Andrew and Andy, I’m on the road and so can’t jump too far into the debate, but I’ve always argued that where we go wrong is prioritizing the traditional theology over what practitioners actually believe. It’s more important to examine what the graduates of madrasas understand Islam to be than what Harvard Ph.D.’s in religious studies know.

Along these lines, there are a few good articles looking at how Islamist radicals use theology to justify their actions:

In the Autumn 2007 Middle East Quarterly, there will also be a lengthy study of Quranic verses which abrogate other Quranic verses, but I’m not finished editing that issue yet.