Synopses & Reviews
Bassam Tibi offers a radical solution to the problems faced by Islam in a rapidly changing and globalizing world. He argues that Islam is being torn between the pressure for cultural innovation and a defensive move towards the politicization of its symbols for non-religious ends. Tibi proposes a depoliticization of the faith and the introduction of reforms to embrace secular democracy, pluralism, civil society, and individual human rights. The alternative to this is the impasse of fundamentalism.
About the Author
Bassam Tibi is Professor of International Relations at the University of Göttingen.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Islam between Culture and Politics: The Scope and Implications *
Part I: Religion, Culture and Development: Islam between Past and Present * Religion, Culture and Social Reality: Islam as a Cultural System and its Diversity * Cultural Patterns and the Perception of Change in Islam * A Religious Model for Reality: The Islamic Worldview * Culture and Social Change: Tradition and Innovation in Cultural Analysis *
Part II: The Politicisation of Islam in the Global Age * The Dichotomy of Structural Globalisation and Fragmenting Cultural Self-Assertion: The Case of Islamic Civilisation * The Politicisation of Religion: Political Islam as a Defensive Culture Response to Global Challenges * From Religious Belief to Political Commitment: The Fundamentalist Revolt against the Secular Order *
Part III: The Means of Politicisation: The Revival of the Shari'a and the Islamisation of Education * Social Change and the Potential for Flexibility in Islamic Law: The Shari'a between Ethics and Politicisation * Institutions of Learning and Education in Islam: Between the Cultural Accommodation of Change, Religious Orthodoxy and the Politics of Cultural Islamisation *
Part IV: Islam and the West between Inter-Civilisational Dialogue and Political Antagonisation * Islam Matters to the West! Islam and Europe, Islam in Europe: Islamic Migration between Cultural Assimilation, Political Integration and Communitarian Ghettoisation * Islam and the West in the Age of Conflict Among Civilisations: the Alternative of Intercultural Dialogue as a Means of Conflict Resolution