Contemporary Arab Thought

Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi'

Description

Contemporary Arab Thought is a multifaceted book, encompassing a constellation of social, political, religious and ideological ideas that have evolved over the past two hundred years - ideas that represent the leading positions of the social classes in modern and contemporary Arab societies.



Distinguished Islamic scholar Ibrahim Abu-Rabi' addresses such questions as the Shari'ah, human rights, civil society, secularism and globalisation. This is complimented by a focused discussion on the writings of key Arab thinkers who represent established trends of thought in the Arab world, including Muhammad Abid al-Jabiri, Adallah Laroui, Muhammad al-Ghazali, Rashid al-Ghannoushi, Qutatnine Zurayk, Mahdi Amil and many others.



Before 1967, some Arab countries launched hopeful programmes of modernisation. After the 1967 defeat with Israel, many of these hopes were dashed. This book retraces the Arab world's aborted modernity of recent decades. Abu-Rabi explores the development of contemporary Arab thought against the historical background of the rise of modern Islamism, and the impact of the West on the modern Arab world.
Foreword by Ghada Talhami

PART ONE

THEMATIC SECTION

Introduction

1. The Scope and Limitation of Post-1967 Arab Intellectual History

2. Contemporary Arab Intellectual Trends

3. Secularism and its Hazards: The Recent Debate in the Arab World

4. Contemporary Arab Views of Secularism

5. Formation of Contemporary Identities: Nationalism and Islamism

in Contemporary Arab Thought

6. Traditional Values, Social Change and the Contemporary Arab Personality

7. Globalisation: A Contemporary Islamic Response?

8. Contemporary Arab View of Globalisation

PART TWO

THINKERS’ SECTION

1. Rashid Ghannoushi [of Tunisia] and the Questions of Shari’ah and Civil Society

2. Muslim Self-Criticism in Contemporary Arab Thought:

The Case of Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali (1916-1996)

3. Islam and Muslims in Crisis

4. Toward a Critical Arab Reason: The Contributions of Muhammad ‘Abid al-Jabiri

5. Critical Arab Reason

6. Costantine Zurayk and the Search for Arab Nationalism

7. Mahdi ‘Amil and the Unfinished Project of Arab Marxism

8. Abdallah Laroui: From Objective Marxism to Liberal Etatism

Conclusions

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Islamic Studies
• Social Science
• Middle East

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 novembre 2003
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781783715879
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Contemporary Arab Thought
CONTEMPORARY ARAB THOUGHT
Studies in Post-1967 Arab Intellectual History
Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi‘
First published 2004 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166–2012, USA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright (c) Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi‘ 2004 The right of Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi‘ to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0-7453-2170-4 hardback ISBN 0-7453-2169-0 paperback ISBN 978-1-7837-1587-9 ePub ISBN 978-1-7837-1588-6 Mobi
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Abu-Rabi‘, Ibrahim M.   Contemporary Arab thought: studies in post-1967 Arab intellectual history / Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi‘.       p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.   ISBN 0-7453-2170-4—ISBN 0-7453-2169-0 (pbk.)   1. Arab countries—Intellectual life—20th century. 2. Arab nationalism. 3. Secularism—Arab countries. 4. Islamic renewal. 5. Islam and politics––Arab countries. 6. Globalization. I. Title. DS36.88.A275 2004 909’ .09749270825—dc21                                                                         2003010260
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Newgen Imaging Systems, India Printed and bound in Canada by Transcontinental Printing
To Jasmine, Adam, and Jad: Three Flowers from the Garden of Paradise
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Ghada Talhami
Preface
Introduction
PART ONE: THEMES
   1
The Scope and Limitation of Post-1967 Arab Thought
   2
Contemporary Arab Intellectual Trends
   3
Secularism and its Hazards: The Recent Debate in the Arab World
   4
Contemporary Arab Philosophical Views of Secularism
   5
Formation of Contemporary Identities: Nationalism and Islamism in Contemporary Arab Thought
   6
Traditional Values, Social Change, and the Contemporary Arab Personality
   7
Globalization: A Contemporary Islamic Response?
   8
Contemporary Arab Thought and Globalization
PART TWO: THINKERS
   9
Rāshid al-Ghannūshī and the Questions of Sharī‘ah and Civil Society
10
Muslim Self-Criticism in Contemporary Arab Thought: The Case of Shaykh Muḥammad al-Ghazālī
11
Islam and Muslims in Crisis
12
Towards a Critical Arab Reason: The Contributions of Muhammad ‘Ābid al-Jābīrī
13
Towards Modern Arab Reason
14
Costantine Zurayk and the Search for Arab Nationalism
15
Mahdī ‘Āmil and the Unfinished Project of Arab Marxist Philosophy
16
Abdallah Laroui: From Objective Marxism to Liberal Etatism
17
Conclusions
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
I spent eight years researching and writing this book. Over these years, a number of institutions and people made it possible for me to complete this project. In this regard, I would like to thank the Fulbright Foundation for its generous financial help which enabled me to live in three different Arab countries in 1997: Morocco, Egypt, and Syria. I had the benefit of meeting with a number of prominent Arab thinkers in those countries, among whom were Muḥammad ‘Ābid al-Jābīrī in Morocco, Ḥassan Ḥanafī, the late Muḥammad al-Ghazālī, Fahmī Huwaydī, and Muḥammad ‘Imārah in Egypt, Ṣādiq Jalāl al-‘Azm and Muḥammad Shaḥrūr in Syria, to mention but a few.
My thanks also go to Ms. Valerie Vick, Assistant Editor of The Muslim World , for copyediting the entire text. I did benefit a lot from her.
Finally, I should like to thank my colleagues at Hartford Seminary for their understanding and encouragement.
Foreword The Travails of the Arab Intellectual
Ghada Talhami
D. K. Pearsons Professor of Politics Lake Forest College, Illinois, USA
The war which the United States waged on Iraq eliminated the last bastion of Arab nationalism in the region, heralding a new age. This was painful and reminiscent of the past when Britain occupied the position of the world’s great hegemon. Memories of the ignominious departure of that power from the region did little to dissuade the new overlords who quickly proceeded to secure their physical and cultural space. The result was hastening the process of globalization, economically as well as intellectually. Moreover, this much maligned term, which referred to the regularization of all economic relationships in favor of the super-capitalist powers of the world, alienated the poor masses of the underdeveloped segment of the globe. It is one of the contradictions of globalization that the more world markets are integrated, the more unequal becomes the distribution of wealth. Unable to perform the desired role of consumers of manufactured goods, the poor become a burden on the world economic system and its most visible victims.
This is the story of the Arab world today, especially as it moves from crisis to crisis and from economic loss to greater intellectual decline. But who speaks for the Arab world? Who speaks for its devastated and impoverished classes, as well as for its defeated intelligentsia? This is the main theme of this study, which, while definitely focused on the contemporary period, also takes the long view of the crisis of the Arab intellectual. In the long run, the Iraqi defeat may prove to be more devastating for the region than that other seismic event, namely the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, which the author correctly identifies as the great divide separating the Arab age of the nakbah and its accompanying sense of bereavement and shock from the age of despondency and deepening crisis. But since no comprehensive analysis of the intellectual confusion resulting from the events of 1967 exists, the task at hand becomes the necessary prelude to greater understanding.
It is also important to note the author’s choice of the Arab world as the metaphor for the hegemonic consequences of globalization and his reference to the area’s deep cultural wounds as but one of the most egregious examples of the human cost of this phenomenon. The Arab world, in a very colonial sense, remains vital to the survival of world capitalism both economically and strategically. No global power can afford to overlook its geographic location or its riches as long as the world continues to live under one hegemon. The Arab world, as the core of the Middle East, has the capacity to create a unified regional system capable of genuine autonomous rule based on its homogenous culture, past political experience and the existence of vast natural resources. The determination of the United States and others before it to annex it to the global world markets, is, therefore, neither novel nor surprising.
The author builds his case around the inevitable collusion between economics, religion and culture in order to maintain world leadership and control. For him, as for Antonio Gramsci in his prison notes, hegemony is elusive unless serviced by a class of intellectuals. The Gramscian world of the intellectual

speaks of the non-neutrality of ideas and knowledge, of the partiality, that is, of the producers and disseminators of knowledge, of the political role of the intellectual as part of a system of relations that is inscribed by power and domination. 1

Only the intellectuals, hence, are capable of acting as legitimators of power and its system of values. What Gramsci calls the “organic intellectuals,” accompany the rise of every historical phase of human development. Hegemony often results in counter-hegemony which can only be legitimized by the intellectuals. But this study is not only an exposé of the work of Gramsci, the great Western Marxist, it is also a thoughtful recall of Samir Amin’s contribution to our understanding of economics and intellectual dominance in the modern world. Amin not only heightened our understanding of the effects of hegemonic capitalism on the underdeveloped world, he also amplified the relationship between colonialism, capitalism and religion.
The author thus makes a concerted effort to distinguish various class formations and strands of social thought which reflect the dilemmas of each age. This gets him into the “problematic” of religion and changes in the Arab educational system, which diminished the power and influence of the traditional religious intelligentsia. The decline of the Muslim intelligentsia due to the spread of Western or modern education, first witnessed in Egypt, is one of his major themes. He then asks whether or not it would be appropriate to consider the Islamic intellectuals the “organic intellectuals” of Gramsci’s definition.
The book poses additional crucial questions to students of Middle East history. Did Islam mandate the creation of a state, or was it intended to be a social system of values? Why is democracy absent from the debates of the intellectuals both before and after 1967? Or should we be satisfied with issues that could only be described as the preconditions of democracy and which were always the subject of debate? Despite the absence of the modern language of democracy, according to the contentions of Bernard Lewis, the ideas of what could be termed civil society, pluralism, and justice, both in its political and economic sense, were always emphasized. Did not constitutionalism occupy the attention of late nineteenth century intellectuals to such an extent that Shaykh Muḥammad ‘Abduh, the Mufti of Egypt and its greatest Muslim reformer criticized Aḥmad ‘Urābī’s military solution for Egypt’s colonial oppression?
Only this author, additionally, examines the Arab intellectuals’ common experience of migration and imprisonment. These were two salient features of the life of the Arab intelligentsia, an experience which crept into their work but was hardly noted by scholars of Arab social thought. Indeed, one cannot overestimate the significance