The Institute of Ismaili Studies – Diversity and Pluralism in Islam: Historical and Contemporary Discourses amongst Muslims, Dr Zulfikar Hirji

For more than fourteen hundred years, Muslims have held multiple and diverging views about many aspects of their religious tradition including religious authority, ritual practice, political power, law and governance, civic life, and the form and content of individual and communal expressions. Muslims have regularly debated amongst themselves about these issues. Despite the diversity amongst Muslims and the plurality of understandings about Islam, Muslims are regularly portrayed as internally homogenous and monolithic. This book challenges such propositions by examining the ways in which Muslims regularly debate amongst themselves about matters of common concern, the processes by which they discursively construct notions of self, other and community, and the socio-cultural tools they employ in so doing.

via The Institute of Ismaili Studies – Diversity and Pluralism in Islam: Historical and Contemporary Discourses amongst Muslims.