Observing the Observer

Abstract

This publication, a collection of ten essays incorporating both quantitative and qualitative studies, has emerged as part of a lengthy research project conducted by the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and the Center for Islam and Public Policy (CIPP) beginning in 2004 and concluding in 2007. Naturally, given the state of relations between the United States and those countries perceived as comprising the “Muslim World,” as well as regular controversies and scandals relating to the American Muslim minority and those who purport to observe, study, and teach others about them and their religion, such a study is particularly welcome. The studies included are aimed at both students and specialists, not only in the field of “Islamic studies” itself, but also more broadly with regard to such related academic fields as theology and anthropology. Another audience is the more general interested reader who might wish to learn what may (or may not) have changed in that field attacked so successfully in Edward Said’s great polemic, that its title Orientalism ultimately entered Islamic studies as a truly condemnatory and pejorative slogan ...