Islam

Islam, the Modern World, and the West: General Considerations



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Many students are shocked when they realize that modern Euro-American culture is the

embodiment of a multi-dimensional world view or belief system that is commonly called

"modernism." Some of the beliefs of modernism in comparison to Islam are discussed by Seyyed

Hossein Nasr, professor at George Washington University and one of the foremost scholars of

Islam, in his article Reflections on Islam and Modern Life. One of the most significant political

dimensions of modernism was modern Euro-American imperialism. A brief comment on this

imperialism and its devastation is the note Edward Said on Imperialism. A world renown

professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University, Said wrote a highly influential,

paradigm shifting book Orientalism [at Amazon.com], which deals with Euro-American

imperialism and its distorting influence on the writings of Western scholars about non-Western

cultures. Subsequently Said wrote Covering Islam [at Amazon.com], which focuses on how

Euro-American scholars and journalists slant what they write about Islam. A recent interview

with Said originally published on 27 March 1999 in the International Herald Tribune is Roots of

the West's Fear of Islam (Link fixed 25 August 2002; 15 March 2006).

Western attitudes to Islam are portrayed in the scholarly article The Utility of Islamic Imagery in

the West, written by Prof. J. A. Progler of City University of New York (CUNY), Brooklyn

College and in the excellent readings at the site Imaging Islam and Muslims (link fixed 17

August 2005).

The political significance of Islam is certainly the most important reason why Islam has been

occupying center stage in the world consciousness at the outset of the 21st century. One essay

published after 9/11 that can provide a useful focus in thinking about the political dimensions of

Islam today is Theorizing Islam by Professor Richard Bulliet of Columbia University. This work

is among the many informative articles published by the Social Science Research Council (an

independent NGO which is probably the chief funding agency for all varieties of social science

research in the world) on its website After September 11: Perspectives from the Social Sciences

The on-line journal ISIM Newsletter, which is produced by the International Institute for the

Study of Islam in the Modern World at Leiden University is an excellent source containing

numerous articles. Issue #1, Issue #2, and Issue #3.

Unfortunately, in their writings on Islam, many Western non-Muslims have been motivated not

merely by an enlightened desire to understand but rather by desires to dominate and control.

Such desires -- based somewhere between the extremes of lust for Western political and

economic domination, on the one hand, and fear of Islamic domination, on the other -- may not

always take on the obvious polemical overtones found in some "orientalist" discourse or the in

hate/scare-literature distributed by certain Western religious or political groups.

Sometimes, in the writings of today's post-orientalists or neo-orientalists, the anti-Islamic

polemic is subtly marshalled by innuendo and by ironic comments, the metatext of which is that

"We --I, the scholar, and you my Western readers -- are superior to Islam and Muslims."

Among the various polemics flung by non-Muslims toward Islam are that Islam advocates

violence and terrorism, restricts basic human rights, oppresses women, and promotes slavery. In

other words, non-Muslims often criticize Islam on the grounds that it advocates beliefs and

actions that perpetrate injustices. Nevertheless, Muslims base their beliefs primarily on the

Qur'an, and the Qur'an states unequivocally that God does not act in unjust manner (as in the

following verses: "... and not one will thy Lord treat with injustice" [Surat al-Kahf (the

Cave):49], and "Allah is never unjust in the least degree: if there is any good (done), He doubleth

it, and gives from His Own Self a great reward" [Surat an-Nisa (Women):40]). Hence, God

cannot have revealed Islam as a force which should impose injustice on people, and Muslims

must similarly neither act in an unjust manner nor formulate Islam in unjust manner. Dr. Aziza

al-Hibri has concisely summed up this principle, "If something is unjust, it is un-Islamic."



Islam, Peace, Jihad, Violence, and Terrorism



See the separate page on the issue of Islam, Peace, Jihad, Violence, and Terrorism



Islam and Globalization



 Globalisation Anthony Giddens first Reith Lecture, delivered in 1999. Although this article

does not deal with Islam, I believe that it is useful to understand globalization per se before

thinking about it in relationship to Islam. Tradition, the title of Prof. Giddens' third lecture, deals

with tradition, especially fundamentalism, in a globalized world. He touches on Islam in the

course of his third lecture. A sociologist described as "Britain's best-known social scientist since

Keynes," Professor Giddens in 1999 was the director of the London School of Economics.

 Islam and Globalization: Secularism, Religion, and Radicalism", a well-documented scholarly

article by Sean L. Yom in Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft (International Politics and

Society) (April, 2002).



Islam and Democracy



 Islam and the Challenge of Democracy by Professor Khaled Abou El Fadl of the University of

California, Los Angeles. Professor Abou El Fadl is no doubt one of the leading America-based

Muslim scholars of Islamic law. Here he presents his paper, which is then followed by the

responses of a number of scholars and then El Fadl's replies to them. (Boston Review, April/May

2003.)

 Islam, Islamists, and Democracy by Prof. Ali Abootalebi, Assistant Professor of Political

Science at the University of Wisconsin. Prof. Abootalebi categorizes recent Islamic movements

as fundamentalist or Islamist. The key distinction he makes between the two is that the "Islamist"

movements involve "progressive" 'ulama (Muslim scholars) and other intellectuals who see

freedom and democracy as important dimensions of an Islamic society. The fundamentalist or

traditionalist movements, on the other hand, believe that the 'ulama' should control the direction

of the society. After touching on the viewpoints of some of the leaders of Islamic movements,

Prof. Abootalebi discusses the issue of "Islam and civil society." He concludes by sketching out

the process by which "Islamic" democracies may become established. (Linked fixed, October 10,

1999)

 Islam and Democracy: Benazir, Hasina, and Erbakan an editorial by Prof. Saad Eddin Ibrahim,

briefly expresses the optimistic assessment of a number of scholars that Islamists (Muslim

activists and fundamentalists) are becoming and capable of becoming "Islamic Democrats." This

was published in Civil Society: Democratization in the Arab World, a publication of the Ibn

Khaldoun Center For Development Studies, Vol. 5, #56, August, 1996. (Link fixed, July 14,

2000 and March, 2004)

 Civil Society in the Arab World by Martin Gilbraith, explores the concept of "civil society"

and discusses the possibilities for democratization in the Arab world as well as the obstacles to it.

Published in Civil Society: Democratization in the Arab World, Volume 5, Issue 58, October

1996. (Link fixed, July 14, 2000 and March, 2004)



Islam and Human Rights



 Muslim Voices in the Human Rights Debate (link fixed 17 August 2005) is a scholarly article

by Professor Heiner Bielefeldt of Tubingen University in Germany. This comprehensive article

is from the journal Human Rights Quarterly 17.4 (1995) 587-617. (Link fixed, March 2004)

 Islam and Freedom of Expression, written by Dr. Fathi Osman, a Muslim thinker living in the

US, argues that freedom of expression is a basic human right in Islam. (Link fixed 9 June 2001.)

 Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights, which was announced at the International

Conference on The Prophet Muhammad and his Message, held in London from 12 to 15 April

1980. (Link fixed, March 2004)



Islam, Exclusivism, and Pluralism



 The Place of Tolerance in Islam by Khaled Abou El Fadl. Professor El Fadl, of UCLA, also

responds here to a number of scholarly responses to his paper (Boston Review, Feb/March

2002).

 On Pluralism, Intolerance, and the Quran a scholarly but easily grasped and timely article by

Dr. Ali Asani, professor at Harvard University, originally published in The American Scholar

volume 71, no. 1 (winter 2002), pp. 52-60.



Islam and Women



 Islam and Women's Rights Throughout history, the strong have oppressed the weak, and men

have oppressed women. Unfortunately, Muslim men have often not been an exception to this

rule. Nevertheless, Muslims assert that in such cases the fault lies not with Islam but rather with

the inadequacy of Muslim men. The links compiled here--largely written by Muslim women--

contradict the popular but mistaken notion held in the West that Islam is oppressive to women.



Islam and Slavery



 Slavery in Islam Written by the scholars of the "The Wisdom Fund," this page contains useful

source material. See also my notes on African-American Islam and slavery.



Islam and Ecology



 Islam and Ecology, an on-line article from the scholarly journal, Cross Currents, written by

Marjorie Hope and James Young. The bulk of this article is the text of the authors' interview

with Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr. In addition, the authors compare Nasr's viewpoint with that

of Thomas Berry, one of today's most significant eco-philosophers.

Islam and AIDS



 Positive Muslims a South African based website focusing on the issues facing HIV positive

Muslims. Among other points noted on the website are that heterosexual transmission is now the

main form of HIV transmission in South Africa and that a number of Muslim scholars ('ulama)

are HIV positive.

 The National Muslims AIDS Initiative is a website developed at Bronx Community College of

the City University of New York through funding from the Ford Foundation. Among other

things this site contains information about the Islamic perception of AIDS prevention and

Islamic guidance for Muslims afflicted with AIDS.



Islam and Media



 Islam, Animation, and Money: the Reception of Disney's Aladdin in Southeast Asia is a well-

documented and nuanced article written by Timothy White and J. E. Winn in the on-line journal

KINEMA (Spring, 1995).



Islam, Business, and Economics



 The Issue of Riba' (charging interest) in Islamic Faith and Law is a scholarly article by Dr.

Abdulaziz Sachedina of the University of Virginia. society, and democratization. Islam is

mentioned in various places throughout the article, but is discussed in particular with regard to

the relationship between ethnicity and the vision of contemporary Islamists.