The Contemporary Arab Reader on Political Islam brings together the writings of highly influential figures in the field of Islamism in the contemporary Arab world, many of whose writings have never been available before in English.

Addressing the key issues such as human rights, civil society, secularism, globalisation and ummah, and the impact of the West on the modern Arab world, this is the perfect starting point for students and academics looking to understand 'Political Islam' in contemporary Arab and Muslim societies.

The contributors include such important Islamist thinkers and activists as Abdullah Azzam, central to the spread of Islamism in Afghanistan, Sayyid Muhammad Hussain Fadlallah, a major Shiite figure in contemporary Lebanon and Ahmad Bin Yousuf, a political advisor to Akram Haniyya in Gaza.

List of Contributors

Editor's Introduction

Part I: Toward a Theoretical Appreciation of Islamism in the Contemporary Arab World

1) Muhammad Sa‘id Ramadan al-Buti, Salafism is a Blessed Historical Phase Rather Than an Islamic Legal School;
2) Fathi Yakan, Toward a Unified and Universal Islamic Movement;
3) Ahmad Kamal Abu’l Majd, Towards a Modern Islamic Perspective Declaration of Principles;
4) Muhammad al-Ghazali, Women Between the People of Hadith and the People of Fiqh;

Part II: Islamism, Jihad, and Martyrdom

5) Abdullah Anas, The Birth of ‘Afghan-Arabs’: An Algerian Perspective;
6) Abdullah Azzam, What Jihad Has Taught Me!
7) Muhammad Sa‘id Ramadan al-Buti, Jihad in Islam: How to Understand and Practice it?
8) Sayyid Muhammad Hussain Fadlallah, Islam and the Question of Power;

Part III. Islamism and the Question of Israel/Palestine

9) Ismail R. Faruqi, Islam and Zionism;
10) Mustafa Abu Sway, From Basel to Oslo: Zionism and the Islamic Narrative;
11) Mohsen Saleh, Palestine/Lebanon], The Role of the Israeli Lobby;

Part IV: Contemporary Islamism: Trends and Self-Criticism

12) Abdul Qadir Awdah, Islam Between Ignorant Followers and Incapable Scholars;
13) Ramadan Abdallah Shallah, The Islamic Movement and the Contemporary Challenges;
14) Umar Abdel Rahman, On the Present Rulers in the Muslim World;
15) Sami al-Arian, The Islamic Movement and Contemporary Crises: An Assessment and Correction;
16) Rashid Ghannoushi, Islamic Movements: Self-Criticism and Reconsideration;
17) Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Islamic Awakening Between Rejection and Extremism;
18) Jamil Hamami, The Islamic Movement: Hopes and Aspirations;

Part V: Islamism, the West, the United States and 9/11

19) Abdel Wahab al-Masiri, Imperialism and the Contemporary Muslim world;
20) Ahmad Bin Yousuf, Islamists and the West: From Confrontation to Cooperation;
21) Munir Shafiq, Islam and the Challenges of Contemporary Decline;
22) Kamal Habib, Transformation of the Islamic Movement and the Current American Strategy;
23) Yasser Za‘atira, The United States and Islamism: Before and After 9/11;
24) Muhammad Hussain Fadlallah, Muslim Youth and the West: Between Original and Contemporary Values;

Part VI: Islamism in the Contemporary Arab World

25) Fahd al-Qahtani, Islam and Saudi Paganism;
26) Muhammad al-Masa‘ari, Conclusive Evidences for the Illegality of the Saudi State;
27) Abdel Qadim Zalloum, How to Revive Islamic Caliphate?
28) Zaki Ahmad, Recent Changes in the Arab-Islamist Movements;
29) Ahmad al-Raysouni, The Islamic Movement in Morocco: Resurgence or Decline?
30) Shaykh Ali al-Bayanuni, The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood;
31) Ishaq al-Farhan, The Future of Islamist Work: The Islamist Movement in the Context of International Transformations and the Gulf Crisis;
32) Yahia H. Zoubir, Islamist Political Parties in Contemporary Algeria;
33) Sami Abdallah, The Islamic Movement in the Gulf Region
34) Tarik Hamdi Al-Azami, The Islamic Movement in Modern Iraq, Sunni Dimension.
35) Malik Bennabi, The Ideational World and Its Impressed and Expressed Ideas;