Reform and It's Perils in Contemporary Islam: The Case of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd

The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) released a recording of the lecture Reform and It's Perils in Contemporary Islam: The Case of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd.

Lecture Description:
Who has the right to speak in the name of Islam? Many scholars of Islam believed they did when they attempted to integrate liberal values, such as equality, freedom of thought, and freedom of conscience, with the Islamic tradition. Muslim modernists, in particular, argued that these ideals represent the most accurate expression of Islam when properly understood, even if traditional understandings of the sacred texts and historical realities of Muslim communities seem to contradict their claims. In 1995, the prominent Muslim scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd was labeled an apostate by Egyptian courts for attempting such a feat. With Abu Zayd as a case study, Dr. Oweidat analyzes the intellectual trends that propose a reconciliation between liberal values and Islam. She examines in depth the roadblocks and challenges to liberalizing Islamic thought, both externally in the form of oppressive regimes and an intolerant religious arena, as well as internally at the level of intellectual arguments.