Critical-Progressive Muslims: On Islamic hermeneutics, Gender and Interreligious Dialogue

  The Aesthetics of Faith: Reclaiming the Richness of Islamic Civilization Adis Duderija Abdelwahab Meddeb’s exploration of Islamic civilization reveals a profound crisis at its contemporary core: a tension between the living dynamism of faith and the suffocating embrace of  textualism and literalism . At the heart of his critique is the observation that Islamic civilization flourished when it celebrated the "signifier"—the aesthetics of sound, calligraphy, and rich interpretive traditions—over the reductive "signified" of strict legalism and theological puritanicalism. This transformation resulted in a vibrant tapestry of culture, philosophy, and spirituality .. In contrast, modern "Islamists," whom Meddeb refers to as "zealots of the text," have diminished this richness; they impose a prescriptive reduction on faith that standardises belief and impoverishes the spiritual experience. Understanding this predicament requires a keen awareness of...

  A War of Interpretations: Abdelwahab Meddeb and the Future of Islam Adis Duderija Abdelwahab Meddeb in his book Islam and the Challenge of Civilization  arguesIslam can only recover through a “war of interpretations” culminating in a post‑Islamic, post‑religious horizon—forces a confrontation with some of the most sensitive questions of faith, history, and modernity. His argument is neither a casual provocation nor an external attack on Islam; rather, it is an internal, humanistic critique rooted in Islamic intellectual history itself. Meddeb contends that the crisis facing contemporary Islam is not primarily political or economic, but hermeneutical: a crisis of interpretation in which heavily  textualist and minimally hermeneutical  readings have come to dominate, suffocating the tradition’s pluralism, aesthetic richness, and ethical subtlety. Whether one agrees with his conclusions or not, Meddeb’s thesis challenges Muslims and non‑Muslims alike to rethink wh...

  Breaking the Chains: Abu Zayd and the Crisis of Islamic Thought Adis Duderija When Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd was declared an apostate by Egyptian courts in 1995 and forced into exile, he became a living embodiment of the intellectual crisis he spent his career analyzing. The Egyptian scholar's seminal work, Critique of Religious Reason , remains urgently relevant today as a diagnosis of how religious discourse has calcified Muslim intellectual life. Abu Zayd identified five interconnected mechanisms through which contemporary Islamic thought constrains critical inquiry. Understanding these mechanisms is essential for anyone concerned with the Muslim world's capacity to address twenty-first-century challenges. Abu Zayd's first insight concerns what he calls the erasure of "cognitive distance" between text and interpreter. Contemporary traditionalist cum  fundamentalist   religious discourse systematically conflates human interpretation with divine revelation, prese...

  The High-Definition Silence: One Path Network  Leadership's Silence on Islamist Extremism and Radicalism  in (Australian) Islam Adis Duderija In the landscape of modern Australian discourse, few digital entities command as much cultural real estate as the OnePath Network (OPN). With a professional studio in Sydney, over 1,500 produced videos, and a staggering 600 million views across its platforms, OPN has successfully positioned itself as the premier "values-based" guide for the nation’s Muslim youth. Its aesthetic is indistinguishable from high-end mainstream media—sharp editing, cinematic lighting, and a polished, relatable tone. Yet, beneath this high-definition veneer lies a persistent and troubling silence. Despite its massive reach, the leadership behind OnePath continues to fail in the most critical duty of any contemporary religious authority: the honest acknowledgment and active dismantling of Islamist radicalism and extremism. This failure is not merely a log...

When “Qur’an and Sunna” Become Slogans: Why Recognising Islam’s Plural Interpretive Traditions Is Our First Defense Against Islamist Extremism By Adis Duderija When it comes to understanding   Islam, there is a truth that some people don’t want to hear, namely the idea that although from the very beginning of Islam, Muslims have appealed to the Qur’an and Sunna for guidance in matters of belief, ethics, law, and politics yet these same sources, across centuries and continents,   have been used—often in good faith, sometimes in bad—to justify profoundly different theologies and value systems, from mystical universalism to strict legal formalism, from quietist piety to revolutionary activism. That historical fact is not necessarily a deficiency of the tradition ( “Islam” is after all an idea constructed by human minds like any other religion) ; it is a reality of interpretation. Acknowledging this reality   is the first, necessary step to avoiding the ideological traps...

  We need to Stop Pretending Religion Is Either Everything or Nothing in Violent Radicalisation   Adis Duderija For two decades, policymakers and pundits have swung between two extremes when explaining violent radicalization: either religion explains everything—a sweeping “war of ideas” narrative—or religion explains nothing, reducing faith talk to camouflage for grievances or group dynamics. A recently published volume, Rethinking Religion and Radicalization , edited by Michele Grossman and H. A. Hellyer, dismantles both positions. Its message is clear: if we want realistic analysis and effective policy, we must take religious motivations seriously without making them exclusive causes. The editors’ introduction sets the tone. Grossman and Hellyer urge readers to see religion not only as content—beliefs, rituals, identities—but also as social practice, affect, and political mobilisation. They frame religion as a system that seeks to “connect with the transcendent … an...