Islam and Modernity : towards a modern comprehension of Islam

Résumé du document

The events of the 20th century have totally disturbed the geography of Islam. Decolonization and globalization have been raising new issues in Muslim societies throughout the world. In this essay, we will see how the tension between the search for a Muslim identity on the one side, and the push for modernization on the other side, has encompassed a period that stretches from the beginning of second half of the 20th century to today. We will identify modernization in a broad sense. It can be defined as a process in history during which a society implemented better ways of regulating itself. Here, we will take modernization as an ensemble of historical and material conditions that allow emancipation from the given traditions, doctrines and ideologies and are not problematized by a traditional culture.

The end of the 19th century witnessed the rise of al Nahda, a cultural, political and religious renaissance. It represented an attempt to adapt Islam to the Western concepts of modernity in order to enable Muslim societies to rivalize with the West. And thus the thinkers of al Nahda introduced and incorporated Western concepts to Islamic thought in an attempt to make it more relevant in the context of a modernizing world.

Extraits

[...] But they are like seeds thrown in the global village and may have a bigger effect than expected. But then this a la carte Islam; would it still be Islam? Questioning the legal structure of Islam weakens it significantly. Indeed, the shari'a is the identity matrix, which Muslim populations refer to find a solution or to determine which attitude to adopt when they come across a new issue. For both Fundamentalists and Islamists, the law is the most essential component of Islam. [...]

[...] But, is that the only way to make Islam more in accordance with modern values? We can affirm that there are two ways of approaching the idea of a reform: on the one side, we can think that it is possible to re-interpret modern concepts with the aim of accommodating them to Islamic tradition. Why should there be only one way of conceptualizing modernity? There is one Western idea of it, but it is not necessarily the only one that is relevant, especially in a different ensemble of concepts. [...]

[...] The ulama approved the reform, and the Party of Justice and Development (aiming at the establishment of an Islamic republic) welcomed it as pioneering reform'[3]. In Malaysia, the Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi proposed a reform that concerns not only Islamic law, but Islam as a whole, following the concept of progressive Islam ‘Islam Hadhari'. He drew his inspiration from Ibn Khaldun that defines the term Hadhari by ‘urban civilization'. Islam Hadhari is based on ‘economic development, civic life and cultural progresses[4]. [...]

[...] Naseef Today's Problems, Tomorrow's Solutions: The Future Structure of Muslim Societies. London: Mansell - Web Interview of Abdolkarim Sorouch by Mouna Naïm published in Le Monde Tuesday 5th of August 1997: http://www.fsa.ulaval.ca/personnel/vernag/EH/F/cause/lectures/Islam%20et%20m odernit%C3%A9.htm Review of The Challenge of Fundamentalism: Political Islam and the New World Disorder by Bassam Tibi, 2004: http://middleeastinfo.org/article4453.html Can Islam Change? By Ziauddin Sardar, published in World affairs on the 13th of September 2004. Available online at: http://althea.blog.ca/2007/10/23/can_islam_change~3182311 Olivier Roy, The Failure of Political Islam, Harvard University Press Ziauddin Sardar, Can Islam change ? [...]

[...] Religious reform was favoured by political modernization and the spread of the Wahhabi ideology that aimed at a re-foundation of Islam. This early reformism was marked by the influence of Western rationalism, and the will to reconcile Islam with scientific progress. The idea consists in drawing one's inspiration from religious memory and integrating to it the values of modernity, with the certainty that both can be compatible. The tenants of this attitude oppose conservatives that reject all kind of interpretation and modernization. [...]