LIBERAL CRITICS, ʿULAMAʾ and the DEBATE on ISLAM in the CONTEMPORARY ARAB WORLD* Muhammad Abu Samra Introduction in the Mid-19
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CHAPTER TWELVE LIBERAL CRITICS, ʿULAMAʾ AND THE DEBATE ON ISLAM IN THE CONTEMPORARY ARAB WORLD∗ Muhammad Abu Samra Introduction In the mid-1960s a small group of Arab intellectuals engaged in a new discourse concerning what they saw as a crisis that dominated the politi- cal, social and cultural life of Arab societies. At fi rst, these intellectuals diagnosed the crisis as a lack of progress in achieving the objectives of Pan-Arab nationalism. A few of them criticized the dominance of traditional religious thinking in Arab societies. In consequence of the military defeat of 1967 every aspect of Arab life was submitted to harsh examination. Th e defeat has been perceived not only as a military one but equally as a social and cultural one. Th e rise of Islamic radicalism and its political and social programs at the end of the seventies deepened the sense of pessimism among liberals favoring progress. Th e tyranny of Arab regimes, the weakness of democracy, and other social and economic failures made the crisis a comprehensive one. In this frustrating reality and in light of the dominance of traditional Islamic values, liberal intellectuals turned to the study of Islam, its history, theology and scriptures. For them, the problem was not with Islam in itself (which they perceived as an important component of the society’s culture and identity) but rather with its dominant traditional understanding, which is considered an obstacle to the social and cultural modernization of Arab societies. Th e liberals believe that a critical reinterpretation of Islam can con- tribute to the promotion of a social and political order based on such modern values as civil rights, equality, freedom of thought, and cultural and intellectual openness. Generally, liberals are socially and politically marginal in contemporary Arab societies; but their presence in the ∗ Th is paper is partially based on a chapter in my Ph.D. dissertation about attitudes to the Qurʾan in contemporary Arab liberal thought, Department of Middle Eastern History, Haifa University. I want to thank my supervisors, Professors Avner Giladi and Israel Gershoni, for their support and professional guidance. 266 muhammad abu samra cultural sphere—such as the literary fi eld, academia, and the written and electronic media—is remarkable. Th ey are also actively engaged in diverse human rights and feminist organizations. Th eir views are communicated mainly through publications, symposia, and media pro- grams and debates. Leaving aside the judicial prosecution and physical persecution that some of them have faced, those who promote Western projects for the democratization of the Arab world have increased the local and international public interest in their views and writings. In a few cases these critics had been trained academically in the fi eld of Islamic studies; they include Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Khalil ʿAbd al- Karim, Muhammad ʿAbid al-Jabri and ʿAbd al-Majid al-Sharafi , among others. But most of the liberal critics lack formal academic training in Islamic studies. For example, Muhammad Saʿid al-ʿAshmawi is from the fi eld of law; Fatima Marnissi is a sociologist; Fuʾad Zakariya, Sayyid Mahmud al-Qimni, Sadiq Jalal al-ʿAzm and Khalil Ahmad Khalil special- ize in philosophy; the academic training of Luwis ʿAwad is in English literature; Nawal al-Saʿdawi is a physician; Muhammad Shahrur is from the fi eld of civil engineering; Th e academic specialization of Ahmad al-Baghdadi and Turki al-Hamad is in political science; Faraj Fuda (d. 1992) was an agronomist. And this list is only partial.1 Regardless of their academic, political and religious diff erences, these intellectuals have turned to the study of Islam because of social and political considerations rather than out of academic interest. Th ey seek to submit Islamic scriptures and formative history to historical examina- tion. Th ey believe historical understanding can weaken and undermine the hegemonic ahistorical Islamic interpretations that constitute one of the causes of the cultural crisis in Arab society and pose an obstacle to the creation of a broad social basis of critical religious thought. 1 See Issa Boullata, Trends and Issues in Contemporary Arab Th ought, Albany 1990; Hisham Sharabi, “Cultural Critics of Contemporary Arab Society,” Arab Studies Quar- terly 9 (1987), pp. 1–19; Ibrahim Abu-Rabiʿ, Contemporary Arab Th ought, London 2004; Emmanuel Sivan, “Arab Revisionist Historians,” Asian and African Studies 12 (1978), pp. 283–311; Fauzi Najjar, “Th e Debate on Islam and Secularism in Egypt,”Arab Studies Quarterly 18/2 (1996), pp. 1–21; Ami Ayalon, Egypt’s Quest for Cultural Orientation, Tel Aviv 1999; Asʿad AbuKhalil, “Against the Taboos of Islam: Anti-Conformist Tenden- cies in Contemporary Arab/Islamic Th ought,” in C. Butterworth and I. W. Zartman (eds.), Between the State and Islam, Cambridge 2001, pp. 110–133; Meir Hatina, Identity Politics in the Middle East: Liberal Th ought and Islamic Challenge in Egypt, London 2007; Michaelle Browers and Charles Kurzman (eds.), An Islamic Reformation? Lanham 2004; Muhammad Abu Samra, Attitudes to the Qurʾan in Contemporary Critical Arab Th ought, MA thesis, Tel Aviv University 2006 (Hebrew)..