Progressive, Enlightened Voices from the Arab World
The human-building process constitutes the true beginning of every creative building process, and it is what any comprehensive development aspires to. Human capital is what...
Epidemics have ceased to plague the Islamic world thanks to Western science and colonial medicine, and this is another fact that we are hesitant to...
The act of takfīr (‘declaring someone a non-believer' ) represents one aspect of how the religious cleric oversteps the limitations of a religious fatwā and...
This is the general outline of Arab thought in all its successive phases. Let us now get into some details. Arkoun sees that Arab intellectuals,...
I would like first of all to pose this question: how does Muhammad Arkoun view Arab Islamic thought? What is the general picture he paints...
Studying history, as we have mentioned elsewhere, through the stages of public education for young people has a great impact on shaping their minds. This...
How can the Islam of History attain the goal of standing with its head held high alongside Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism? 3) By studying...
In all the major religions two religions live together peaceably: the Religion of Faith and the Religion of History. With the exception, that is, of...
These facts about the history of religions help schools pupils and students understand the historical formation of religious phenomena. It blocks the road to blind...
Almost every religion is inhabited by fanaticism, which is the lawful offspring of a religious narcissism promulgated via slogans of greatness. People like us are...
We appear to take a doctrinal stance towards science and scientists, considering science some form of contrary belief, as if it were another religion in...
Those who call for the return to the text via a return to the legacy of Arabic rhetoric in its “golden age” accuse the proponents...
The Egyptian thinker Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd argued that the mechanisms which govern the large part of religious discourse are the same, whether they manifest...
The term ‘Salafism’ is one of the more widely employed concepts in two arenas: the media and religion. Linguistically the term ‘Salaf’ refers to what...
There are some who claim that there is a difference between the extremist and moderate religious currents, while there is in fact no difference separating...
The concept of charity and unconditional good deeds is inconsistent with the concept of charity and good deeds in the light of what is referred...
Extremist movements have become the military arm of the takfīr institutions, and they even pressure these institutions to grant them fatwās against their enemies. In...
In recent decades fatwās of takfīr (declaring others to be ‘infidels’) have proliferated, going beyond any reasonable limits and threatening both individuals and groups. Official...
In the first part of this article, I referred to the position of the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan, Hasan al-Turabi, towards Western...
In the eighties of the last century, the late Sudanese politician and diplomat ‘Alī Abū ‘Āqila Abūsan wrote a pamphlet entitled “Al-Turābī’s Letters and the...
Progress for Arabs and Muslims is a negative concept, as the movement of history is constantly one of going from bad to worse. This fact...
If we turn now to the intellectual manifestations of fanaticism and extremism, one should note that a fanatic will only become an extremist, or risk...
The Islamist current calls continually and in all circumstances for us not to fall victim to dazzlement at western culture, and not to imprison ourselves...
Human and intellectual development is based on intellectual awareness and openness to the other, whether this other be a people, an individual, or a culture....
The Arab sensitivity towards Western thought's focus on the ‘history of the West’ has led to a populist conception on a ‘West-centric bias’, and the...
Some of these turbans are spreading ignorance and are responsible for the deceived youth’s blood that is going to waste in horrible terrorist attacks or...
Ask those shaykhs who issue fatwās in the name of religion, those clowns who have appointed themselves leaders of Islam, or those simple-minded people who...
It should be noted carefully that al-Ṭahṭāwī’s thoughts on progress in its various aspects resulted not merely from intellectual considerations and a deep reading into...
Rifāʽa al-Ṭahṭāwī is the founder of the modern intellectual nahḍa (‘resurgence’, ‘renaissance’) at the beginning of the 19th century, the inspiration for which he drew...
What is meant by religious reform, presented as it is as a way to salvation? Is it intended to open up horizons so as to...
The Companions of the Prophet and the early Tābiʽūn used to read the texts of the Qur’ān according to what they thought God Almighty meant...
The shaykhs of Islam - Salafis, Wahhabis, the Muslim Brotherhood, preachers, and most of the Muslim community - think, or even believe, that Islam is...
When attempting to understand the phenomenon of terrorism, the important thing is not merely to understand the forms in which it manifests itself – but...
Our Islamic Arab nation possesses a number of myths which occupy a position of sanctity – myths such as the beard, the niqāb and the...
No one disagrees about the talk of the domination of the Islamist phenomenon, and its hegemony over the political scene in all the various Arab...
The second hypothesis focuses on the inexplicability of the Qur’an. The legitimacy of religious authority rests on the claim that it is capable of interpreting...
By studying the Qur’ānic text using discourse analysis, it becomes transparent that the Qur’ānic text is related to historical events that took place at a...
Turning now to the level of content, the second question is: does the Qur’ān include all of the verses that were revealed to the Messenger?...
There are some preliminary questions that we encounter here, so we must decide on them putting to one side the ideological, political, or authoritarian employment...
The Qur’ānic text does not stint at calling for killing and fighting. Indeed in one of its verses (Qur’ān, II, 216) it states: ‘Warfare is...
