Final Remarks

The final chapter of the book is divided into two sections: conclusions, and “Islamic Apologetics” everywhere. It informs readers about the future of Islamic studies in the West and the way it gets gradually changed to Islamic Apologetics. In so doing, some of the true stories that have happened in both Muslim and Western academic contexts are discussed. The final remarks aim to show that, in fact, the stronger the connection with politics and traditionalism, the more diminished is the academic approach toward religion and the greater the conservative presentation of religious studies, in both Western and Muslim academic contexts.

The Qurʾān in the Muslim Academy

This chapter considers the ways in which Western Islamic studies in general, and Western Qurʾanic studies in particular written by different scholars, including John Burton, Joseph G. Schacht, Richard Bell, William Montgomery Watt, John Wansbrough, and Andrew Rippin, among others, are received in the Muslim academy. It compares the promotion of Islamic Apologetics and the approaches taken by Christian theology programs in the West. It considers also if and, if so, how, the Qurʾān is read in light of science, technology, and biblical literature. Finally, it tries to describe how the Muslim academy attempts to set apart and keep separate their institutions and publications from those of Westerners.

“Islamic Apologetics” and Islamic Studies

This chapter highlights the notion of “Islamic Apologetics” in the Muslim academy and Islamic studies in Western academia. The goal of the chapter is to prepare readers to see how topics discussed in the Western academy are understood differently in the Muslim academy. In it, the chapter tries to unpack the motives and intentions behind the development of Islamic Apologetics in the Muslim academy. This, as author hopes, will enable readers to understand what “Islamic Apologetics” both is and is not. This chapter also tries to outline the development of an academic approach to the pertinent issues in the Western academy.

Hatred of Inferiority and Confrontation with the West

This chapter focuses particularly on the influence on Muslim approaches to the West and Westerners and the study of the Qurʾān in the Muslim academy of Edward W. Said’s important work on cultural representation, Orientalism. It looks at how Said did not, in the nature of things, accurately depict the West and Westerners and how, in respect to the study of Islam, Muslims have tended to substitute Western scientists and literary figures for Western scholars of Islam. Finally, chapter 4 seeks to explain how a Muslim “inferiority complex,” as (tacitly) played out in Orientalism, has over the years been absorbed into the religious teaching of Islam and given rise to much of the substance to the defensive quality of the “Islamic Apologetics” that the Muslim academy has opposed to historical critical Islamic studies.

The Sectarian Study of Islam

This chapter deals with the persistence of sectarian treatment of the Qurʾān and Qurʾanic studies. It shows how Muslim academics are, or are obliged to be, inattentive to the cultural and literary connections both between the Shiʿi and Sunni traditions and the different Muslim academies. These all combine to create a systemic ignorance of, and systematic disregard for, non-Middle Eastern sources and resources. It shows that Muslim academics too often do not appreciate the views of co-religionists of a different sect, especially in respect to the Sunni or Shiʿi traditions. This neglect of Islamic sources extends to other countries and cultures, even when these are of the same sect.

Introduction

The introduction deals with the format of the book as well as the overview of its four chapters. It shows how the book can provide a first-hand look into intra-Muslim critical scholarship. Through this introduction, readers may get familiar with the aim of the book, which is to shed light on relatively unexplored issues touching on the political, cultural, and intellectual contexts of the study of Islam in the Muslim academy. It explains how this book breaks taboos on internal self-criticism, highlights the influence of politics on Muslim approaches to the Qurʾān and Islam, and shows that the study of Islam (and “Qurʾanic sciences”) is far and away more political than is generally represented.