Synopses & Reviews
The development of mass education and the mass media have transformed the Islamic tradition in contemporary Egypt and the wider Muslim world. In
Putting Islam to Work, Gregory Starrett focuses on the historical interplay of power and public culture, showing how these new forms of communication and a growing state interest in religious instruction have changed the way the Islamic tradition is reproduced.
During the twentieth century new styles of religious education, based not on the recitation of sacred texts but on moral indoctrination, have been harnessed for use in economic, political, and social development programs. More recently they have become part of the Egyptian government's strategy for combating Islamist political opposition. But in the course of this struggle, the western-style educational techniques that were adopted to generate political stability have instead resulted in a rapid Islamization of public space, the undermining of traditional religious authority structures, and a crisis of political legitimacy. Using historical, textual, and ethnographic evidence, Gregory Starrett demonstrates that today's Islamic resurgence is rooted in new ways of thinking about Islam that are based in the market, the media, and the school.
Review
and#8220;Starrett has cleared new analytical ground on which unorthodox and critically disorienting approaches to Islam can be developed.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Provocative discussion. . . . Provides a framework for analyzing religious manifestations of modernity which reaches far beyond the confines of religious schooling, Egypt, and, Islam.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Unlike most of the prevailing literature on this issue, [this book] offers refreshing, innovative, and provocative insights and analyses.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Readers . . . cannot but be struck by the keen intelligence, subtlety, and insight that pervade Starrett's book.and#8221;
Synopsis
"A sound contribution to our knowledge of the uses of tradition and modernity by states, of the social life of Islamic texts, and of the historical roles of schooling in social change."and#151;John Bowen, author of Muslims through Discourse
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-301) and index.
About the Author
Gregory Starrett is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.