Political Freedom as an Islamic Value
The esteemed scholar Michael Cook has recently argued that political freedom is not an Islamic value but is in tension with Islam. This paper contends that Cook is mistaken. It moves in four steps. First, I consider the very idea of an Islamic value, sketching a nonessentialist way of conceiving...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2018]
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| In: |
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Year: 2018, Volume: 86, Issue: 4, Pages: 912-952 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Islam
/ Freedom
/ Political ethics
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy BJ Islam |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The esteemed scholar Michael Cook has recently argued that political freedom is not an Islamic value but is in tension with Islam. This paper contends that Cook is mistaken. It moves in four steps. First, I consider the very idea of an Islamic value, sketching a nonessentialist way of conceiving such a thing. Next, I show that the particular liberal notion of political freedom that Cook rightly claims is absent is but one of three distinct conceptions of political freedom: he neglects to consider the possible presence of an alternate republican conception. Then, taking some of the very evidence Cook cites along with the case of al-Ghazālī, I show that this republican conception figures in Islamic thought and practice. I conclude by considering some broader interpretive issues that bear on this matter and have wider significance. Political freedom, it turns out, is an Islamic value after all. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4585 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfy018 |