NEWS

By DAVID WILLIAMSON
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL – Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Americans have responded to Islam chiefly in two opposite ways, one unseemly and negative and the other positive, says University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scholar Carl W. Ernst.

"The negative response is based on fear and ignorance, and it ends up portraying Islam as the enemy of America," Ernst said. "But the positive response has been the recognition that there is a huge gap in our acquaintance with Muslim societies, and this realization leads to a genuine search for knowledge about the past and present realities of Islamic culture."

Professor of religious studies at UNC, Ernst is one of the country’s leading experts on Islam. He also wrote the new book, "Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World," recently published by UNC Press.

"’Following Muhammad’ is addressed to that quest for real knowledge," he said. "It is a historical fact that most educated Americans have had very little exposure to Islam so they are subject to the combined influence of media stereotypes based on conflict and caricatures from popular culture."

Such depictions and frequent distortions inevitably result in a dehumanization of Muslims, Ernst said. He departs from conventional wisdom by presenting a non-fundamentalist understanding of Islam and, he hopes, "a sympathetic yet reasoned and analytic view of the Islamic religious tradition and the contemporary issues that Muslims face."

The difficulty and importance of the effort were brought home to him by two events in 2002.

One was that the publisher who initially commissioned the book shocked him by turning it down despite its quality because some editors there "were personally uncomfortable with being associated with any book on a subject that could be used to justify terrorism," a preposterous idea.

The other was a national controversy involving UNC’s selection of "Approaching the Qur’an: The Early Revelations" for its summer reading program for new students. A Virginia-based conservative Christian group and three unidentified freshmen sued the university in federal court saying the required reading of a book about Islam was unconstitutional. Some state legislators were upset about the assignment too.

"Although federal courts dismissed the lawsuit, so that more than 2,000 students proceeded to discuss the book without incident, the outrage over the university assigning a book about Islam revealed once again a deep-seated fear and hostility that opposed even reading a book on the subject," Ernst said.

"Under these circumstances -- when publishers, religious groups and politicians are opposed to an impartial and fair-minded discussion of Islam -- it is painfully obvious that such a discussion is exactly what we need. The modern debate about Islam in America and Europe has been conducted primarily through sensational journalism and ideological attack."

Besides explaining briefly early Islamic history and religious traditions, "Following Muhammad" presents often-surprising facts about one of the world’s major religions. In more than 50 nations, for example, most citizens are Muslims, who constitute nearly one of every four people alive today.

· The majority of Arab Americans -- 90 percent -- are Christian, and probably more U.S. residents are Muslims than Jews.

· About 82 percent of Muslims are not Arabs.

· Countries with the largest Muslim populations are Indonesia (180 million), Pakistan (150 million), Bangladesh (130 million) and India (120 million), while despite its importance, Saudi Arabia has only about 15 million people.

· Throughout history, religious toleration was notably more common among Muslims than among Christian authorities.

· Hundreds of millions of Muslims, including Arabs, do not share the fanatic vision of people like Osama bin Laden, and Western commentators, though ignorance or intent, have largely misrepresented their views.

Dr. Francis Robinson of the University of London called Ernst’s new work "highly accessible and a major step forward in understand Islam" and said it "should be read from the schoolroom to the State Department." Dr. Michael Sells of Haverford College, author of "Approaching the Qur’an," recommended it not only for non-specialists interested in Islam but also to Islamic studies scholars "for the sheer pleasure of seeing so many points expressed with such concision and eloquence."

"I have been delighted at reviewers’ responses to the book," Ernst said. "I hoped to write something that would be very clear and accessible and simultaneously would deliver a lot of new insights. I’m encouraged to think that this is working."

The book brings together resources and talents from several UNC units, he said.

"It includes illustrations of four works of Islamic art from the Ackland Art Museum, plus a photograph of enslaved Muslim scholar Omar ibn Sayyid from the library’s North Carolina Historical Collection," Ernst said.

It also features the outstanding design, production and editorial skills of UNC Press, he said.

"Coming on the heels of the Qur’an controversy at UNC -- the 2002 Summer Reading Program selection -- this book represents a powerful intellectual commitment by the university to the humanistic study of Muslim societies," Ernst said. "With a United Kingdom edition in the works and interest by a number of other international publishers, I hope the book will be able to reach large new audiences and begin to raise the level of debate on this very important subject."

UNC’s department of religious studies is part of the College of Arts and Sciences.

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Note: Ernst can be reached at cernst@email.unc.edu or (919) 962-3924.

News Services Contact: David Williamson, (919) 962-8596

UNC Press Contact: Gina Mahalek, (919) 966-3561