Although more than half of the world's Muslims live in Asia, most books on contemporary Islam focus on the Middle East, giving short shift to the dynamic and diverse presence of Asian Islam in regional and global politics. 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, terrorism and its effects are placed within the broader context of Muslim politics and how Islamic ideals and movements, mainstream and extremist, have shaped Asian Muslim societies. Democratization experiments -- successful and unsuccessful -- are examined. The rise of radical militant movements is analyzed and placed in historical perspective. The result is an insightful portrait of the rich diversity of Muslim politics and discourse that continue to affect Asian Muslim majority and minority countries. Specialists and students of Islamic studies, religion and international affairs, and comparative politics as well as general readers will benefit from this sorely needed comprehensive analysis of a part of the world that has become increasingly important in the 21st century.

Muslim Education in the 21st Century reinvestigates the current state of affairs in Muslim education in Asia whilst at the same time paying special attention to Muslim schools’ perception of educational changes and the reasons for such changes. It highlights and explores the important question of whether the Muslim school has been reinventing itself in the field of pedagogy and curriculum to meet the challenges of the 21st century education. It interrogates the schools whose curriculum content carry mostly the subject of religion and Islam as its school culture. Typologically, these include state-owned or privately-run madrasah or dayah in Aceh, Indonesia; pondok, traditional Muslim schools largely prevalent in the East Malaysian states and Indonesia; pesantren, Muslim boarding schools commonly found in Indonesia; imam-khatip schools in Turkey, and other variations in Asia. Contributed by a host of international experts, Muslim Education in the 21st Century focuses on how Muslim educators strive to deal with the educational contingencies of their times and on Muslim schools’ perception of educational changes and reasons for such changes. It will be of great interest to anyone interested in Asian and Muslim education.

An accessible, transregional exploration of how Islam and Asia have shaped each other's histories, societies and cultures from the seventh century to today.

Asian Islam in the 21st century is divided into two sections: religion, politics and society in major Muslim majority countries and ethnic and religious politics in Muslim minority communities. Muslims in Asia are affacted by what is happening in the Arab Middle East and the Western part of the Islamic world.

Cosmopolitan ideals and pluralist tendencies have been employed creatively and adapted carefully by Muslim individuals, societies and institutions in modern Southeast Asia to produce the necessary contexts for mutual tolerance and shared respect between and within different groups in society. Organised around six key themes that interweave the connected histories of three countries in Southeast Asia - Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia - this book shows the ways in which historical actors have promoted better understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims in the region. Case studies from across these countries of the Malay world take in the rise of the network society in the region in the 1970s up until the early 21st century, providing a panoramic view of Muslim cosmopolitan practices, outlook and visions in the region.

An anthology of primary documents for the study of Central Asian history. It illustrates important aspects of the social, political, and economic history of Islamic Central Asia. It covers the period from the 7th-century Arab conquests to the 19th-century Russian colonial era and provides insights into the history and significance of the region.

Ethnographic research in Pakistan, the Middle East, and the United States helps to explain how transnational working classes from Pakistan are produced in the context of American empire and its War on Terror.