"The Politics of Writing Islam" provides a much-needed critique of existing
forms of studying, writing and representing Islam in the West. Through
critiquing ethnographic, literary, critical, psychoanalytic and theological
discourses, the author reveals the problematic underlying cultural and
theoretical presuppositions. Mutman demonstrates how their approach reflects the
socially, politically and economically unequal relationship between the West and
Islam. While offering a critical insight into concepts such as writing, power,
post-colonialism, difference and otherness on a theoretical level, Mutman
reveals a different perspective on Islam by emphasizing its living, everyday and
embodied aspects in dynamic relation with the outside world - in contrast to the
stereotyped authoritarian and backward religion