The cataclysmic events both inside and outside the Muslim world since 9/11 have caused some serious collateral damage. Inter-religious dialogue has suffered a severe setback as a result of the increased antagonism between Muslims and non-Muslims. Especially progressive Muslim thinkers are now in an even less enviable position than before. In their attempts to find ouvertures these potential bridge-builders between modern western thought and Islamic discourse are often vilified by less open-minded fellow Muslims. In today's climate poisoned with suspicion, these intellectuals face a real danger of being stonewalled or considered mere apologists in the West as well.

The only way out of this deadlock of mistrust is to take note of the views and ideas of these often original thinkers. "Islam and Modernity: Muslim Intellectuals Respond" is a volume of essays in which some innovative Muslim thinkers are either presented and interpreted by Islamic studies specialists or given opportunity to speak for themselves.

After an introduction by Derek Hopwood, sketching the intellectual climate in which the debate on cultural heritage and response to outside influences is grounded in the world of Islam, followed by an essay on modernist influences on 19th century Urdu literature, John Cooper analyzes the contributions of Iran's controversial philosopher of science, 'Abd al-Karim Soroush, to the debate on the "Islamization of knowledge". A pharmacologist by training, Soroush also engages in penetrating studies of traditionalism and Islamic philosophy. Although he was very much involved in the educational reforms taking place in the wake of Iran's Islamic revolution, Soroush has nevertheless been able to retain an independent intellectual stand. Cooper explains that he succeeded in doing so because "[h]e began to present a more personalized discourse, in which his intellectual autobiography came to figure prominently [..]". In his argumentations for new trajectories towards knowledge Soroush uses elements from the entire Islamic intellectual spectrum: Persian poetry, ideas borrowed from revivalism, mysticism, and scriptural studies are employed to trace genealogies and suggest a new Islamic epistemology.

Andreas Christmann presents a micro-level study of the Damascus-based preacher Shaikh Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti. The essay is based on field-work in which he has researched the biography of this representative of the traditional 'ulama or religious scholars, and the influences his ideas have had, mainly through the modern media of radio and TV.

Nadia Abu-Zahra's survey of the liberal writer on Islam, Husayn Ahmed Amin, shows that his main focus is on the importance of correct knowledge of Islamic history and consideration for social circumstances in the development and implementation of Islamic law or Shari'a. Together these will make Muslims aware that Shari'a law developed centuries ago and that its stipulations have failed to keep pace with new social conditions. In adapting to these new circumstances, Muslims can enhance their confidence in their Islamic identity. That such a reform has failed sofar is, among others, due to the misconception of the Prophet's infallibility, ignoring the fact that many of the Prophet's actions were driven by political and economic interests, and the isolationist attitudes of later generations of jurists. In a detailed analysis of Amin's argumentation on the basis of historical and scriptural studies, the author points out several inconsistencies in Amin's reasonings.

The Sudanese reformist Mahmud Muhammad Taha has paid the ultimate price for his modernist thinking: in 1985 he was condemned to death on charges of apostacy and executed. Mohamed Mahmoud's essay focusses mainly on the thinker's most influential work: "The Second Message of Islam". Taha may be characterized as a universalist and gnostic, as such his thought was not so different from certain strands of Sufism.
Taha's philosophy is permeated by two interrelated problems: the relationship between individual and society, and man's relationship to the universe. Taha's starting point that "in Islam the individual is the end. Everything else, including the Qur'an and the religion of Islam itself, are means to that end.", makes him a true humanist. Further on Mohamad Mahmoud explains that Taha's evolutionary perspective on religion induces him to take Islam as a living, endless process rather than a doctrine pregnant with dogmatism.
The author then takes us through some intriguing concepts that Taha's philosophy touched upon: original and subsidiary revelations, jihad, gender, slavery, the position of democracy.

According to Ronald Nettler, Tunesian-born mediaevist Mohamed Talbi has made a significant contribution to modernist Islamic religious thought in the later half of the twentieth century. Central themes in Talbi's thinking are the contextuality of scriptural exegesis, man's innate pluralism, and the provisionality of all knowledge. Interestingly, Talbi acknowledges his intellectual debt to the Christian theologian Hans Kueng for his views on interreligious relations.

The Moroccan Mohamed Abed Jabri is a professional philosopher, who has engaged in the debate on how Muslims can accommodate concepts like democracy and human rights in their conceptional world. Central to his thinking are notions such as ethical princple and rationality. Abdou Filali-Ansari's essay contains an interesting exposition on Jabri's view of secularism, serving as an illustration of the invasion of the theological field by 'secular' intellectuals.

From a similar mold, but decidedly post-modernist in tone, is the essay by Mohammed Arkoun, an expert on Islamic philosophy. He makes a case for differentiation between 'Qur'an-as-fact' and 'Islam-as-fact' on the basis of historical, sociological and linguistic research, without losing sight of the influence that ideologies have on the formation of 'meaning'.

Another thinker who has suffered the consequences of his innovative approaches to Islamic studies is Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid, who had to seek refuge in the Netherlands after being sued for apostacy in Egypt. He suggests that semiotic methods can be fruitfully applied to the study of Qur'an. His essay, dealing with the textuality of the Qur'an, illuminates Islamic notions of 'text', 'language' and 'semantics'. He emphasizes, however, that textual particularities must be studied in their historical context, and that the text's interpretation is absolutely human and therefore infinitely diverse.

All in all, this collection of essays makes an excellent companion volume to any of the vast number of books on political Islam.