Upcoming Events

Teena Purohit | Sunni Chauvinism and the Roots of Muslim Modernism

Teena Purohit | Sunni Chauvinism and the Roots of Muslim Modernism

   14,
  5 - 6:30 p.m.
   10 (ISAS Conference Room) – Stephens Hall

A conversation with Teena U. Purohit, Associate Professor of Religion at Boston University, on her new book Sunni Chauvinism and the Roots of Muslim Modernism, on muslim intellectuals who sought to establish the boundaries of modern Muslim identity.

Event moderated by Asad Q. Ahmed, Magistretti Distinguished Professor of Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures; Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies; Affiliate Professor of Philosophy; Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
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This event will be live streamed on the Institute’s FB page: ISASatUCBerkeley
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About the Book

Muslim modernism was a political and intellectual movement that sought to redefine the relationship between Islam and the colonial West in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Spearheaded by Muslim leaders in Asia and the Middle East, the modernist project arose from a desire to reconcile Islamic beliefs and practices with European ideas of secularism, scientific progress, women’s rights, and democratic representation. Teena Purohit provides innovative readings of the foundational thinkers of Muslim modernism, showing how their calls for unity and reform led to the marginalization of Muslim minority communities that is still with us today.

Sunni Chauvinism and the Roots of Muslim Modernism offers fresh perspectives on figures such as Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Muhammad Abduh, Muhammad Iqbal, and Abul A’la Mawdudi. It sheds light on the exclusionary impulses and Sunni normative biases of modernist Muslim writers and explores how their aim to unite the global Muslim community—which was stagnant and fragmented in their eyes—also created lasting divisions. While modernists claimed to represent all Muslims when they asserted the centrality and significance of unity, they questioned the status of groups such as Ahmadis, Bahais, and the Shia more broadly.

Addressing timely questions about religious authority and reform in modern Islam, this incisive book reveals how modernist notions of Islam as a single homogeneous tradition gave rise to enduring debates about who belongs to the Muslim community and who should be excluded.

Speaker Bio
Teena U. Purohit is Associate Professor of Religion at Boston University. A scholar of South Asian religions with specialties in Muslim and Hindu devotional literature, religious identity formation, and modern Islam, Purohit’s particular interests revolve around theoretical issues like conceptions of religion in modern Islam and the impact of colonial forms of knowledge on modern Muslim intellectual thought. She teaches courses on Islam, Sufism, modern Islam, religion and politics in South Asia, theory and methods in the study of religion, and Islam and the West. Her first book, The Aga Khan Case: Religion and Identity in Colonial India, was published in 2012 by Harvard University Press.
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PARKING INFORMATION
Please note that parking is not always easily available in Berkeley. Take public transportation if possible or arrive early to secure your spot.

Event is FREE and OPEN to the public.