Politicization of scholars, experts and media commentators

Jonathan VanAntwerpen religion@ssrc.org to tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com

"The politicization of scholars, experts and media commentators post 9/11 has created a minefield for policymakers and the general public," writes John Esposito today at The Immanent Frame. "Many are caught between the contending positions of seemingly qualified experts as well as a new cadre of Islamophobic authors and their revisionist readings of Islam and Islamic history. Today, we now have a new empirically grounded tool that enables us to go beyond the limited interpretations and opinions of experts when asking: What do Muslims think, what do they care about, and what do they want?"

Read more from John Esposito on "Who Speaks for Islam?" Also new at The Immanent Frame — Michael Perry on Religion and the establishment clause — Robert Bellah on "Religious reasons and secular revelations" — Jeffrey Kripal and John Lardas Modern on Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth — Nilufer Gole and Jenny White on headscarves and secularism in Turkey — Mark Lilla responds to Charles Taylor's critique of The Stillborn God

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I’ve been tremendously impressed by the new blog, The Immanent Frame, which is an absolutely top-notch group blog, featuring posts from some of the world’s most influential scholars, all focusing on the same cluster of questions and problems. That shows how good a group blog can really be. Perhaps the future of scholarly blogging really lies with this kind of group venture. -- Jim West Interviews Ben Myers Editorial Note: Ben Myers is the author of Faith and Theology at http://faith-theology.blogspot.com/.