Abstract for "The Strugle for the Real Islam; the Rise of Militancy and Failure of Modernization and Devlopment"
Abstract
The development of religions is marked by periods of reexamination and reformation of the faith to adapt religion to the prevailing culture and civilization. In Islam, the first five centuries of its formation witnessed a great deal of such adaptation. However, as of its sixth century, Islam was barred from further evolution by an alliance of temporal rulers and beneficiary religious establishment. For 700 years, Islam became frozen, rigid and conformist. The result was a marked decline in all aspects of civilization and culture. However, the great previous achievements of Islamic civilization did not fail to inspire revivalists. Broadly, there were three currents of revivalists: the modernizing traditionalists, the ancestor -referencing and the political Islamists
The promise of reform of the traditional modernizers seems to have been pre -emptied by the rise of the nationalist movements in various countries in reaction to the advent of Western colonialism. In the Arab world, the nationalists held sway for six decades in the Twentieth Century. However, their record was characterized by repression, cultural and economic decline and failure to protect their people from aggression. This comprehensive failure marked the psychology of the populace and gave an impulse to the political Islamists and the militants to present themselves as the authentic alternative. The violence and terror of some of their followers is found to be a reaction to this collective failure to reform the culture, modernize the societies and develop the economies.
The political Islamists base their thesis on a particular and selective interpretation of Islam. This group found in the Afghan experience an occasion to form an international identity capable to achieve by violence its goals. Dealing with these groups is possible the only form within the Islamic societies by outright rejection of the distortion and through a new program of modernization and economic transformation. Islam itself should come under a modern rational reading to fit the age.
The development of religions is marked by periods of reexamination and reformation of the faith to adapt religion to the prevailing culture and civilization. In Islam, the first five centuries of its formation witnessed a great deal of such adaptation. However, as of its sixth century, Islam was barred from further evolution by an alliance of temporal rulers and beneficiary religious establishment. For 700 years, Islam became frozen, rigid and conformist. The result was a marked decline in all aspects of civilization and culture. However, the great previous achievements of Islamic civilization did not fail to inspire revivalists. Broadly, there were three currents of revivalists: the modernizing traditionalists, the ancestor -referencing and the political Islamists
The promise of reform of the traditional modernizers seems to have been pre -emptied by the rise of the nationalist movements in various countries in reaction to the advent of Western colonialism. In the Arab world, the nationalists held sway for six decades in the Twentieth Century. However, their record was characterized by repression, cultural and economic decline and failure to protect their people from aggression. This comprehensive failure marked the psychology of the populace and gave an impulse to the political Islamists and the militants to present themselves as the authentic alternative. The violence and terror of some of their followers is found to be a reaction to this collective failure to reform the culture, modernize the societies and develop the economies.
The political Islamists base their thesis on a particular and selective interpretation of Islam. This group found in the Afghan experience an occasion to form an international identity capable to achieve by violence its goals. Dealing with these groups is possible the only form within the Islamic societies by outright rejection of the distortion and through a new program of modernization and economic transformation. Islam itself should come under a modern rational reading to fit the age.
posted by michel sakbani | 9:25 AM
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