Drawing on fieldwork in Iraq, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, Nationalism, Language, and Muslim Exceptionalism compares the politics of six Muslim separatist movements, locating shared language and print culture as a central factor in Muslim ethnonational identity.

In an era of ethnopolitical conflict and constitutional change worldwide, nationalist and Islamist movements are two of the most powerful forces in global politics. However, the respective roles played by nationalism and Islamism in Muslim separatist movements have until recently been poorly understood. The conventional view foregrounds Muslim exceptionalism, which suggests that allegiance to the nation of Islam trumps ethnic or national identity. But, as Tristan James Mabry shows, language can be a far more reliable indicator of a Muslim community's commitment to nationalist or Islamist struggles. Drawing on fieldwork in Iraq, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, Nationalism, Language, and Muslim Exceptionalism examines and compares the ethnopolitical identity of six Muslim separatist movements. There are variations in secularism and ethnonationalism among the cases, but the key factor is the presence or absence of a vernacular print culture—a social cement that binds a literate population together as a national group. Mabry shows that a strong print culture correlates with a strong ethnonational identity, and a strong ethnonational identity correlates with a conspicuous absence of Islamism. Thus, Islamism functions less as an incitement, more as an opportunistic pull with greater influence when citizens do not have a strong ethnonational bond. An innovative perspective firmly grounded in empirical research, Nationalism, Language, and Muslim Exceptionalism has important implications for scholars and policymakers alike.

In Islamic Exceptionalism, Brookings Institution scholar and acclaimed author Shadi Hamid offers a novel and provocative argument on how Islam is, in fact, "exceptional" in how it relates to politics, with profound implications for how we understand the future of the Middle East. Divides among citizens aren't just about power but are products of fundamental disagreements over the very nature and purpose of the modern nation state—and the vexing problem of religion’s role in public life. Hamid argues for a new understanding of how Islam and Islamism shape politics by examining different models of reckoning with the problem of religion and state, including the terrifying—and alarmingly successful—example of ISIS. With unprecedented access to Islamist activists and leaders across the region, Hamid offers a panoramic and ambitious interpretation of the region's descent into violence. Islamic Exceptionalism is a vital contribution to our understanding of Islam's past and present, and its outsized role in modern politics. We don't have to like it, but we have to understand it—because Islam, as a religion and as an idea, will continue to be a force that shapes not just the region, but the West as well in the decades to come.

Written In 1938, Composite Nationalism And Islam Laid Out In Systematic Form The Positions That The Author Had Taken In Speeches And Letters From The Early 1920S On The Question Of Nationalism As Well As Other Related Issues Of National Importance. The Book Aimed At Opposing The Divisive Policy Of Mohammad Ali Jinnah And The Muslim League. It Mainly Deals With Two Aspects, I.E. The Meaning Of The Term Qaum And How It Is Distinct From The Term Millat, And Secondly, The Crucial Distinction Between These Two Words And Their True Meanings In The Holy Koran And The Hadith Tradition. By Proposing Composite Nationalism, This Important Book Strongly Argues That Despite Cultural, Linguistic And Religious Differences, The People Of India Are But One Nation. According To The Author, Any Effort Of Divide Indians On The Basis Of Religion, Caste, Culture, Ethnicity And Language Is A Ploy Of The Ruling Power.

Cesari argues that both religious and national communities are defined by the three Bs: belief, behaviour and belonging. By focusing on the ways in which these three Bs intersect, overlap or clash, she identifies the patterns of the politicization of religion, and vice versa, in any given context. Her approach has four advantages: firstly, it combines an exploration of institutional and ideational changes across time, which are usually separated by disciplinary boundaries. Secondly, it illustrates the heuristic value of combining qualitative and quantitative methods by statistically testing the validity of the patterns identified in the qualitative historical phase of the research. Thirdly, it avoids reducing religion to beliefs by investigating the significance of the institution-ideas connections, and fourthly, it broadens the political approach beyond state-religion relations to take into account actions and ideas conveyed in other arenas such as education, welfare, and culture.

Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani (1879 – 1957) was a political activist, Islamic scholar, and supporter of Gandhi during the struggle for India’s independence. Humane and fiercely dedicated whether campaigning against the separation of Pakistan, or in favour of democracy and inter-religious peace, he brooked no nonsense and fought relentlessly for what he believed in. Spanning a lifetime of campaigning and controversy, Barbara Metcalf’s compelling biography draws from Madani’s letters and autobiographies, as well as detailed knowledge of the prevailing political climate, to create an intimate and revealing account of one of the most important men in the history of modern Islam.

Can islam and democracy exist side by side? Is Islam compatible with democracy? The text examines one of the most frequently-asked and yet misguided questions. Democratic ethos should not and cannot be deduced from some essence of religions supposedly inscribed in the scriptures. Rather, they are the outcome of political struggles that push Islam toward democratic or authoritarian directions. Asef Bayat offers a new approach to examine Islam and democracy arguing how the social struggles of diverse Muslim populations, those with different interests and orientation, render Islam to embrace democratic ideas or authoritarian disposition. "Islamism" and "post-Islamism" are discussed as representing two contrasting movements which have taken Islam into different, authoritarian and inclusive, political directions.