Islam in the Modern World

Much contemporary discourse about Islam and Muslims (whether internally or externally generated) essentialises and reifies Islam and assumes a monolithic and homogeneous approach to Muslim identity and practice. Another misconception prevalent in the popular imagination about Islam, is that it is "stuck" in the past whether that is the 7th century Arabian world or the pre-modern era, and that it needs a European-style Reformation to reflect contemporary values. However, Muslims have both reacted to "Western" modernity and engaged with "multiple modernities" in their societies and lives. In the context of this subject, this means that they are constantly negotiating how Islam is interpreted and lived whether at the individual, community, national, or global levels. Thus, it is possible to discern several trends or "orientations" in the ongoing debate around what Islam is, and what Muslims believe and do today. These orientations—e.g. revivalism, traditionalism, secularism, fundamentalism, modernism, and progressivism—can be identified in the key debates among contemporary Muslims such as the role of shariʿa law, gender rights, living as minorities in the West, and the use of terrorism among others.