Finally it seems the academic study of hijab has come of age. The contributorsto this collection neither treat it as an object of curiosity or derision, nor wonderat Muslimahs’ “false consciousness”; rather, they treat this “piece of cloth” andthe accompanying dress code as a “normal” object of academic enquiry. Forexample, they expand the investigation to...Read More

This edited collection provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal contextswithin which the “burqa affair” is located across Europe. It was published followingthe December 2012 “Secularism and Religious Diversity in Europe:Opportunities and Perspectives” conference organized under the auspices ofthe RELIGARE project (Religious Diversity and Secular Models in Europe).Its aims are ambitious and commendable: to analyze...Read More

Meir Hatina, associate professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies anddirector of the Levtzion Center for Islamic studies at the Hebrew Universityof Jerusalem, explores the evolving perceptions of martyrdom in modern timesand their relevance on past legacies in both Sunni and Shi‘i milieus. He alsomakes comparative references to Judaism, Christianity, and other non-Islamiccultures. The book...Read More

The term jihad is perhaps the most contentious Arabic word to enter the Englishlanguage in recent decades. In public discourse it has become shorthandfor “holy war” and synonymous with violent Muslim extremism. This scholarlyexamination of jihad and martyrdom by Asma Afsaruddin, a professorof Islamic studies at Indiana University, carefully disentangles their multivalentmeanings within Islamic scholarship...Read More