University Professor of Politics and Government Ali Riaz has published a new book titled Lived Islam and Islamism in Bangladesh.
The book addresses questions such as what is Islam and who are the true Muslims. While these questions are old, they have gained salience among Muslim communities around the world in the past decades, influencing global politics. Riaz, in this book, asks whether religion is a set of articles of faith and rituals independent of its adherents’ agency or is the religion an institutional bargain between the individual and the society.
Published by Prothoma publication (Dhaka, Bangladesh), the book features eight essays that examine the social practices and political activism related to Islam in Bangladesh. Diverse Islamic practices and various strands of Islamist politics are highlighted in the book.
The topics discussed in the book have relevance to other Muslim-majority countries and Muslim communities around the world. The table of contents include “Polylocal Islam, Polyvocal Muslims,” “Interactions of ‘Local’ and ‘Transnational’ Islam,” “Religion in Public Life,” and “Who are the Bangladeshi ‘Islamist Militants’?”
