Machine summary:
Editorial This issue of AJISS provides a multidimensional perspective of today's Islamic intellectual experience.
What seems to contribute markedly to the shaping of this experience is the ongoing creative process of integrating the contemporary with the historical and the particular with the universal.
The Muslims' commitment to humanity's persistent struggle for meaning and harmony is, in essence, deeply linked to their belonging to the social and discursive manifestations of the Islamic historical epoch.
The case of Abu Zayd and his prolonged conflict with Islamic circles in Egypt has been of particular interest to the western and Arab secular media alike.
The focus here is on "the contrastive notions of reason and history," 461 which seem to be the underlying causes for a great deal of political and/or intellectual conflict in the contemporary Muslim world.
" Though this issue is currently being discussed by modern Islamic intellectuals and scholars, Saeed goes further than the usual fiqhi based analysis by underlining its moral inferences.