The State We are in: Identity, Terror and the Law of Jihad

The London terror outrage of July 7 has brought it home to us that the threat from suicide bombers does not simply come from foreigners who slip into the country, but from people who live and have grown up amongst us. How and why British-born Muslims would want to blow themselves up is difficult to understand, though understand we must if we are to prevent these acts in the future. The chapters in this book are written by evolving and renowned Muslim scholars in the field of Islamic studies. Particularly focusing on the legal discussions on Jihad, these scholars differentiate between key Islamic concepts and rules pertaining to the conduct of war and its jurisprudence and the hate-inspired crime scourging the earth today. The contributors address crucial contemporary issues and challenges facing Muslims in the West. Drawing upon an intellectual framework from within a classical Islamic discourse, they provide a social, political and cultural observation of the world in which we all live in today.

Table of Contents:
Notes on Contributors Introduction Tahir Abbas 1. THE STATE WE ARE IN 1. Islamic Citizenship in Britain after 7/7: Tackling Extremism and Preserving Freedoms. YAHYA BIRT 2. The State We Are In. AFTAB AHMAD MALIK 3. Tribulation, Patience and Prayer HAMZA YUSUF HANSON 2. THE LAW OF JIHAD 1. Indiscriminate Killing In Light of Islamic Sacred Texts SUHEIL LAHER 2. The Myth of a Militant Islam DAVID DAKAKE 3. Wanton Violence in Muslimdom: Religious Imperative or Spiritual Deviation? H.A. HELLYER 4. Defending the Transgressed By Censuring the Reckless against The Killing of Civilians Introduction: Gibril. F. Haddad Fatwa: MUHAMMAD AFIFI AL-AKITI Select Bibliography Glossary of terms

About the Author :
HAMZA YUSUF HANSON is considered as one of the foremost contemporary spokespersons for Islam. He has translated into English several classical Arabic texts. In addition, he has served as the principal lecturer at religious intensive seminars in the USA, England, Spain, and Morocco. Shaykh Hamza also founded The Zaytuna Institute and Academy which has established an international reputation for presenting a classical picture of Islam in the West and which is dedicated to the revival of traditional study methods and the sciences of Islam. YAHYA BIRT is Research Fellow at the Islam in Europe Unit at the Islamic Foundation, Leicester, Editor of the Muslim World Book Review, and is undertaking a doctorate in Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford looking at developments in Muslim youth movements in the United Kingdom TAHIR ABBAS is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Director of Birmingham University's Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Culture. His main areas of expertise are race equality, ethnicity, multiculturalism and British Muslims. Tahir has published single and joint authored articles in internationally respected journals such as, American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, British Educational Research Journal, Oxford Review of Education and Local Government Studies. In 2004, his first monograph, The Education of British South Asians: Ethnicity, Capital and Class Structure, was published by Palgrave, and in 2005, Muslim Britain: Communities under Pressure, which he edited, was published by Zed. He is currently working his next monograph, British Islam: The Road to Radicalism, to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2006.

Review :
At last, a significant and sustained Muslim commentary on 7/7. Aftab Malik is to be congratulated on identifying a new generation of western Muslim thinkers at ease with the social sciences and mainstream Sunni scholarship. An indispensable point of entry for policy makers, academics and the general reader. Dr Philip Lewis, lecturer in Peace Studies, Bradford University In our current crisis it is imperative to hear sensible Muslim voices. This short book is a collection of such voices and its contents include pertinent social and political analysis as well as theological judgments and guidance. The Muslim community, indeed British society, needs to attend to both kinds of reflection. Professor Tariq Modood, Author of Multicultural Politics: Racism, Ethnicity and Muslims in Britain This is a serious and thoughtful collection of essays by Muslim scholars and writers. It draws on a wide range of sources to assess the political and theological issues raised by violence conducted in the name of Islam. It deserves to be widely read, by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. David Hayes, www.openDemocracy.net This thought-provoking collection of writings identifies and interrogates the complex reality and rhetoric of Islamic political radicalism in Britain today. Through a searching examination, it challenges the apparent monopoly on interpreting the faith that is claimed by Islamic radicals, and exposes the degree of misunderstanding that exists, among both Muslims and non-Muslims with respect to the concept of jihad. Importantly, it does not pull its punches as far as critiquing government policy and exposing the limitations of current British Muslim leadership are concerned. As this collection makes clear, how to be British and Muslim - and what "being Muslim" more generally means - are key "life or death" questions facing Britain at the start of the twenty-first century, questions that none of us can afford to ignore, whether Muslim or not. Professor Humayun Ansari, Author of, The Infidel Within: The History of Muslims in Britain, 1800 to the Present This timely book explores the tragic and traumatic events of 7/7. It contains both a social scientific analysis and traditional exegesis of the Quran and the Sunna written by concerned Muslim scholars. These analyses are insightful for both Muslims and non-Muslims attempting to position the phenomena of British-born Muslims turning to "terror". The book is an impassioned plea for the reassertion of the mainstream values of traditional Islam to prevail against extremism, placing such values in the context of British multiculturalism and democracy. Ron Geaves, Author of Aspects of Islam