First posted on my short-lived blog Tharwalizations.
One of the main myths that seems to hamper all efforts at modernizing religious faiths, especially with regard to Islam, is the insistence on the concept of the Golden Age. This myth keeps the Muslim Community focused in its basic outlook on the past. As such, any effort at changing and modernizing Islam is often billed as an attempt at retrieving its erstwhile purity. Continue reading “Myth of the Golden Age”
Tharwa Editorial
A few months ago, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak faced his country’s parliament and made a rather surprising gesture. He called for the formulation and adoption of a new bill allowing for multi-candidate presidential elections to take place for the first time in the history of that country.
A few days later, Syrian President, Bashar Al-Assad, addressed the Syrian parliament and announced the withdrawal of his country’s troops from neighboring Lebanon and promised that the Tenth Congress of the Baath Party will represent a “qualitative leap” for the country. Continue reading “Will Arab regimes reform themselves before the genie gets out of the lamp?”
The text of a paper delivered to a conference on democratization in Europe that took place in August, 2003.
Abstract
While it seems a reasonable argument to point out to the dialectic nature of the monotheistic traditions in the ME, at least as far as the daily communal aspects are concerned, as offering an opportunity for integration and mutual acceptance between the various existing religious and secular currents, we should not, however, neglect the historical context which allowed for the success of this system of dialectic compromise, a context that was completely shattered with the advent in Modernity. This paper will attempt to shed some lights on the contemporary psychosis that seems to make the reintroduction of the aforementioned system of dialectical compromise well-nigh impossible. Continue reading “The Traditional Faith System and the Challenges of the Modern World”
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 