Review Essay 

Islam and Civil Society: From the 

Paradigm of Compatibility to 

Critical Engagement 

Ibrahim Kalin 

Book Reviewed: Sohail H. Hashmi, ed. Islamic Political Ethics: Civil 
Society, Pluralism, and Conflict. Foreword by Jack Miles. Princeton and 

Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2002. 227 pages. 

This edited volume is a welcome addition to the growing literature of 

Islamic political ethics. These collected essays address some of the most 

difficult and urgent issues facing the Islamic world today. Political rule, plu­
ralism, civil society, nation-states, constitutionalism, and the religio-ethical 

foundations oflslamic politics are just a few of the issues that the contrib­

utors analyze in their respective chapters. 
The essays' overall tone is affirmative, for the apparent tension 

between Islamic politics and the universally accepted values of democra­

cy and civil society is reducible to historical and political factors rather 

than to an innate incompatibility between the two. While there is some 
wisdom in emphasizing this, it considerably weakens the articles' critical 

nature. 

Given the political situation of present-day Muslim countries, it may be 

considered a luxury to question the virtues of parliamentary democracy, 
openness, and civil society. Nevertheless, a selective reading of both the 

l.brahim Kalin received his Ph.D. from George Was hington University in 2002, the same
year he joined the Department of Religious Studies at Holy Cross in Worcester,

Massachusetts. I-le earned his B.A. in history from the University of Istanbul, Turkey, and

M.A. in Islamic thought from the 1.nternational Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization
(ISTAC), Malaysia.