Examines different positions of knowledge insider and outsider to explore what understanding Islam means in the 21st century Explores the long-standing conflict between science and religion, starting with the early development of the sociology of religion Critically examines the notion of positionality and its application in the study of contemporary Muslim religiosity Focuses on the dynamics of islamophobia, insider-outsider knowledge, feminist activism, the development of the sociology of Islam, the demography of Muslim communities, Sharia, orientalism and post-orientalism Key topics are explored through debates with modern philosophy, such as pragmatism, post-structuralism, postmodernism and hermeneutics Can we understand a religion without believing and practicing it? Can we have knowledge about faith? Can people understand those different from themselves? Can outsiders ever understand the world of insiders? Examining insider and outsider positions of knowledge Bryan S. Turner explores what understanding Islam entails. He argues that understanding Islam has in recent years been dominated by political events the Iran Hostage crisis, the fall of the Iranian Shah, 9/11, Afghanistan and the foreign policy of Donald Trump leading to western intellectuals and public figures, many of whom know nothing about Islam, suddenly becoming experts. Turner asks how they, or how anyone, can have the authority to speak on this subject. He brilliantly elucidates the questions and problems involved in the challenge of understanding religion.

About the Author
Bryan Turner is Professor of Sociology, Australian Catholic University; Emeritus Professor the Graduate Center, CUNY; Honorary Professor, Potsdam University; and Fellow Edward Cadbury Center, University of Birmingham. He is one of the world's leading sociologists of religion and has also devoted significant attention to sociological theory, the study of human rights and the sociology of the body. Turner has written, co-authored or edited more than 70 books and more than 200 articles and chapters, including most recently The Religious and the Political: A Comparative Sociology of Religion (2013) and Religion and Modern Society: Citizenship, Secularisation and the State (2011), both published by Cambridge University Press. He is a founding editor of the journals Body & Society, Citizenship Studies and Journal of Classical Sociology.

Reviews
"This book unpacks with classic sociological discernment key binaries in unfinished debates on knowledge production within the humanities and social sciences, like insiders vs. outsiders and understanding vs. explanation. Supported by an astutely jargon-free thematic bricolage, Turner's tour de force combs one of the thorniest scholarly battlefields of our times. It helps carve out treasured clearings for helping the sociology of Islam out of the murky epistemic swamplands of proliferating positionalities." -Armando Salvatore, Professor of Global Religious Studies, McGill University



Book Information
ISBN 9781474498746
Author Bryan S. Turner
Format Paperback
Page Count 176
Imprint Edinburgh University Press
Publisher Edinburgh University Press