Critical Muslim 2

The magazine under review comprises a collection of critical writings about various aspects of Islam, its culture, history and contemporary experience and encounter with various challenges. Critical Muslim is concerned with ‘ideas and issues showcasing ground-breaking thinking on Islam and what it means to be a Muslim in a rapidly changing, increasingly interconnected world’. Divided into five main sections. ‘Ideas of Islam’, ‘Essays’, ‘Art and Letter’, ‘Reviews’, and finally ‘Et Cetera’. The first section consists of eight critical, thought-provoking articles: three by reputed scholars, Ziauddin Sardar, Bruce Lawrence and Parvez Manzoor, and five by some budding critics and other young writers, both male and female, such as Samia Rahman, Michael Muhammad Knight, Soha al-Jurf, Carool Kersten, and Ben Gidley. In his introductory essay, Sardar deals with the question, ‘What is the Big Idea?’ and emphasises the need for reform, which for him is necessary but wich at the same time must encompass Islamic traditions, history and culture. He suggests that there is an ‘urgent need to interrogate’ the basic Islamic sources, and ‘tackle such questions’ that come across its way. (p. 13) Furthermore, by way of conclusion, he has the audacity to state that it is time to ‘leave the prison of Shariah, stop worshipping at the shrines of our ancestors, break free from traditionalist thought and bury the notion of ‘Islamic state’ – surely by now we should have the capability to seize the grass”. (p. 18)