Sunni Chauvinism and the Roots of Muslim Modernism

Muslim intellectuals who sought to establish the boundaries of modern Muslim identityMuslim modernism was a political and intellectual movement that sought to redefine the relationship between Islam and the colonial West in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Spearheaded by Muslim leaders in Asia and the Middle East, the modernist project arose from a desire to reconcile Islamic beliefs and practices with European ideas of secularism, scientific progress, women’s rights, and democratic representation.Teena Purohit provides innovative readings of the foundational thinkers of Muslim modernism, showing how their calls for unity and reform led to the marginalization of Muslim minority communities that is still with us today. Sunni Chauvinism and the Roots of Muslim Modernism offers fresh perspectives on figures such as Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Muhammad Abduh, Muhammad Iqbal, and Abul A’la Mawdudi.It sheds light on the exclusionary impulses and Sunni normative biases of modern