We recognize that the problems of the Islamic world which are yet to be resolved date back before the geopolitical changes that we have witnessed in recent years throughout the whole world and particularly in the Middle East. However, it is also a fact that the developments affecting international order, and in particular the increasing power of globalizat […].
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Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East -3-
To speak of dictatorship as being the immemorial way of doing things in the Middle East is simply untrue. It shows ignorance of the Arab past, contempt for the Arab present, and lack of concern for the Arab future. Creating a democratic political and social order in Iraq or elsewhere in the region will not be easy. But it is possible, and there are increas […].
Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East -2-
To speak of dictatorship as being the immemorial way of doing things in the Middle East is simply untrue. It shows ignorance of the Arab past, contempt for the Arab present, and lack of concern for the Arab future. Creating a democratic political and social order in Iraq or elsewhere in the region will not be easy. But it is possible, and there are increas […].
Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East -1-
To speak of dictatorship as being the immemorial way of doing things in the Middle East is simply untrue. It shows ignorance of the Arab past, contempt for the Arab present, and lack of concern for the Arab future. Creating a democratic political and social order in Iraq or elsewhere in the region will not be easy. But it is possible, and there are increas […].
Western Orientalism and Liberal Islam : Mutual Distrust ?
Orientalism is Western when it takes the West not as an event, but as an idea preordained in all eternity, complete and final from the beginning. And if it starts from this point, it has to construct its subject-matter as an explicitly, totally different item, reduced to the form it had at its birth. The two assumptions are clearly related ; if the West is […].
A humane Muslim future
Islam can move beyond its association with oppression and violence by being true to itself and its past, says Fareena Alam. “Islam means peace”, they exclaim. “Islam condemns terrorism”, they insist. “The vast majority of Muslims reject violence”, they wail. Even before 11 September 2001, Muslim leaderships in Britain and elsewhere went to great pains to […].
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 et terrorisme
1- Du Texte à l’Histoire Comme dans tous les pays non-occidentaux, l’engagement des sociétés dans la voie de la modernité a posé beaucoup de défis et provoqué beaucoup de contradictions. L’une de ces dernières concerne la manière dont il faut s’approprier les valeurs de la modernité et accéder à la nouvelle civilisation. Face aux courants nationalistes e […].
Human Rights, Women and Islam
The ISIM invited 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi for her first formal visit to the Netherlands where she met with members of NGOs, government officials, scholars, students, and activists from 15-17 April 2004. On 16 April she gave a lecture at the Nieuwe of Littéraire Sociëteit de Witte in The Hague entitled, Human Rights, Women and Islam which […].
Conceptualizing Islamic Activism
Since the late 1990s, a number of Islamic movement specialists have begun to bridge the gap between the study of Islamic activism and social science theories of collective action. The underlying premise is that Islamic activism is not sui generis. Since the late 1990s, a number of Islamic movement specialists have begun to bridge the gap between the stud […].
Sayyid Qutb and his influence
Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi is professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at the Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary (Hartford, Connecticut). He is also co-editor of The Muslim World. Among his publications : Intellectual Origins of Islamic Resurgence in the Modern Arab World (Al […].
Islam and politics don’t mix
From the end of the 19th century, pan–Arabic and pan–Islamic movements have vied for influence in countries like ours. The Islamic movement developed in the 1950s in Egypt and spread to various countries. In Tunisia, it arose, particularly in the 1970s, as a sort of riposte to the leftist ideas that were prevalent at the time. Many people are convinced that the then regime of Habib Bourguiba helped the Islamic movement establish itself.
What is Progressive Islam?
The various understandings of Islam which fall under the rubric of ‘progressive’ are both continuations of, and radical departures from, the hundred and fifty year old tradition of liberal Islam. (1) Liberal advocates of Islam generally display an uncritical, almost devotional identification with modernity, and often (but do not always) by-pass discussions […].
Islam’s Reformist Tradition
The “clash of civilizations” supposedly underway between the West and the Muslim world, which many see as manifested in Iraq, as well as in Saudi Arabia’s growing violence, in fact masks other conflicts – disputes that will probably prove to be far more significant in the long term. One of these struggles is taking place among Muslims themselves over the […].
La tradition réformatrice de l’islam
Le ” choc des civilisations “à l’œuvre paraît-il entre le monde occidental et le monde musulman, et que beaucoup voient se manifester en Irak et dans l’aggravation de la violence en Arabie saoudite, cache en réalité d’autres conflits qui s’avèreront probablement beaucoup plus importants à long terme. L’un de ces conflits divise les musulmans et concerne l […].
Democratic culture and extremist Islam
Are Islam and democracy incompatible? The evolution of a radical Turkish Islamic group in Germany suggests that the pursuit of ‘fundamentalist’ goals can itself create the space for a rational appraisal of tradition. By seeking truth in origin and scripture rather than history, successive generations of Islamists may be drawn – even despite themselves – t […].
Expectations from the Muslim Woman
Prior to beginning my lecture, I would like to propose some practical suggestions. Speaking about women’s rights, women’s personality and Islam’s view of women differs a great deal from the realization of the actual value which Islam gives to human beings, and to women, in particular. Most often we are satisfied by pointing out that Islam gives great value […].
Human and Islam
Ladies and Gentlemen: Tonight, as long as time permits, I would like to investigate the following questions: I. Does Islam recognize man as a helpless creature whose ultimate goal and ideal is to stand powerless in front of God? II. Does Islam recognize humanness as a nobility? III. Is helpiessness in man a pre-requisite of belief in Islam, or on the c […].
