The papers in this special issue and the one preceding it have their roots in a panel titled “Ethnography, Misrepresentations of Islam, and Advocacy,” which Timothy Daniels and Maryem Zaman organized for the 116th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association.

The 35:4 AJISS issue opens with an editorial that draws attention to the plight of the Uyghur Muslims of East Turkestan facing sustained Chinese government persecution. The issue then features two main articles. The first article, by Dr. Mohammad Syifa Amin Widigdo, argues that the Aristotelian dialectic was adopted within medieval Islamic theology and law and Christian scholasticism toward distinctive purposes: the Greeks aimed to defeat an opponent by showing logical contradictions, Christian scholastics searched for the truth by bringing out the preexisting truth in the mind of the teacher, and Muslim dialecticians employed it to arrive at a level of certainty in knowledge in both epistemological and psychological senses. The second article reports multi-author empirical research by Drs. Bartkowski, Acevedo, Karakeci, and Campbell on the analysis of data extracted from the World Values Survey. It investigates early twenty-first century religious influences on Turkish Muslim women’s attitudes toward gender inequality, hypothesizing that religious devotion among Muslim women in Turkey is associated with greater support for gender inequality across the institutional domains of family. Finally, following the book reviews, the issue includes an extensive and erudite response by Professor Sherman Jackson to some crucial and timely issues raised by Professor Kecia Ali, who has argued that Muslim male scholars often omit, overlook, undervalue, or dismiss the scholarly views and interventions of female scholars. Jackson’s response is thoughtful, engaging, and respectful, even if it refuses to grant the premise of Ali’s argument.

Introduction -- Divergent origins and converging histories -- The "identty crisis" of younger Muslims -- "Pure/true Islam" vs "cultural Islam" -- The "Islamization of America" -- Crafting an American Muslim community -- Creating an American Muslim culture -- Closing thoughts.

Published in 1974, Marshall Hodgson’s The Venture of Islam was a watershed moment in the study of Islam. By locating the history of Islamic societies in a global perspective, Hodgson challenged the orientalist paradigms that had stunted the development of Islamic studies and provided an alternative approach to world history. Edited by Edmund Burke III and Robert Mankin, Islam and World History explores the complexity of Hodgson’s thought, the daring of his ideas, and the global context of his world historical insights into, among other themes, Islam and world history, gender in Islam, and the problem of Muslim universality. In our post-9/11 world, Hodgson’s historical vision and moral engagement have never been more relevant. A towering achievement, Islam and World History will prove to be the definitive statement on Hodgson’s relevance in the twenty-first century and will introduce his influential work to a new generation of readers.

The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (AJISS), established in 1984, is a quarterly, double blind peer-reviewed and interdisciplinary journal, published by the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), and distributed worldwide. The journal showcases a wide variety of scholarly research on all facets of Islam and the Muslim world including subjects such as anthropology, history, philosophy and metaphysics, politics, psychology, religious law, and traditional Islam.

The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (AJISS) is a double-blind, peer-reviewed interdisciplinary and international journal that publishes a wide variety of scholarly research on all facets of Islam and the Muslim world: anthropology, economics, history, philosophy and metaphysics, politics, psychology, and law.

The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (AJISS), established in 1984, is a quarterly, double blind peer-reviewed and interdisciplinary journal, published by the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), and distributed worldwide. The journal showcases a wide variety of scholarly research on all facets of Islam and the Muslim world including subjects such as anthropology, history, philosophy and metaphysics, politics, psychology, religious law, and traditional Islam.