Zia Us Salam’s book is largely about the process of ‘Othering’ of Muslims and growth of Hindutva ideology. Salam, a noted literary and social commentator and currently Associate Editor of Frontline, begins his book discussing the rise of Hindutva, in Part I, tracing its history and growth from the time of VD Savarkar and MS Golwalkar.
This is an important work, not so much from the strength of its postulate, which in itself is questionable, but because it presents the thoughts of an Indian of eminence both among the fraternity of journalists, which holds him in esteem and in the Muslim community, the largest of India’s religious minorities.
At the heart of Ed Husain’s book The House of Islam: A Global History is his misplaced faith in the West and neo-conservatism. Husain writes ambitiously as a Muslim and evocatively as a westerner. This dual personality helps him to navigate through the tensions that Islam and the West supposedly have. Husain sees himself as an enlightened westerner-Muslim, but it is the West with which he feels comfortable despite his emphasizing the spiritual power of shrines and mosques throughout the book.
It’s Not Just Academic!: Essays on Sufism and Islamic Studies is a collection of Carl W Ernst’s previously published work on basic and critical issues relating to the study of Islam, with the purpose of presenting this material in a manner that is accessible to the reading public, and not just specialists.
This book should not have been published in its present form and the fact that it has raises disturbing questions at two levels.In the first instance, the book does not appear to have gone through a proper refereeing process. If it had, many of the problems outlined would have been obvious to any half competent academic reviewer.
It is intriguing to note that in a country deeply infested with conservative dogmas, the murder of Qandeel Baloch, an internet celebrity sensation, did shake the conscience of many. Baloch wriggled her way through the rural landscape of Pakistan to transform herself and was still struggling to find herself a niche in the urban elite circles riding mainly on social media.