Hamid Dabashi - Islamic Liberation Theology

Are we today witness to a renewed confrontation between Islam and the West or are the signs of an imperial domination of globalized capital versus new modes of resistance to it already evident?

This book is a radical piece of counter-intuitive rethinking on the clash of civilizations theory and global politics.

In this richly detailed criticism of contemporary politics, Hamid Dabashi argues that after 9/11 we have not seen a new phase in a long-running confrontation between Islam and the West, but that such categories have in fact collapsed and exhausted themselves. The West is no longer a unified actor and Islam is ideologically depleted in its confrontation with colonialism. Rather, we are seeing the emergence of the United States as a lone superpower, and a confrontation between a form of imperial globalized capital and the rising need for a new Islamic theodicy.

Expanding on his vast body of scholarship in reading political Islamism during the last quarter of a century, Dabashi here lays the groundwork for a progressive rethinking of the place of Islamic cosmopolitanism in navigating modes of legitimate resistance to globalized imperialism.

The combination of political salience and theoretical force makes Islamic Liberation Theology a cornerstone of a whole new generation of thinking about political Islamism and a compelling read for anyone interested in contemporary Islam, current affairs and US foreign policy. Dabashi drives his well-supported and thoroughly documented points steadily forward in an earnest and highly readable style.

Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York, USA. He is the author of several books including: Authority in Islam: From the Rise of Muhammad to the Establishment of the Umayyads (1989/1992); Iran: A People Interrupted (2007); Theology of Discontent: The Ideological Foundations of the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1993/2005); Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema (edited with an Introduction, 2006); and Close up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present, Future (2001).

Hamid Dabashi

First published 2008
by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
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2008 Hamid Dabashi

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Dabashi, Hamid, 1951
Islamic liberation theology : resisting the empire / Hamid Dabashi.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
[etc.]
1. Religious awakeningIslam. 2. Islam and world politics. 3. Islamic countriesPolitics and government. 4. Islamic renewalIslamic countries. 5. GlobalizationReligious aspectsIslam. 6. Islam21st century. I. Title.
BP163. D3 2008
297.272dc22
2007042488

ISBN 0-203-92838-5 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN13: 978-0-415-77154-2 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-77155-9 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-92838-7 (ebk)