What it means to be a “progressive Islamist”
The Muslim intellectual tradition is full of instances of contestation over the meaning and implications of many of its major concepts such as Sunna (custom or habit), Salafism, imam (belief or faith), tawhid (oneness or unity), and jihad (struggle), to name but the most prominent few.
It is little wonder, then, that these and other major concepts in the Muslim intellectual tradition have been appropriated throughout Muslim history by various religious and political actors, with various degrees of success. Hence certain groups or actors were able to monopolies some of these concepts and came to be regarded or, indeed, simply to regard themselves as their most faithful, if not the only legitimate, interpreters.
This history of contested interpretations is sometimes forgotten in the analys...