Islam and Post-Modernity

Most of the West’s so-called ‘progressive minds’, the ‘enlightened’ leftist, the proponent of what is ‘secular’ and ‘rational’, are in the dark when it comes to Islam: the faith, the politics, the philosophy and the value system.

By Gilad Atzmon.
First Published 2009-07-28,
Last Updated 2009-07-28 16:42:55
Courtesy Of Middle-East-Online

In the light of the rise of Islam and Islamic resistance to Western colonialism and Israeli barbarism, I become more and more interested in the philosophy of Islam and the answers provided by contemporary Muslim scholars to questions having to do with Being.

It had become clear to me recently that most of the West’s so-called ‘progressive minds’ (the ‘enlightened’ leftist, the proponent of what is ‘secular’ and ‘rational’) are in the dark when it comes to Islam: the faith, the politics, the philosophy and the value system. It had become clear to me that as much as the West tends to praise itself for its ‘enlightened’ discourse of ‘Modernity’ and ‘Rationalism’, Islamic scholarship actually presents a coherent valuable and valid counter argument to the above. It offers a dynamic hermeneutic body of thought that transforms the notion of ‘post-modernism’ from being an empty intellectual rant (on the verge of self-indulgence) into vivid existential resistance.

I would maintain that in order to say anything valuable about Islam and the Muslim world we better start to grasp what Islam is, what it stands for and what it can offer. I would also argue that if we in the West want to learn about Islam there is no source more appropriate than that which can be found in Islamic scholarship. As things stand we left that discourse for too long in the hands of the so-called ‘progressive minds’ who seemingly have very little to offer on this very subject because they are more than likely to be alien to spiritual hermeneutic thinking and largely blind to the religious discourse in general.

A set of answers are offered by Muqtedar Khan, Ph.D on issues concerning modernity and post-modernity in the light of Islam. Khan (born 1966) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware. He is also the Director of the Islamic Studies Program. Regardless of Khan’s political views which can be debated somewhere else or even here, the man is an Islamic philosopher of the highest possible caliber. Khan can assist us in extending the critical discourse of Western supremacy. He manages to point out that the core of the conflict between the West and the Near East is in spirit, in philosophy; it is epistemological and metaphysical. To a certain extent Khan manages to redeem us of the banal materialist discourse that evidently failed to bring liberation to the region nor has it managed to offer any meaningful argument.

“Islam,” says Khan, “has survived the experiment called modernity and will survive the bonfire (postmodernity) that is threatening to burn down the lab along with the experiment.” I would argue that our relevance in the Palestinian and anti-colonial discourse would be defined by our seriousness and respectful approach towards Islam, the faith, the politics, the resistance, the value system, in short, the very many things that are included in the notion of Islam.

To read Khan's article, visit Ijtihad.org

Gilad Atzmon (gilad.co.uk) is a writer and jazz musician living in London. His latest cd is In Loving Memory of America.