The Cultural Dimension of Radical Islam
While there are many ways that the growing ideology of radical Islamism can be countered and resisted, my focus here is on the cultural dimension of the problem. Although Muslims have been keen to adopt the technologies of modernity, they have yet to adopt the cultural values of modernity. However, it is the liberal values of modernity that produce the social developments that make the creation of such technologies possible in the first place. Without the values of personal freedom, civil rights, gender equality, individual achievement, and religious pluralism, the material and social benefits enjoyed by the developed world will remain largely beyond the reach of Islamic civilization. Moreover, “psudeo-modernity”—adopting the technology without the values—can be dangerous, as history has repeatedly shown.
The above quote comes from Steve McIntosh’s recent paper titled Fostering Evolution in Islamic Culture. I think the paper is very interesting. These sort of issues are obviously very complicated, but In the paper McIntosh insightfully points out a major reason why moderate Muslim reformer’s efforts to reconcile the religion of Islam with liberal values, and create a uniquely Islamic version of modernity, are too often stymied. He writes:
Within Islamic culture, the moderate voices of academic reformers, who are sympathetic to traditional Islam but who want to help it become more compatible with modernity, are largely drowned out by the less nuanced messages of radical Islamists on one side, and on the other side by secularists who are generally hostile to their religion…Caught in this historical dilemma, traditional Islamic culture remains seemingly incapable of reform. Yet the contemporary culture of modernity is also effectively blocked from fostering Islamic reform because of its ingrained opposition to political religion of any kind, and because modernity’s overall legitimacy has now been undermined by critiques of postmodernity…
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