In the heat of the moment: South Asian responses to the events of 11 September 2001

This review article looks at three books, published in 2002, which provide from different perspectives a response by South Asian Muslims to the new interest in Islam evoked by the events of 9/11. Written from different vantage points, they represent an intellectual effort to come to grips with the notion of an 'Islamic' identity - debating notions of jihad, and its connections with Islamic faith, with the notion of an Islamic umma or nation, and where Muslim societies are headed to in the 21st century. It is not only the emergence of the Taliban movement in the North-western portion of South Asia that has brought the focus on South Asian Islam. As M. J. Akbar has observed, South Asia forms the demographic heartland of Islam. The books reviewed do not fall into the category of the myriad publications that have become a kind of apology for Islam, but represent an effort at understanding the connections between geopolitical concerns and intellectual academic approaches to the subject of Islam.