Abstract
The analysis of Islam in the modern world continues to be colored by Hegel’s “confused conscious of history.” The confusion expresses itself in two ways, like two faces of a coin: by analogy and through denigration. The wave of Islamist terror unleashed on 9/11 presented another opportunity to expose this confusion. For some, Islam is in no way responsible for the violence that has spread over the entire world, just as it is in no way responsible for the setbacks of free thought in the Medieval Age or for the difficulties of current Muslim societies to modernize. According to this point of view, the responsibility falls exclusively on misguided minorities who pervert the essence of Islam and alter its radiant face. For others, who are at times nostalgic for plans to exterminate religions (or men and women of religion), it has been convenient to make Islam the shorthand for what is really a complex socio-historical situation. Islam is presented as the source of all the evils of Muslims and of the problems of our time. We are thus prisoners of two inadequate schemas: unapologetic proponents of fideism, on the one hand, and the “eradicators” who entertain the illusion that one can somehow just get rid of one of the world’s great religions, on the other.
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- 1.
We give some indications of these earlier works on modern Islamic history and the problems of its “reformation.” We chose to write most of these works in Arabic, because we believe that it is essential to make their history known among Arabic-speaking Muslims who are the most concerned by this story.
- 2.
Troeltsch Ernst, Protestantism and modernity, translated from German by Marc B. de Launay, Gallimard, 1991, p. 45. Moreover, this point of view is confirmed by the French historian Lucien Febvre in his famous monograph on Luther: “Luther, one of the fathers of the modern world?” The French willingly use the formula, or other analogues and resonance.
- 3.
See Bori, Haddad et Melloni (Editors), Reforms: understanding and comparing their religions, op. cit. à note 1, and Haddad (Ed.), Religions et Religious Reforms, Proceedings of the 2007 International Symposium in Amman, Jordan, op. cit. note 1.
- 4.
Salafism refers to the school of thought founded in the 14th century by Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyya (1263–1328). It lived in a difficult period in the history of Islam: a few years before its birth in 1258, Baghdad was destroyed by the Mongols. Ibn Taymiyya wanted to give a new impulse to Islam by advocating for a strict return to his recommendations. He called Muslims to jihad and cast moral condemnation on sects, philosophers, and mystics. His views were poorly followed during his lifetime and he himself was imprisoned several times. However, he left an impressive number of books and his disciples were able to divulge his message, the most famous of them being Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1292–1350). Wahhabism claims to be the heir of this rigorous and puritanical school of thought.
- 5.
Article “Muhammad Abduh” in The Encyclopedia of Islam, t. VII, p. 421, 2nd edition, Leiden/Paris, Brill/Maisonneuve et Larose, 1993. Compare with our article “Reread Mr. Abduh: About Mr. Abduh’s article in the Encyclopedia of Islam,” op. cit. note 1.
- 6.
At the sources of the Muslim revival: from al-Afghani to Hassan al-Banna, a century of Islamic reformism, ed. Tawhid, 2002. Ramadan is the grandchild of Hassan al-Banna.
- 7.
Without knowing it, Ramadan’s detractors sometimes take back his representation of things. See for example Fourest Caroline et Venner Fiammetta, Tirs croisés, Calmann-Lévy, 2003, p. 411 and following.
- 8.
The fate of my doctoral thesis mentioned above also illustrates this point. Summarized and translated from French into Arabic, it found a publisher many years later, in 2003. Among all my scholarship on the history contemporary Islamic thought, the work I devoted to Abduh was the most coolly received. It is this mental resistance that I propose to analyze here.
- 9.
Cf. Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd edition, t. III, pp. 146–170.
- 10.
Arkoun Mohamed, For a critique of Islamic reason, Paris, Maisonneuve et Larose, 1984, p. 44.
References
Arkoun, Mohamed. 1984. For a Critique of Islamic Reason, 44. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose.
Troeltsch, Ernst. 1991. Protestantism and Modernity. Translated from German by Marc B. de Launay, 45. Gallimard.
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Haddad, M. (2020). Introduction: The Missing Reform. In: Muslim Reformism - A Critical History. Philosophy and Politics - Critical Explorations, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36774-9_1
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