AIPS 2020 Book Prize

AIPS is excited to announce the winner of the 2020 Book Prize competition as SherAli Tareen for his book "Defending Muhammad in Modernity" (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020)

The Book Prize Committee noted "Tareen’s outstanding study is a sensitive and detailed examination of the debate between the Barelvis and Deobandis, an extremely significant dispute in South Asian Sunni Islam since the nineteenth century, and which continues to have significant theological, political, and social consequences for contemporary Pakistan. Frequently misunderstood through binaries such as moderate/extremist and Sufi/legalistic, Tareen’s study demonstrates instead that both groups were engaged in a struggle over the question of normative Islam under conditions of colonial modernity. Moreover, the book is in a sophisticated dialog with recent methodological debates in the field of religious studies – particularly vis-à-vis notions of sovereignty, the state, and secularism."

AIPS would like to congratulate SherAli for the well-deserved recognition and thank all those who submitted their newly published books for review. An additional thank you to the Book Prize Committee for their contributions to continuing this program and recognizing the work of AIPS members!