Liberating Islam: A Call for Dynamic, Comparative Critique in an Age of Stereotypes Adis Duderija In an era where Islam is often reduced to headlines of conflict, extremism, and cultural clashes, the words of the late Algerian-French scholar Mohammed Arkoun resonate with urgent clarity. In his seminal work, Rethinking Islam: Common Questions, Uncommon Answers (translated and edited by Robert D. Lee, Boulder, 1994), Arkoun declares: "I have sought to liberate critical discourse on Islam and so-called Muslim from all these limitations and contradictions by systematically choosing a dynamic vision rather than a static presentation, a bundle of methods taught by the social sciences rather than one method privileged over all others, and a comparative approach rather than the ethnographic view taken by those who tend to enclose and marginalize Islam in 'specificity,' particularism, and singularities." (p.1) This statement isn't just academic jargon—it's a...