Modernity and Muslims: Towards a Selective Retrieval
American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 28 (1) (2011)
Abstract
This article is focused on some conditions in today’s world of
globalized media, which are producing either an uncritical acquiescence
or fright in Muslim societies as a result of the interaction
between these societies and the contemporary Western
powers that represent modernity and postmodernity on the
global stage. The rise of fundamentalism, a tendency toward
returning to the roots and stringently insisting upon some pure
and literal interpretation of them, in almost all the religions of
the world is a manifestation of this fright. The central concern
of this article is to suggest that fundamentalism is neither the
only nor the most reasonable response for Muslim societies in
the face of contemporary modernity. Muslims need to adopt an
independent and critical attitude toward modernity and reshape
their societies in the light of the ethics of the Qur’an, keeping in
view the historical link between Islam and science in as much as
Islamic culture paved the way for emergence of modern science
during European Renaissance. The necessity of a pluralistic or
contextualized modernization of Muslim societies is discussed
along with the need for the removal of cultural duplicity in the
role of the West in relation to Muslim societies. All this leads to
an overall proposal for modernization which is given towards
the end.
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