Understanding Islam: Positions of Knowledge

Bryan S. Turner

Can we understand a religion without believing and practicing it? Can we have knowledge about faith? Can people understand those different from themselves? Can outsiders ever understand the world of insiders? Examining insider and outsider positions of knowledge Bryan S. Turner explores what understanding Islam entails. He argues that understanding Islam has in recent years been dominated by political events - the Iran Hostage crisis, the fall of the Iranian Shah, 9/11, Afghanistan and the foreign policy of Donald Trump - leading to western intellectuals and public figures, many of whom know nothing about Islam, suddenly becoming experts. Turner asks how they, or how anyone, can have the authority to speak on this subject. He brilliantly elucidates the questions and problems involved in the challenge of understanding religion.

- Aa Reduce text
- Aa Enlarge text

View selected items
Save to my bookmarks
Export citations
Download PDF (zip)
Save to Kindle
Save to Dropbox
Save to Google Drive
Save content to
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to .

To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Please be advised that item(s) you selected are not available.
You are about to save
Your Kindle email address

Please provide your Kindle email.

@free.kindle.com @kindle.com (service fees apply)

By using this service, you agree that you will only keep content for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services

Metrics

Total number of HTML views: 0

Total number of PDF views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

Total views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

Understanding Islam

Positions of Knowledge

Book description

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv

Contents
pp v-v

Acknowledgements
pp vi-viii

Introduction: What is Understanding?
pp 1-14

1 - The Changing World of Islam
pp 15-37

2 - Insiders and Outsiders
pp 38-51

3 - The Rise of the Sociology of Islam
pp 52-75

4 - Postmodernism, Globalisation and Religion
pp 76-91

5 - Orientalism and Islam
pp 92-109

6 - Islamophobia
pp 110-131

7 - Feminism, Fertility and Piety
pp 132-150

8 - The Problems of Positionality
pp 151-171

9 - The Possibility of Dialogue
pp 172-180

Index
pp 181-200

Metrics

Full text views

Book summary page views

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

Accessibility Information

Understanding Islam

Positions of Knowledge

Book description

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Save Search

Contents

Metrics

Full text views

Book summary page views

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

Accessibility Information