages with which to defend his thesis, and trimmed the commentators down to three or four (and giving them plenty of pages with which to argue for or against El Fadl's position). As it currently stands, the reader is left wondering what the issues are in the book (more than this broad issue of "a tolerant Islam"), and how they can be solved, or if they even can be solved. The more introspective essays lead one in the direction that perhaps there can be no resolution under the current concept of religious freedom, and that major changes will need to be taken in the worldviews of not only Islam, but in the worldviews of Christians, Jews, and all other religious participants.
Structure can't account for everything, however. El Fadl wastes half his essay giving historical background, leaving only a few precious pages to profess and defend his thesis. This creates a shaky argument for which the remaining essays have little groundwork to rebut, causing nearly all of the respondents to shakily respond. Of the essayists, only two provide a fully on-topic response: Jan and Bilgrami, both from strikingly-divergent perspectives, give amazing insights into the place of tolerance in Islam and provide perhaps the only solid framework for the book.
Overall, I feel as if El Fadl made a good effort in attempting to show the place of tolerance in Islam, and the essays presented that argued for or against his position were, to the best of their abilities, a noble effort. But the compilation of the 11 essays was far too small a space to adequately tackle such a controversial and complex issue, and as a result, the book in total was a flawed and flimsy collection that seemed to create more questions than it answered. It's definitely not a book for lay-readers, but if you're really interested in Islam and reframing your misconceptions about it, it might be a starting place that will help you on the way to finding good resources.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
The one sad thing about this book..., 2005-08-25
More popular books on Islam like to prattle on and copy each other about the _lack_ of tolerance in Islam, but that's like focusing on the most intolerant Christian sect and using incidents of their intolerance as proof that Christianity is uniformly intolerant.
This book was written, in part, to counteract books such as _Islam Unveiled_, _The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam_, and _The Sword and the Prophet_. These screeds are as misleading as they are popular. The sad fact about this book is that the people who need to read it the most never will -- at least not with an open mind.
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