Paperback: 300 pages
Publisher: Oneworld Publications
(February 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1851686339
ISBN-13: 978-1851686339

Sample Chapter

NEW BOOK

Islam and AIDS:
Between Scorn, Pity and Justice

Edited by FARID ESACK and SARAH CHIDDY

My latest book, co-edited with Sarah Chiddy, is out. HIV, AIDS and Islam - Between Scorn, Pity and Justice (Oxford, Oneworld) should be available from any good book shop. All royalties go to Positive Muslims. It’s a great collection of articles on different dimensions (legal, sexual, political, ethical etc. ) of the question of Muslims, Islam and AIDS and a great progressive alternative to the dominant judgmental voices on the subject.  Please get it and/or get your library to order a copy. Check it out at www.oneworld-publications.com/cgi-bin/cart2/commerce.cgi?pid=401. – Farid Esack

Islam and AIDS is the first book to comprehensively address the HIV/AIDS pandemic from an Islamic perspective, with contributions from a number of internationally known activists and scholars of Islam, including Kecia Ali and Abdulaziz Sachedina. With an introduction by Peter Piot, Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, this landmark work provides an insight into new possibilities of critical and progressive Islamic approaches, in both law and ethics, to one of the most urgent crises facing humankind today. Covering emotive issues such as gender, justice, poverty, health, disease, addiction, and sexuality, Islam and AIDS provides the religious analysis so essential for the communities at the forefront of the epidemic.

Farid Esack is a South African Muslim scholar, writer, and political activist. Former gender equity commissioner for Nelson Mandela, he was a founding member of both the AIDS Treatment Action Campaign and Positive Muslims. He is currently Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies, Harvard University. Sarah Chiddy has master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School and works as a spiritual counselor for people with HIV and AIDS in Boston.

“A groundbreaking, thoughtful, balanced and sober engagement of a
difficult yet imperative subject. The diverse range of perspectives is
realistically representative, yet visionary and humane in its conception
and orientation.” Abdullahi A. An-Naim, Charles Howard Candler
Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law

“The first book on Islam and AIDS which has succeeded in putting together within a single volume the whole spectrum of attitudes and positions on the subject expressed by Muslims from different backgrounds. It has raised the debate on some of the controversies related to AIDS to a higher level.” Chandra Muzaffar, President of the International Movement for a Just World