Has anyone heard this scholar speak? Any comments on his ideas and approach to the contemporary world? Interesting that he has studied in both madarsa and “secular” institutions and can therefore, hpefully, pick the best of both worlds.
"A few days after Ebrahim Moosa, Duke University’s up-and-coming professor of
Islamic studies, said the United States should set a date for pulling its troops out of Iraq, the fax machine in his office spit out a letter with theUnited Nations logo.
Kofi Annan, the secretary-general of the United Nations, saw Moosa quoted on the national news services and one of his representatives wrote to ask whether Moosa would join a working group studying issues of governance in the Muslim world.
…
A gregarious man with a scrubby beard and broad smile, he is increasingly sought after to answer questions about the world’s
second-largest faith.
Despite a hectic schedule he does so willingly, with the down-to-earth candor of a man used to the spotlight. If he’s not shuttling to New York or Atlanta, Moosa is talking about his faith to church and civic groups or serving on academic committees interested in Muslim perspectives on
everything from civil liberties to bioethics.
…
For Moosa, explaining Islam in its many varieties has been a lifelong journey that has taken him across four continents to the Durham campus, where he teaches classes on “Debating Muslims” and “Clash of Empires.”
…
“He’s one of a rare number of people who have a command of Islamic legal
texts that only come about after spending time in madrasa institution,” said Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic studies at Colgate University. “At the same time, he’s at the cutting edge of contemporary theoretical conversations. He’s easily one of the most sophisticated thinkers I’ve ever
had the privilege to be around.”
…
And much of what he sees he doesn’t like. The United States and its allies, he said, have imposed their culture and values on the world and have turned a tin ear to the legitimate critique of Western hegemony coming from the Muslim world.
“I’m looking for a time when every culture and every civilization can retrieve its values and no one will feel threatened,” he said.
He winces at the notion that all countries must follow the secular democratic and free-market mold and says Muslim societies should choose their own direction – even if it means electing Islamic parties.
“The West doesn’t want anyone to speak back to it,” he said. “Anyone who challenges the West’s universality is either demented, violent or phantasmagorical.”
…"
http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/displaynews.php?news_id=221483