American Foreign Policy and Islamic Renewal

Abstract

This report is part of the “Islamic Renewal Project: Translating Islamic Reformist Ideas into Concrete Policies,” conducted by the Muslim World Initiative at the United States Institute of Peace. The project’s main objective is to mobilize moderate voices in the Muslim world by broadening societal support for modernist Islam around a coherent vision and translating that vision into enduring pacts, viable institutions, and concrete policies. It includes the collection of a database on Islamic modernist networks across the globe and the organization of a series of regional workshops held in predominantly Muslim countries as well as countries where Muslims constitute significant minorities. The major argument of this report is that the problem of “religious extremism” in the Muslim world is an ideological challenge best confronted by drawing on Islam’s humanist and progressive traditions.