Islam Under the Conditions of Modernity (original) (raw)
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The encounter of the Muslim community with western modernity ushered in a new course of events involving multidimensional interactions and conflicts in economic, political, social and cultural areas. As a result of this eventful encounter, three different major reactions came about among Muslims towards modernity: the first one is modernism which aims at the western-type modernization and cracks a door to secularism. The second one was a movement which, harboring fundamentalist and reformist ideas, rejected modernity entirely and viewed the backwardness vis-à-vis the West in Muslims' inadequate understanding of Islam. The third one was the (neo-) traditionalist approach. This study offers an account of the encounter with a little background and also an analysis of all three responses that Muslims held towards modernity. It finally presents whether or not these approaches brings in anything new in terms of Muslim sectarianism. Öz Modernite ve İslam Toplumunun Buna Tepkisinde Farklılaşması: Modern, Islahçı ve Gelenekçi Tavırların Ortaya Konulması İslam toplumunun Batı Modernizmi ile karşılaşması ekonomik, politik, sosyal ve kültürel zeminlerde çok boyutlu bir etkileşim ve çatışma sürecini beraberinde getirdi. Bu karşılaşmada Müslümanlar arasından üç farklı tepki ortaya çıktı: İlki Batı tipi bir modernleşmeyi hedefleyen ve bu çerçevede sekülerleşmeye kapı açan yaklaşımdı. İkincisi, modernleşmeye toptan karşı çıkan ve Batı karşısındaki geri kalmışlığı İslam'ı yeterince yaşayamamakta gören köktenci ve ıslahçı yaklaşımdı. Üçüncüsü ise (yeni-) gelenekçi yaklaşımdı. Bu makalede İslam toplumunun Batı modernizmi ile karşılaşma süreci ve bunun arkaplanı ele alınmış, bu çerçevede İslam toplumunda oluşan üç farklı tutum tahlil edilmiştir. Bu çalışma, ayrıca, bahsedilen eğilimlerin İslam mezhepçiliği açısından yeni olarak ne ortaya koyduklarını tartışmaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Modernite, Modern, Islahçı, Gelenekçi.
Islam and Contemporary Society: Emerging Paradigms to Explain Muslim Communities
There is hardly any country, where most of the people do not follow a particular religious view, but no other religious groups need to address so many controversies as the Muslims do. Islam is no more merely a religion; it is a political agenda, a manifestation of orthodoxy, an enticement to establish particular ideology and many more. Islam has integrated a variety of political and social facet into it; hence diversity in comprehension emerged. Various scholars analyzed numerous aspects of Islam. This paper attempts to narrate the most imperative aspects of Islam in the modern day and tries to delineate the significant role that Islam plays in the life and living of individuals of all around the world.
Islam and Modernity - Theorizing Challenges of Modernization between Orient and Occident
Current excesses of violence by Jihadist-Salafist groups like the so-called “Islamic State” or the “Nusra Front” are regularly justified on religious grounds, claiming to represent “true Islam”. Intellectuals from both, the Arab and the Western world openly criticize the silence of Muslim scholars with regard to theses escalations and connect the root causes for extremism with a crisis of the religion of Islam itself. Their pivotal question is: How should Islam relate to the modern world? Or: Can and should Islam change? By engaging with literature by scholars from both, the “Western” and the “Arab” world, this course aims to understand the current dilemma Islam is facing - as a religion, but especially as a comprehensive Weltanschauung. After acquiring a basic understanding of the religion of Islam and its concepts of political and social community, the students discuss different theories of “modernity”, “anti-modernity” and “alternative modernity” in relation to notions of “tradition”. Based on these preparations, the course engages in pre-structured discussions on the current debates between “Orient” and “Occident” on modernity, as well as the public discourse in the Middle East on the topic. At the end of the course, the acquired understanding of the current dilemma of “Islam” is interpreted with regard to its implications and challenges for the societies of the Middle East, but also Europe as its neighbor and home to a significant Muslim minority.
Culture and national character of modern nations are predominantly derived from the religious formation of that society. Determining the significance of religion for the societies turns out to be more complex and less definite. Transitions of worldwide religion, politics, trade and customs persuaded Muslims to integrate a cascade of changes in regional political power relations, formation of state, legal institutions, norms, rituals and even religious ideas. The realms of religion and politics are tightly intertwined with each-other in a number of ways. Though one is rather related to the private sphere of life and the other is to that of the public sphere, but both have a great impact on each other. New religious movement and political progress, in some part of the world, have become two sides of the same coin. Nonetheless, the role of religion remains an essential perspective to explain the social conditions of the people of heterogeneous advanced societies. This research offers a general interpretation of a constantly evolving complex of theological, cultural, social and religious traditions in Muslim societies.
When Words Collide? Islam and Modernity – Alternative Paradigms, Contrasting Authentic Ideals
Conflict between Islam and the West is rooted in contrasting worldviews, informed by alternative moral underpinnings and differing existential implications. Furthermore, engagement between the Islamic and Western paradigms is defined by imbalanced power relations in which the subaltern Islamic Paradigm is pressured into conformance by the dominant Western Modernist paradigm. Using the issue of freedom of expression as an entry point, this article examines the contrasting cultural conduits that define each community by outlining the main tropes of the Modernist and Islamic worldviews. The article thus attempts to suggest an alternative engagement between Islam and the West that emphasizes convergence over conflict.
Islam and Modernity: Key Issues and Debates
Quote as: Masud, Khalid, Armando Salvatore, and Martin van Bruinessen (eds). 2009. Islam and Modernity: Key Issues and Debates, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. This textbook is a pioneering study providing an introduction to and overview of the debates and questions that have emerged regarding Islam and modernity. Key issues are selected to give readers an understanding of the complexity of the phenomenon from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The various manifestations of modernity in Muslim life discussed include social change and the transformation of political and religious institutions, gender politics, changing legal regimes, devotional practices and forms of religious association, shifts in religious authority, and modern developments in Muslim religious thought.