Apologising for the study of religion - no way!. Issue 1 (2nd January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jensen, Tim
• Is Part Of: Culture and religion. Volume 18:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 8
• Page End: 19
• Publication Date: 2017-01-02
• Subjects: Academic study of religion -- insider-outsider perspectives -- study of Islam -- method and theory -- Islamophobia; Religion and culture -- Periodicals; 306.605
• DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2017.1301974
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1475-5610

Abstract

Abstract: An initial apology to religious insiders in the opening of Hughes' book got this review – of the book and of tensions in public and academic discourse about Islam and the study thereof – started. The book, after the strange initial apology, becomes a highly valuable introduction to a study-of-religion approach to Islam, incorporating both insider and outsider perspectives, including primary sources and critical analyses, and describing the multitude of 'Muslim identities' and responses to so-called modernity. Desiderata: a more classical comparative approach to ritual and more nuance around its discussion of women and jihad. Returning to 'apologetics', the review renders a recent Danish debate suggesting scholars of Islam should investigate and expose Islam rather than provide a nuanced and qualified picture in accordance with empirical scientific principles. An example of public ignorance over the role of the scholar of religion, – and yet another example of the necessity of approaching Islam as any other religion, i.e. from a comparative, historical and critical-analytical point of view. Though the book (rightly) suggests that the academic study of religions is more novelty than norm, the reviewer sees no reason, whatsoever, for apologizing for study-of-religion principles and approaches to religion, Islam included.