I think that deconstruction is at center of the post modern “progressive” muslim critque of tradtional Islam. I did not want to discuss it directly as it would involve naming names.

I don’t think we need to do that now that the whole proggie thing has imploded.

link:http://pmunadebate.blogspot.com/2005/07/muqtedar-khans-resignation-letter.html

what is remarkable is that even as the high priests of one’s religion jump ship the little people still keep rowing, blissfully unaware.

My apologies for forgetting my manners and not returning your Salaam and congratulating you on your superb website.

In such company, there is very little of any worth that I can add.

May Allah reward you

We were going to discuss this further in another post on Islamic education, if i ever get around to it.

You reference to language is also interesting and correct. Contemporary society’s cultural lexicon is limited to slogans such as “war on terror, moderate muslim, Islamic fundamentalist, jihadist etc…” Muslims then use the linguistic “cards” dealt to them. Unfortunately they then adopt a persona or philosophy accordingly. islamic “fundamentalists” then develop forms of cultural or religious ostentation (but continue to work at a bank, or spend extravagantly or submerge in therapy culture) whilst modernists sit around sipping lattes, awarding themselves “Ibdn Rusd awards” for islamic cleverness and remarking at their own intelligence and “kewlness”

I also agree that Islam’s neo-liberal bright young things are not the only post modernists among us, Al Qaida et al are a striking examples of post modernist deconstruction of Islam.

Slavoj Zizek’s assessment that it is “mac-world” vs “mac jihad” is spot on.

It would also be useful for someone to explore how the form of itjihad being promoted by some of the Muslim world’s self-styled reformists and Muslim refuseniks is influenced by postmodernist methods. It seems to me that what some of these people call itjihad is really just deconstructionism applied to the Qu’ran. For example, this idea that much of what Muslims have always considered divine revelation must be now be seen as simply the product of a paticular cultural framework (pre-modern Quraishi Arabs) open to contemporary (and radical) reinterpretation and redefinition. Whilst it is, of coure, true that it is necessary to understand something of the history and culture of the time to know why certain rulings or events arose in revelation, the criticism of these contemporary reformists seems predicated more on a rejection of the objectivity of truth.

while your more general remarks about postmodernist ‘tenets’ are useful, i wonder if more could be said on how exactly these influences can be traced to contemporary muslim groups. i think the turkish and bosnian community examples are unfair, for example, and really have no conscious link with postmodernist philosophy. you might say that they are postmodernist ‘in effect if not in intent’, as it were, but that’s not saying much at all. why not just say that these communities are ignorant of the islamic tradition (that the communities in question are turkish and bosnian should be telling)?

perhaps you mean, rather, that the influence of postmodernism has produced a cultural vocabulary such that, when various muslim groups justify their actions and activities, they rely on buzzwords that are prevalent in contemporary culture but are not compatible with the islamic tradition. this, i think, would be a more defensible claim. it would also fit with what you say about “Islamic ‘activists’” who “take it upon themselves to revitalize Islam by using little more than the genius of their own minds” (of course, such a critique would apply to a much wider swathe than just progressive muslims.)

i look forward to subsequent posts on this subject.

May Allah give you from what is greater

You have of course, got to the heart to the matter. The title of the piece should have been more correctly “post-modernist influences on contemporary Islam” as the term “modern” is itself loaded with meaning.

I did want to do another essay on the concept of “progress” and its roots in the sterility of modernism, but judged it too esoteric for this place. Modernist movements in Islam have already begun to fragment, (example Hizbul Tahrir) and thankfully so.

You are correct when you say that post modernist thought is not necessarily an attack on traditional religion, but post modern society appears to be. We live in a world where even neo-conservatism is in fact faux post modernism in drag. Conservative movements are as absurd, arbitrary and essentially meaningless po-mo constructs.

The contemporary experience with Islam is that it is under “deconstruction” by po-mo epistemology, almost always by those unaware of what tools they are playing with. In islam it is the pre-modern Islamic “narrative” and its methodologies that are under such scrutiny.

(I use the shorthand “Islam” do denote the supra-culture of the Islamic world, its four traditional madhabs, their various reform movements and the instruments such as sharia used for their preservation).

I really appreciate the effort that you have gone to with your very thoughtful comment

Jazak ullah kharun

Can there be a critique of those who we identify as postmodernists, without considering modernist aims and objectives? Postmodernism is not necessarily a direct attack on pre-modern notions of faith or traditional religion, but a critique of the “narrative” of modernism (largely about “progress”) and its methodologies and tools (rationality, objectivity).

wasalam

This is the quintessential post modern argument, that something cannot exist independent of one’s interpretation of it.

There is a true Islamic position on just about every matter, indeed there may be several true or authentic Islamic positions on a single matter. These can be judged by their fidelity to the intents and purposes of Sharia and methodological logic of their derivation.

What varies is ones ability or willingness to acknowledge them. I am not interested in foisting “My islam” as you characterize it onto anyone, but I will critique practices and and beliefs, that I can find no legitimate religious pedigree for (spiritual, textual or methodological).

What exactly is this “authentic” Islam which you hanker after? I put “authentic” in scare quotes not because I have any truck with the intellectual sludge of post-modernism, but because I am an antrhopological realist and believe that any human construct will evolve and change according to the pressures of time and place. Your “true” Islam will likely look quite different from mine. And unless you have a hotline to Allah set up, I’m not sure you’re in a position to pass judgement.

I do not think there is necessarily any contention between the canon of Islamic law revealed to Muhammad (saw) 1,400 years ago and ‘anthropological realism’. It is, of course, true, as you point out, that societies evolve and difference issues and pressures come to bear on religion. For example, technological progress now forces us to confront the issues of abortion or stem-cell research and understand what is the correct Islamic position on each; and we now face the unprecedented situation of huge numbers of Muslims living as minorities in Western societies which raises all sorts of issues for Muslims.

Despite all these changes, it has been possible for scholars to formulate Islamic positions on these issues without deviating from the principles that were established 1,400 years ago when the religion was revealed. For example, although abortion did not exist at the time as a surgical procedure, we do know the point at which the soul enters the foetus and also that one should adopt the lesser of two evils in cases of dire necessity. Therefore, it has been possible for contemporary Islamic scholars to conclude that late-term abortion is permissable in order to save the life of the mother if it is known or most likely that giving birth will lead to her death. This is an ‘authentic Islamic’ position because it remains true to the spirit and letter of the law revealed to Muhammad.

Of course, particularly with these new issues, there may not be a consensus on what is the authentic Islamic position on the matter. There are, for example, differences of opinion as to whether the ‘morning after’ pill can be used in the first few weeks after conception or whether stem cell research is allowed. That isn’t a problem because Islam can tolerate these sorts of differences — provided, of course, that the differences occur between parties that are both seeking to reach the truth by referencing Islamic texts and applying Islamic law properly and sincerely.

An ‘unauthentic Islamic position’ would therefore be if someone was to decide that, to take an extreme example, bestiality was permissable under Islamic law because he had read Peter Singer’s arguments that there are no moral reasons to oppose inter-species sexual relations. In this case, the person is making no reference to any Islamic text nor applying any of the formulas specified in Islamic law to derived a ruling on the issue. Unfortunately, this is the trap that many so-called ‘reformists’ have fallen into: instead of constraining behaviour by Islam, they argue that Islam should be constrained by the political and intellectual fads of the moment. For example, they might argue that although the Qu’ran permits polygamy, the fact that such relationships are no longer acceptable in Western societies demands that we revise or reinterpret these verses to make polygamy unlawful.

great post with the post modern stuff, couldn’t agree more

you guys have an impressive site