ISLAM AND THE DIVERSITY OF VOICES IN THE ARAB WORLD

There is no doubt that globalization, with all of the ambiguities and disconnections that it involves, has become the new grand narrative of our times, particularly in the social sciences and in the media. In attempting to appraise “Islamic perspectives” within the regional context of the Middle East, I view the “Islamic factor” as one of several factors at work in the Arab world. My approach belongs to cultural-intellectual history and sociology, rather than religious studies, economics, or realpolitik concerns. I am aware of the unfortunate tendency of many Islamists and certain Western observers to speak of Islam as if it were a changeless, closed system, inherently “unique” and remotely different from Christianity, and to view Islamic societies as antithetical to the modern values that are associated with the West. Such presentations are epistemologically unsound and tend to hinder comprehension of our common human reality. Apart from anything else, we need to remind ourselves that there are several “Islams” in our world. Islam represents not only a “civilization” and a “culture of reference” in general, but also various regional, socio-economic, and ideological “cultures”. Both Islamic teachings and history can be, and have been, interpreted in diverse ways. Contemporary Islamic movements, even within the same country, do not all share the same attitudes to such crucial issues as “religion and politics”, the role of reason, the Islamic heritage, modernity, and the “other”. We need to remember that a century or so ago, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Muhammad ‘Abduh, and Rashid Rida, for example, though considered as one school of thought, actually differed in their approaches to the means and orientations of Islamic reform.