Submitted by Suffet De Carthage : That history is not a thing of the past is a general truth, of which I simply want to remind the reader. History is not the tale of bygone days, but the present we dwell in.11 It is part and parcel of a nation; it constitutes its memory, its consciousness, its ambitions. It is what is everlasting in its geography and demography. It is the mirror of the nation’s […]
Silencing online speech in Tunisia
Blocking web 2.0 websites (Youtube, Dailymotion, Facebook) and barring access to local outspoken websites and blogs is the most obvious way of cracking down of the online free speech in Tunisia. It should be emphasized, however, that this is only one tool in the regime’s hand. Tunisia has adapted to the web 2.0 revolution by developing a broader strategy composed of a wide range of instruments […]
Political Islam in the Service of Imperialism
All the currents that claim adherence to political Islam proclaim the “specificity of Islam.” According to them, Islam knows nothing […]
Why Shariah?
In fact, for most of its history, Islamic law offered the most liberal and humane legal principles available anywhere in the world. Today, when we invoke the harsh punishments prescribed by Shariah for a handful of offenses, we rarely acknowledge the high standards of proof necessary for their implementation. Before an adultery conviction can typically be obtained, for example, the accused must confess four times or four adult male witnesses […]
Enfin l’Amérique s’interroge !
Loin des arguments simplistes, l’absence presque totale des débats aux États-Unis questionnant la politique Israélienne, et l’appui sans conditions des gouvernements américains depuis quelques décennies, demeure pour moi un mystère. Est-ce l’influence du lobby juif qui impose cette “censure” ou serait-ce l’architecture des intérêts américains, qui au Moyen […].
Towards A New Islamic Discourse
Islam is portrayed sometimes as if it were a monolithic or uni-dimensional entity. Islam is undoubtedly the faith of transcendental monotheism , the belief in Allah (the one and only God), who transcends both man and nature. But monotheism does not lead to monism (the metaphysical doctrine that existence is a whole and one); on the contrary, it leads to pl […].
The trail of political Islam
Gilles Kepel, one of the world’s foremost experts on the modern Middle East, has written Jihad : the Trail of Political Islam, the first comprehensive attempt to follow the history and spread of Islamist political movements. In a talk given at the Institut Français in London as part of a collaboration between European cultural institutes on the relationshi […].
Islam, Society, Modernity
During the huge public discourse, especially in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, Muslim mind-set toward modernity frequently came into question. A whole theology bas came into being on the question whether Islam and modernity are compatible to each other. Neither the question nor the arguments are new. Similar debates arose in the nineteenth century whe […].
Intellectual Autobiography.
Interview with Abdolkarim Soroush. Sadri: I would like to ask you for an account of your intellectual development. I am certainly interested in whether you distinguish any turning points, watersheds, or distinct periods in the evolution of your thought. Soroush: In the name of God the compassionate, the merciful, thank you for giving me this opportunity […].
Whither Political Islam?
Thinking of modern jihad as simply a cultural extension of Islam is a common, and unfortunate, mistake. Two new books by Gilles Kepel and Olivier Roy offer better historical and sociological explanations, but they are only a start. The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West. By Gilles Kepel. Cambridge: Belknap, 2004, 336 pp. $23.95. Globalized Islam: […].
Fundamentalism and Modernism in the Contemporary Iranian Islam
Summary: `Islamic fundamentalism’ and `Islamic modernism’ are questions that Hojjatoleslam Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari has discussed in a lecture delivered at the University of Sorbonne in France in February 26, 1997. Text: In this article we will try to answer the following questions: a. What is Islamic fundamentalism? b. What is Islamic modernism? c. Wh […].
