Intellectuals seem to have been marginal in every Muslim society, perhaps because they are a different breed of elite. They are not, as a rule, called ulama — Muslim religious scholars who are not only well versed in Islamic knowledge, particularly fiqh (jurisprudence), but also have close relations with grassroots Muslims. While most Muslim intellectuals are equally well grounded in the various branches of Islamic knowledge, in general they are not regarded as ulama. Given their ambiguous socio-religious status, there is a gap between Muslim intellectuals and their ordinary brethren that is not easy to bridge.

In addition, Muslim intellectuals, by and large, are products of a modern education that has been heavily influenced by Western education and thought. In an atmosphere of suspicion among the ulama and masses to almost anything Western, Muslim intellectuals have also become objects of suspicion and even hostility, especially when they put forward new ideas for reform and renewal of Muslim thought and society.

This dilemma is clearly portrayed in Carool Kersten's volume. The three new Muslim intellectuals of the postcolonial age discussed have faced the same situation: Indonesia's Nurcholish Madjid (1939–2005), Egypt's Hasan Hanafi (born 1935) and French-Algerian Mohammed Arkoun (1928–2010). As reflected in the book's title, they are all cosmopolitan because of their education, international networks and personal intellectual tendencies.

At the same time, all three intellectuals were undoubtedly well versed in Islamic theology, and particularly in the al-turath al-Islamiyyah, the Islamic intellectual heritage. This allowed them to strongly leverage on traditional Islamic thought as well. Despite the depth of their knowledge of Islam, they have been criticised, opposed and condemned, and even accused of being ‘heretics’ for their reformism.

Nurcholish Madjid was attacked by a few conservative ulama and literal-minded Indonesian Muslims for ideas such as the ‘secularisation’ of the Muslim mind and religious practices; he was also vilified for his saying: ‘Islam yes, Islamic party no’. Hanafi was condemned for his statement that the Qur'an is like a supermarket, where one takes what one wants and leaves what one doesn't; while Arkoun was opposed for his alleged unwillingness to identify himself unequivocally as a pious Muslim and for his deconstructive readings of the Qur'an (pp. xiii–xiv).

All three have been leading intellectuals in their respective countries, and beyond. Collectively, their ideas represent conscious efforts to reform Muslim societies to enable them to meet the challenges of globalisation; in Kersten's words, they are ‘new advocates of Islam's wider civilisational heritage’ (p. xv).

Southeast Asian Islam in general has long been regarded as only ‘peripheral’ Islam vis-à-vis Arab Islam. It is only since the late 1980s that there have been some serious attempts among Western scholars to correct this misperception. Kersten notes that the marginalisation of Muslims (and Islam) in Southeast Asian studies is deplorable (p. 8). Kersten's decision to include an Indonesian intellectual in this book was motivated by a desire to help redress this particular imbalance in the study of contemporary Islam. The inclusion of Nurcholish Madjid fills a gap resulting from the relative neglect of the most populous Muslim nation-state; corrects stereotypical views of Southeast Asian Islam, and addresses the lack of intellectual histories of insular Southeast Asia (pp. 8–9).

All of these reasons are pertinent to the nature and realities of Indonesian Islam — arguably the most dynamic and vibrant of Muslim communities in Southeast Asia. As Kersten also argues, following the views of such leading scholars as Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Fazlur Rahman, Dale Eickelman, Jon Anderson and many others, Indonesian Islam's intellectual milieu actually appears to provide a particularly fertile environment for developing new ways of engaging with the Islamic heritage and its very real potential for refashioning existing scholarship in Islamic studies by both Muslims and non-Muslims.