Islam, Integration, and the Feminist Alternative

Abstract

Looking at the Muslim world today, it is hard to recall that the Arab heartland was not on ly a major contributor to world culture during its early golden age, but that it also experi enced a later liberal age, roughly 1800-1948, in which modernists helped to bring about societal transformations. (The classic works in this area are by the late Mar shall Hodgson and the late Albert Hourani.) One can forget, too, that in the early modem era, the empires of the Ottoman Turks, the Safavid Persians, and the Mughal Indians were regional powers, albeit more vulnerable actors in the emerging capitalist world-sys tem. The dar ul (literally, the house of Islam) has changed dramatically since then, experiencing decline not only in political power but also-especially in relation to Eu rope, its one-time rival-in social, economic, and cultural development. One homegrown response to the crisis of identity and power has been the Islamic fundamentalist move ment and its political offshoot, with its slo gan, Islam is the solution. But this has only contributed to further upheaval in Muslim majority countries. A group of Arab intellec tuals brought together by the United Nations Development Programme to produce a series of reports has determined that stagnation or crisis in the Arab region lies in three deficits: the democracy deficit, the knowledge deficit, and the women's empowerment deficit. (This analysis certainly can be broadened to en compass countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh.) Over several decades, factors such as political unrest, repression, and lack of economic opportunity have engendered emigration from the Maghreb (North Africa), Mashreq (Arab countries of the Middle East), Iran, Turkey, and South Asia. And in recent years, those immigrants have become the subject of intense public debates about inte gration, exclusion, and cultural rights-espe cially in Europe, where the largest popula tions are concentrated. The three books under review address these developments, crises, and debates from different disciplinary vantage points. Man soor Moaddel provides the historical dimen sion and broad sociological analysis of what When and Democracy Meet: Muslims in Europe and in the United States, by Jocelyne Cesari. New York, NY: Palgrave, 2006. 280pp. $24.95 paper. ISBN: 1403971463.