Cosmopolitans and Heretics

'Well located in the context of debates about concepts such as postcolonialism, translation, and hybridity, and the book is a powerful, and welcome, plea for the investigation of Islamic Thought on a global, as opposed to a regional, basis.' -Professor Hugh Goddard, University of Edinburgh 'Charts new territory for the robust study of Islam as a force in today's world. It traces the Asian arc of influence stemming from the cluster of new Muslim intellectuals whose work is little known but whose impact has begun to grow during the latest period of global history. The Indian Ocean network mapped here provides welcome attention to themes and issues, texts and contexts that will now be debated with fresh, sustained vigour.' - Bruce B. Lawrence, Professor of Islamic Studies, Duke University and author of The Qur'an-A Biography 'This is an important study of some of the leading Muslim intellectuals of the beginning of the 21st century: Hanafi, Arkoun, and Madjid. Kersten does an admirable job of situating them in both Islamic tradition and developments on Western thought. Highly recommended.'-Omid Safi, Professor of Islamic Studies, University of North Carolina 'Kersten's book demonstrates an imaginative grasp of these cosmopolitan intellectuals and their projects. His approach bears all the hallmarks of charting a new approach to modern Muslim intellectual history.' --Professor Abdulkader Tayob, University of Cape Town 'One of the reasons for the really abysmal knowledge of Americans - both the general public and many scholars - about the contemporary currents in Islam is language. As Carool Kersten's challenging but very important new study shows, much of the work of or on Islamic modernism is beyond the reach of potential readers who do not speak Arabic or Indonesian or French. This is what makes a summary like Kersten's so very valuable, as he is bringing some critical information to the English-speaking world that would be largely inaccessible otherwise.' - Anthropology Review Database