Asma Barlas - Books

Islam, Muslims, and the U.S.: Essays on Religion and Politics (India, Global Media
Publications, 2004).

Contents: Introduction. 1. Muslims and the US after 9/11. 2. Islam, women and equality. 3.
Religion and terror. 4. Understanding Islam.

"9/11 marks a turning point in the public discourses on Islam in the West and in the
relationship between 'Islam and the West'. Along with the US Wars on Afghanistan and Iraq,
sweeping demonizations of Islam in the media, hate crimes against Muslims living in the US.,
there also emerged an interest on the part not only of non-Muslims, but Muslims as well, in
learning about Islam.

The author discusses at length the widening schism between Muslims and the west and the
way the US has taken advantage of the deadly 9/11 strikes to take its war on terror to Muslim
lands. She also discusses the marginalisation of Muslim women in Muslim societies around the
world and goes on to say that for the patriarchal Muslim society the other is not the 'western
infidel' but the Muslim woman, while for westerners, the other has been Islam since early
medieval times, much before the advent of any Bin Laden."

“Believing Women” in Islam: Unreading
Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an,
(University of Texas Press, 2002).

Does Islam call for the oppression of women? Non-
Muslims point to the subjugation of women that occurs
in many Muslim countries, especially those that claim to
be "Islamic," while many Muslims read the Qur'an in
ways that seem to justify sexual oppression, inequality,
and patriarchy. Taking a wholly different view, Asma
Barlas develops a believer's reading of the Qur'an that
demonstrates the radically egalitarian and
antipatriarchal nature of its teachings.

Beginning with a historical analysis of religious authority and knowledge, Barlas shows how
Muslims came to read inequality and patriarchy into the Qur'an to justify existing religious and
social structures and demonstrates that the patriarchal meanings ascribed to the Qur'an are a
function of who has read it, how, and in what contexts. She goes on to reread the Qur'an's
position on a variety of issues in order to argue that its teachings do not support patriarchy.
To the contrary, Barlas convincingly asserts that the Qur'an affirms the complete equality of
the sexes, thereby offering an opportunity to theorize radical sexual equality from within the
framework of its teachings. This new view takes readers into the heart of Islamic teachings on
women, gender, and patriarchy, allowing them to understand Islam through its most sacred
scripture, rather than through Muslim cultural practices or Western media stereotypes.

Democracy, Nationalism, and Communalism: The Colonial Legacy in South Asia
(Westview Press, 1995) Focuses on the legacies of British colonial rule as a way to
understand contemporary South Asian politics, specially the history of military rule in Pakistan
and electoral democracy in India. (Can be read on-line at Questia; click on the title to be
directed there.)

- Contents
- Preface
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Democracy, Nationalism, and Communalism: A Gramscian Approach
- 3: The Colonial State
- 4: Colonial Hindu Politics
- 5: Colonial Muslim Politics
- 6: Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- About the Book and Author
- Index

Re-Understanding Islam: a double critique (Spinoza lectures delivered at the University of
Amsterdam), Amsterdam: van Gorcum (in press)

Contents

Acknowledgments 7

Spinoza Lecture I
“Believing Women” in Islam: Between Secular and Religious Politics and Theology
Framework of this lecture
Why say no?
Why say yes?
Secular fundamentalisms
Saying no, saying yes

Spinoza Lecture II
Would Spinoza Understand Me? Europe, Islam, and the Mirror of Difference
Framework of this lecture
Three traveling tropes
Repetition/Repression and other questions