61fusion for our readers. In En glish, the term “fun-
damentalist” has been inherited from a specifi c
strand of American Chris tian ity. In that context, it
means someone who believes in the divine origin
and inerrancy of scripture. When we use this term
with reference to Islam, we may lead people to be-
lieve that mainstream Muslims do not consider the
Qur’an to be the literal word of the creator of the
universe. I want to ask you about this, because my
understanding is that basically all “moderate”
Muslims— that is, those who aren’t remotely like
Islamists, or even especially conservative, in their
social attitudes— are nevertheless fundamentalists
by the Christian standard, because they believe the
Qur’an to be the literal and inerrant word of God.Nawaz I think we have to be careful to avoid two mis-
takes in our approach to this conversation. One
would be taking a snapshot of the state of Islam and
Muslims today and assuming that’s how things al-
ways were and always will be. The other would be
focusing explicitly on what we think the text says
rather than on the method through which the text
is approached, because I would argue that no ap-
proach to a text is without method— even what you
would call literalism and what I call “vacuous
Bereitgestellt von | New York University Bobst Library Technical Services
Angemeldet