Doing History: Contending for Islam

1. Understanding the issues: What are the core concerns that divide the writers of these documents?
2. Comparing Islamic modernists: How do you think Kemal Atatürk would have responded to later Islamic modernists such as Sheikh Kabir and perhaps Saira Khan?
3. Imagining a conversation: What issues might arise in a conversation among the five authors represented here? Can you identify any areas of agreement? On which points would they probably never agree?
4. Explaining variations: What personal or historical circumstances might help to account for the very different understandings of Islam that are reflected in these documents?