Truly modern Muslims

This review by Thomas Small, at The Times Literary Supplement, includes the following on the contrast between the language of What Is Islam, by Shahab Ahmed, and Islam: The essentials, by Tariq Ramadan.

"moving from Ahmed's book to Ramadan’s induces whiplash. Ahmed, twisting the English language into something that will express his vision of mature Islam, defending hierarchy, paradox, cumulative tradition; Ramadan, twisting Islam into something that will suit the language of progressive politics, egalitarian, morally consistent, accommodating the demands of our therapeutic age. That will not be to everyone’s taste; it reminds me of the sort of wishy-washy sermons you hear from liberal Christian preachers, where everything that might offend the sensibilities of a twenty-first-century progressive has been bleached out."