A Review of Clinton Bennett’s Book ‘Muslims and Modernity’

Abstract

Clinton Bennett according to his own order of preferences has discussed and examined in his book Muslims and Modernity, the Modernism, democracy, gender equality, human rights, freedom of expression, Islamic Epistemology, post-modernism, war and peace in Islam, Christian-Muslim relations, rights of Christians as minorities in the Muslim world, Muslims as minorities in the non-Muslim world, different responses on Qur’an and the case of Palestine-Israel.

These modern issues are favorite topics in the west. For example as far as the human rights are concerned the western people have the impression that women and non-Muslims are deprived of their basic human rights in the Muslim society. There is no space for liberty of expression in Islam; being a conservative religion Islam is incompatible with post-Modernity and that Islam does not favor democracy as it proposes the rule of elite. Therefore, all these aspects are taken into consideration as a political vision of Bennett. All the modern issues as perceived and presented by the former, we have included them all in this article.

Bennett has listed different responses ranging from fundamentalists up to the progressive Muslims and the difference of opinion and the agreement between them.