Since the Taliban seized Kabul in 1996, the public has grappled with the relationship between Islamic education and radical Islam. This work examines the varieties of modern Muslim education and their implications for national and global politics. It describes that Islamic education is neither traditional nor medieval, but rather complex.

Acknowledgments vii A Note on Transliteration and Spelling ix Contributors xi CHAPTER 1: Introduction: The Culture, Politics, and Future of Muslim Education by Robert W. Hefner 1 CHAPTER 2: Madrasas Medieval and Modern: Politics, Education, and the Problem of Muslim Identity by Jonathan P. Berkey 40 CHAPTER 3: Tradition and Authority in Deobandi Madrasas of South Asia by Muhammad Qasim Zaman 61 CHAPTER 4: Madrasas and Minorities in Secular India by Barbara Metcalf 87 CHAPTER 5: The "Recentering" of Religious Knowledge and Discourse: The Case of al-Azhar in Twentieth-Century Egypt by Malika Zeghal 107 CHAPTER 6: Madrasas in Morocco: Their Vanishing Public Role by Dale F. Eickelman 131 CHAPTER 7: Islam and Education in Secular Turkey: State Policies and the Emergence of the Fethullah Gulen Group by Bekim Agai 149 CHAPTER 8: Pesantren and Madrasa: Muslim Schools and National Ideals in Indonesia by Azyumardi Azra, Dina Afrianty, and Robert W. Hefner 172 CHAPTER 9: The Transformation of Muslim Schooling in Mali: The Madrasa as an Institution of Social and Religious Mediation by Louis Brenner 199 CHAPTER 10: Islamic Education in Britain: Approaches to Religious Knowledge in a Pluralistic Society by Peter Mandaville 224 CHAPTER 11: Epilogue: Competing Conceptions of Religious Education by Muhammad Qasim Zaman 242 Index 269

"Hefner provides the reader with an excellent historical background which can help in appreciating the scale of the change now taking place in Islamic education, and their implications for public culture and politics... This book is highly recommended for American and European media pundits and politicians to read and be honest with themselves and their constituents about the positive nature of mainstream madrasas throughout the Muslim world, and stop demonizing them, and the education they provide."--Mohammed M. Aman, Ph.D., Digest of Middle East Studies

"This is a major contribution to the field. Over the past twenty years there has been growing public concern about Islamic education in general and Muslim madrasas in particular. The latter have come to be seen as nurturers of Islamic radicalism, indeed, as training centers for jihadi militants and terrorists. This book makes the enormously important point to those who would wish to essentialize Islam or madrasas that Islamic education is profoundly shaped by local contexts as Muslims seek the best possible ways to grasp, live, and communicate a Muslim life."—Francis Robinson, Royal Holloway, University of London"This book is outstanding in the breadth and maturity of scholarship it assembles on a subject of surpassing importance at once academically and in the wider world of public policy. The editors and contributors lay out a thought-provoking set of studies of educational practices, institutions, intellectual content, and debates about the past, present, and likely futures of Islamic education. The richness of these accounts should put paid to scholarly as well as political stereotyping of Islamic education—from the shibboleths of 'rote learning' to the association of madrasa with terrorism. This book is a must read for all scholars and researchers on Islam."—Jon W. Anderson, Catholic University of America

This is a major contribution to the field. Over the past twenty years there has been growing public concern about Islamic education in general and Muslim madrasas in particular. The latter have come to be seen as nurturers of Islamic radicalism, indeed, as training centers for jihadi militants and terrorists. This book makes the enormously important point to those who would wish to essentialize Islam or madrasas that Islamic education is profoundly shaped by local contexts as Muslims seek the best possible ways to grasp, live, and communicate a Muslim life. -- Francis Robinson, Royal Holloway, University of London This book is outstanding in the breadth and maturity of scholarship it assembles on a subject of surpassing importance at once academically and in the wider world of public policy. The editors and contributors lay out a thought-provoking set of studies of educational practices, institutions, intellectual content, and debates about the past, present, and likely futures of Islamic education. The richness of these accounts should put paid to scholarly as well as political stereotyping of Islamic education--from the shibboleths of 'rote learning' to the association of madrasa with terrorism. This book is a must read for all scholars and researchers on Islam. -- Jon W. Anderson, Catholic University of America