A new book edited by three current and former Georgetown faculty members examines Asian Muslims and highlights the rich diversity of politics and discourse that continue to affect this population. The Muslims of Asia constitute the largest Muslim communities in the world - Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Central Asia. In recent years, terrorist bombings in Bali, separatist conflicts in Thailand and the Philippines, and opposition politics in Central Asia, all point to the strategic importance of Asian Islam.

In Asian Islam in the 21st Century (Oxford University Press 2008), terrorism and its effects are placed within the broader context of Muslim politics and contributing authors consider how Islamic ideals and movements, mainstream and extremist, have shaped Asian Muslim societies. Democratization experiments are also explored, and the rise of radical militant movements is analyzed and placed in historical perspective.

The book includes contributions analyzing the ramifications of September 11 and the effects of Islam on democracy in the country, as well as an analysis of the ways politics in Pakistan are undergoing a redefinition in relations among Islamist groups and the military in terms of domestic politics. Contributors argue that the rise in the influence of Islamist ideology in Bangladeshi politics is a result of the country’s political culture, rather than a consequence of foreign intervention. Authors also argue that Malaysia is currently witnessing a major shift in identity to an ethnic distribution that more accurately reflects Malaysia’s pluralistic society.

Authors also analyze Islam’s role in the development of political movements in Central Asia and look at how the perceptions of Western and Russian Islam inflate the threat that Islamic political activism poses. The long-term effects of the political victory of Pakistani Islamist political parties and the experience of the Indian Muslim minority are examined, and authors look at Islam in China, the cultural dynamics of Muslim ethnic identities in the Philippines, and Islam in the context of ethno-religious developments in southern Cambodia. The volume concludes with an overall look at Asian Islamic states and assesses Islam’s role in the changes taking place in secular and civil societies.

"In essays that discuss contemporary Muslim politics from Pakistan and India to Indonesia and Thailand, the contributors to this collection enrich our perception,” says author Robert Hefner. “They reveal an Asian Muslim politics of great challenge but also enormous opportunity. The result is a timely and important book that should be read by scholars and the general reader interested in understanding the true diversity of the Muslim world."

John L. Esposito is University Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown University and Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin-Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. He is Editor-in Chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World and The Oxford History of Islam. His more than 35 books include World Religions Today, Second Edition, Islam: The Straight Path, Revised Third Edition, Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam, and What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam. A former president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies, he is currently a member of the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders, the High Level Group of the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations and President of the Executive Scientific Committee for La Maison de la Mediterranee’s 2005-2010 project, “The Mediterranean, Europe and Islam: Actors in Dialogue.” Esposito is a recipient of the American Academy of Religion’s 2005 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion and of Pakistan’s Quaid-i-Azzam Award for Outstanding Contributions in Islamic Studies. In 2003 he received the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University Award for Outstanding Teaching.

John O. Voll is professor of Islamic history and associate director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin-Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. He taught Middle Eastern, Islamic, and world history at the University of New Hampshire for thirty years before moving to Georgetown in 1995. The second edition of his book Islam: Continuity and Change in the Modern World appeared in 1994. He is co-author, with John L. Esposito, of Islam and Democracy and Makers of Contemporary Islam and is editor, author, or co-author of six additional books. In 1991 he received a Presidential Medal in recognition for scholarship on Islam from President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. Voll graduated from Dartmouth College and received his PhD from Harvard University.

Osman Bakar is professor at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), International Islamic University, Malaysia and previously served as Malaysia Chair of Southeast Asian Islam at the Prince Alwaleed Bin-Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. He is author of 13 books and more than 200 articles on Islamic thought and civilization, and is a member of the Council of 100 Leaders of the West-Islamic World Initiative for Dialogue.

(December 20, 2007)