The Mosaic of Islam: A Conversation with Perry Anderson
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A comprehensive introduction to the faith and politics of Islam Today, 23 percent of the global population is Muslim, but ignorance and misinformation about Islam persist. In this fascinating and useful book, Perry Anderson interviews the noted scholar of Islam Suleiman Mourad about the Qurʾan and the history of the faith. Mourad elucidates the different stages in Islam’s development: the Qurʾan as scripture and the history of its codification; Muhammad and the significance of his Sunna and Hadith; the Sunni–Shiʿi split and the formation of various sects; the development of jihad; the transition to modernity and the challenges of reform; and the complexities of Islam in the modern world. He also looks at Wahhabism from its inception in the eighteenth century to its present-day position as the movement that galvanized modern Salafism and gave rise to militant Islam or jihadism. The Mosaic of Islam reveals both the richness and the fissures of the faith. It speaks of the different voices claiming to represent the religion and spans peaceful groups and manifestations as well as the bloody confrontations that disfigure the Middle East, such as the Saudi intervention in the Yemen and the collapse of Syria and Iraq.
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Just the thought of an interview conducted by Perry Anderson was enough to arouse my curiosity about this book. But what really fascinated me was Suleiman Mourad's brilliant insights into the theology and politics of Islam, by recognising its multiple stances and historical trajectories. In a sense, thinking of Islam as mosaic can be a way of reclaiming humanity to the Muslim community (umma) and thus support forms of resistance against dehumanisation imposed by Western-centred representations of Islam. It also reveals the ways in which this hatred and dehumanisation is more often than not driven by a misunderstanding of the historical context in which Islam flourished, which not only prevents one from identifying revelant links with Christianity or Judaism but also informs a recurrent narrative that portrays Muslims as the fatal enemy of Western civilization, legitimising the rise of a modern Crusade (like the one most visible in US foreign policy during the Bush era) that ultimately denies agency to a whole community for the sake of the so called national interest.