Islam and the West Critical Perspectives on Modernity

by Thompson, Michael J.; Çaha, Ömer; Hamad, Wadood; Halperin, Sandra; Langman, Lauren; Morris, Douglas; Er-Rashid, Haroun; Rejwan, Nissim; Thompson, Michael J.; Tocqueville, Alexis De; Vahdat, Farzin

• ISBN13: 9780742531079
• ISBN10: 0742531074
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-08-18
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

The essays in Islam and the West: Critical Perspectives on Modernity approach the interactions of Islam, the West, and modernity through overlapping social, historical, economic, cultural, and philosophical layers. Viewed through this complex prism of analysis, the full dimensions of the relationship become clear and the result is a deeper understanding of the nature of modernity and how other societies can relate to each other.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(4)
1 Muslims and the West: A Paradigm for Polarization	5	(16)
Haroun Er-Rashid
2 Islam, Modernity, and the Dialectic of Dogmatism	21	(18)
Michael J. Thompson
3 The Deficiency of Democracy in the Islamic World	39	(10)
Omer Çaha
4 The Roots of Terror	49	(26)
Lauren Langman and Douglas Morris
5 Europe in the Mirror of the Contemporary Middle East: Aspects of Modern European History Reconsidered	75	(32)
Sandra Halpern
6 Deconstructing Arab-Islamic History: A Discussion of its Evolutionary Dynamics	107	(16)
Wadood Hamad
7 Critical Theory and the Islamic Encounter with Modernity	123	(16)
Farzin Vahdat
8 Second Letter on Algeria	139	(14)
Alexis de Tocqueville
9 A Wild Goose Chase: To Cope, Must Islam "westernize"?	153	(30)
Nissim Rejwan
Index	183	(4)
About the Contributors	187