Rāshid al-Ghannūshi̇̄: A Key Muslim Thinker of the 21st Century

This book discusses various dynamic facets of the life of Rāshid al-Ghannūshi̇̄, a distinguished Islamic thinker and activist not only in Tunisia and North Africa, but in the entire Muslim world. It especially focuses on those aspects related to his intellectual understanding and response to a number of critical contemporary issues. In the 21st Century, Rāshid al-Ghannūshi̇̄ is considered as the most moderate among the Muslim thinkers and intellectuals, particularly when it comes to the question of Islam-democracy compatibility and power sharing theory. This book also offers an account of a previously little known, yet much talked about Muslim voice in the post-Arab Spring era. It further shows how the intellectual Muslim thinkers’ own perspectives and expectations from Islamic movement(s) and their interaction with the ‘western oriented local leadership’, as well as their (secular) policies color their understanding of Islam and various other major issues.
Mohammad Dawood Sofi is currently working as Lecturer (on Academic Arrangement Basis) in the Higher Education Department, Jammu and Kashmir, India. He completed his PhD in Islamic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Aligarh, India, on the topic “Contemporary Challenges to Islam: A Critique of Al-Nahda”. He has authored a book History of Islamic Civilization (New Delhi: Adam Publishers, 2013), his publications (papers, articles, and reviews) on various subjects have also appeared, among others, in Contemporary Arab Affairs, UK (Routledge); The Islamic Quarterly Journal, UK; The Journal of North African Studies, UK (Routledge); Hamdard Islamicus, Pakistan; The Muslim World League Journal, Saudi Arabia; Intellectual Discourse, Malaysia; The Muslim World Book Review (MWBR), UK; Contemporary Islam: Dynamics of Muslim Life, Netherlands (Springer); and Insan and Toplum, Turkey. He is also a member of board of reviewers of Al-Idah Journal, Shaykh Zayed Islamiic centre, University of Peshawar.
His major areas of interest include: Islamic history and sciences; modern Islamic movements; contemporary trends in Islamic reformist thought; and Middle Eastern politics, especially in Tunisia.