Muslims Against the Islamic State : Arab Critics and Supporters of Ali Abdarraziq’s Islamic Laicism

The central thesis of this study is that there are religious Muslims who are against the Islamic State for Islamic reasons. Its main goal is to explain Ali Abdarraziq’s (1888–1966) Islamic Laicism and to show the arguments of some of his Arab critics and supporters. Abdarraziq’s Islamic Laicism is based on his Arabic work Islam and the Foundations of Governance: A Research of the Caliphate and Government in Islam (1925). In order to protect the people and the religion from the abuse of power by the state or the mosque, the Islamic Laicists Nasr Abu Zayd, Jamal al-Banna, Faraj Fodah, Abdullahi al-Na’im, and Turki al-Hamad want to separate the religious institutions (the mosque) from the political institutions (the state). Cover Table of Contents I. Thanks and Linguistic Remarks 1. Introduction 1.1. Islamic State versus Islamic Laicism 1.2. ʿAbdarrāziq’s Life and the Battle around his Book 1.3. Classical Political Theory in Islam: al-Māwardī, Ibn Taymiyah and Ibn Khaldūn 2. ʿAbdarrāziq’s Islamic Laicism 2.1. Disempowering the Caliphate: The Turkish Republic Versus Rashīd Riḍā 2.2. The Essence of “Islam and the Foundations of Governance” 2.3. Ten Core Statements and Four Main Arguments 2.4. The Heated Debate of 1925 2.5. ʿAbdarrāziq’s Later Views 3. Critics of ʿAbdarrāziq’s Islamic Laicism 3.1. Six Arab Critics of Islamic Laicism 3.2. Islamist Counterarguments 3.3. Rejecting the Main Arguments 4. Supporters of ʿAbdarrāziq’s Islamic Laicism 4.1. Naṣr Abū Zayd 4.2. Jamāl al-Bannā 4.3. Faraj Fōdah 4.4. ʿAbdullāhi al-Naʿīm 4.5. Turkī al-Ḥamad 5. Final Part 5.1. ʿAbdarrāziq’s Islamic Laicism in 21st-Century Arabia 5.2. Conclusion: Islamic Laicism for a Better Islam 5.3. Afterword: State Power and Moral Principles II. Glossary for Arabic Words III. Bibliography The central thesis of this study is that there are religious Muslims who are against the Islamic State for Islamic reasons. Its main goal is to explain Ali Abdarraziq's (1888-1966) Islamic Laicism and to show the arguments of some of his Arab critics and supporters. Abdarraziq's Islamic Laicism is based on his Arabic work Islam and the Foundations of Governance: A Research of the Caliphate and Government in Islam (1925). In order to protect the people and the religion from the abuse of power by the state or the mosque, the Islamic Laicists Nasr Abu Zayd, Jamal al-Banna, Faraj Fodah, Abdullahi al-Na'im, and Turki al-Hamad want to separate the religious institutions (the mosque) from the political institutions (the state).-- Publisher description There are religious Muslims who are against the Islamic State for Islamic reasons. Leading Arab Islamic thinkers who stand for this Islamic Laicism (or Islamic Secularism) are the Egyptians Ali Abdarraziq, Nasr Abu Zayd, Jamal al-Banna and Faraj Fodah, the Sudanese-American Abdullahi al-Na'im, and the Saudi Arabian Turki al-Hamad.