Islamic Studies' Young Turks, Danny Postel, The Chronicle of Higher Education
The larger debate on Middle East civilization has often been represented by scholars Edward Said and Bernard Lewis (author of What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response). While Lewis declares the Islamic world to be in decline and that Muslims have tended to blame others for it, Said argues that the Muslim world has been long under attack. But Danny Postel in The Chronicle of Higher Education says 'the landscape is now changing as an emerging group of Muslim scholars shifts the terms of the debate. That group is beginning to ask precisely the question that Lewis posed. Whatever they think of his work as a whole, the question 'What went wrong?' and the vital corollary 'How can we make things better?' are central to their project.'
--Julie Madsen
Go there>>