Synopses & Reviews
In the popular imagination, Islam is often associated with words like oppression, totalitarianism, intolerance, cruelty, misogyny, and homophobia, while its presumed antonyms are Christianity, the West, liberalism, individualism, freedom, citizenship, and democracy. In the most alarmist views, the Wests most cherished valuesfreedom, equality, and toleranceare said to be endangered by Islam worldwide.
Joseph Massads Islam in Liberalism explores what Islam has become in todays world, with full attention to the multiplication of its meanings and interpretations. He seeks to understand how anxieties about tyranny, intolerance, misogyny, and homophobia, seen in the politics of the Middle East, are projected onto Islam itself. Massad shows that through this projection, Europe emerges as democratic and tolerant, feminist, and pro-LGBT rightsor, in short, Islam-free. Massad documents the Christian and liberal idea that we should missionize democracy, womens rights, sexual rights, tolerance, equality, and even therapies to cure Muslims of their un-European, un-Christian, and illiberal ways. Along the way he sheds light on a variety of controversial topics, including the meanings of democracyand the ideological assumption that Islam is not compatible with it while Christianity iswomen in Islam, sexuality and sexual freedom, and the idea of Abrahamic religions valorizing an interfaith agenda. Islam in Liberalism is an unflinching critique of Western assumptions and of the liberalism that Europe and Euro-America blindly present as a type of salvation to an assumingly unenlightened Islam.
Review
"This is a powerfully—often passionately--written text. . . . The only book that I can think of in comparison is Edward Said's Covering Islam—but Massad’s book is far richer both in terms of the literature covered (much of which was of course not yet available when Said wrote his book) and the range of questions engaged.”
Review
“Massad is an important intellectual voice. He commands attention internationally. He offers distinctive, compelling, and often brilliant critiques of positions that many regard as sacrosanct: most notably the human rights regime, NGOS, and international development organizations, and does not spare the therapeutic enterprises of psychoanalysis and transcultural tolerance.”
Review
"In recent years we have come to take seriously the idea that certain othering concepts such as 'the Orient' and 'Islam' have played a vital role in giving reality to 'the West.' The extraordinary value of Massad’s new book is that he has shown, through a sustained analysis of a wide variety of historical and contemporary discourses, that 'Islam' has been more than a periphery-defining concept utilized merely to lend truth and solidity to the Christian West. Far more importantly, 'Islam' has been at work as a powerful agonistic imaginary indispensable for the self-definition of the West’s own polity as essentiallyfree. This is a deeply considered work that is more than timely."
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“This indispensable compendium of rich, critical insights and readings is as learned as it is now necessary. Massad has recreated the scholarly and political context in which understanding of the relationships between Liberalism and Islam will be conducted.”
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“A bold and insightful study of the historical and contemporary uses and misuses of rhetorics of democracy, womens rights and sexualities in their deployments in relation to Islam—a rich important contribution to a growing body of such critical literature.”
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“It’s hard to imagine a more necessary and timely book. Massad’s work is likely to become the sine qua non of studies on how Islam and liberalism interface in politics and culture.”
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“Massad provides an objective and convincing analysis of the West’s exploitation and distortion of Islam for the purpose of promoting liberalism, basing himself and his points of view on old and new [historical] examples, events, and evidence framed in a coherent and fluid presentation.”
Review
“Islam in Liberalism raises important questions about the power and influence of Western NGOs and the humanitarian missions of Western governments. Massad is on unimpeachable ground in arguing that these institutions are not simply altruistic vehicles for do-goodism, and that those who claim that the West has a mission and a burden to save women, gays, or the oppressed in the Muslim world are necessarily rehashing old Orientalist tropes. In unearthing the unconscious motives and unspoken cultural assumptions underlying human rights and international organizations, Islam in Liberalism should be required reading for NGO workers the world over.”
Review
“This is a dense and densely argued book, in the best way, full of lively histories of the political, intellectual and cultural twists and turns that have enabled Western liberalism to so clearly dominate the discourse on Islam, and to claim it as the evil opposite while in fact feeding off that projection in order to strengthen itself. Islam in Liberalism provides a sophisticated set of analyses and critiques for those wrestling with the liberalism that overlays international matters, especially on Israel and Palestine.”
Synopsis
From an acclaimed historian, a powerful analysis of the cold war dynamics that continue to shape Middle East geopolitics
Synopsis
Acclaimed historian and political commentator Rashid Khalidi presents the compelling case that U.S. and Soviet intervention in the Middle East not only exacerbated civil wars and provoked the breakdown of fragile democracies, but continues to this day to shape global conflict in the region. Examining the strategic interplay of cold war superpowers, Khalidi explains how the momentous events that have occurred over the last two decades—including two Gulf wars, the occupation of Iraq, and the rise of terrorism—can only be understood in light of this chilling legacy.
Synopsis
Joseph Massads Desiring Arabs (UCP, 2007) was an intellectual/literary history that sought out links between Orientalism and representations of sex and desire, rebutting in the meantime Western efforts to impose categories of heterosexual/homosexual where (in Islam) no such subjectivities exist. His new book broadens the purview to show us what Islam has become in todays world, attending fully to the multiplication of meanings of Islam.” Islam in Liberalism is an intellectual/political history, enabling us to understand that history in terms of how Islam operated as a category within western liberalism; another way to phrase this is to say that Massad underscores how the anxieties about what Europe constituteddespotism, intolerance, misogyny, homophobiahave gotten projected onto Islam. It is, he avers, only through this projection that Europe could emerge as democratic, tolerant, gynophilic, and hemophilicin short, Islam-free. But in fact Islam has been there since the birth of Europe. Liberalism has been the weapon of choice since the late 18th century against the internal” and external” others of Europe. Massads brilliant critique of anti-Muslim sexual politics in Desiring Arabs is now broadened provocatively to include NGOs, international organizations, and therapeutic programs. He moves from consideration of the meanings of democracy” (and the ideological assumption that Islam” is not compatible with democracy) through chapters on women in Islam, sexuality and/in Islam, psychoanalytic interpretations of Islamic themes, and the more recent development of the idea of Abrahamic religions” among those valorizing an inter-faith agenda. Overall, Massad sets this book up as a biting critique of the sort of liberalism Euro-American propagated and brought as good news” to an unenlightened Islam.
About the Author
Rashid Khalidi is the author of seven books about the Middle East, including Palestinian Identity, Brokers of Deceit, Resurrecting Empire, The Iron Cage, and Sowing Crisis. His writing on Middle Eastern history and politics has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and many journals. For his work on the Middle East, Professor Khalidi has received fellowships and grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the American Research Center in Egypt, and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others. He is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University in New York and is editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Choice of Liberalism
1 The Democracy Offensive and the Defenses of Islam”
2 Women and/in Islam”: The Rescue Mission of Western Liberal Feminism
3 Pre-Positional Conjunctions: Sexuality and/in Islam”
4 Psychoanalysis, Islam,” and the Other of Liberalism
5 Forget Semitism!
Works Cited
Index