| Now Available! Signs in the Heavens: A Muslim Astronomer's Perspective on Religion and Science |
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| by Imad -ad-Dean Ahmad  |
In this remarkable book, ten round table discussions in which American experts on Islam exchange views with Muslim intellectuals and activists. The result is a mind expanding demolition of the prevailing views of the relationship between Islam and the West. Western non-Muslims will learn that Muslims are not monolithic in their views and Eastern Muslims will learn that Westerners are not monolithic in their views. Both will learn that there are Muslims who are Westerners. American Muslims will see, finally, in print, an intelligent discussion of the common ground between Islam and American concepts of the rule of law. The Table of Contents and Dr. Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad's preface to the volume are reproduced below.
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Contents
Preface 7
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad
Introduction 11
Ahmad Yousef
Islamic Movements and Western Interests: Strategic
Imperatives 21
Graham Fuller
A Diplomatic Perspective on the Islamist Movement 39
Robert G. Neumann
Origins of Political Islamic Movements: A Western Perspective 67
Stephen C. Pelletiere
The Intersection of Islamic Resurgence and Democracy 95
Charles E. Butterworth
Islamic Movements at the End of the Twentieth Century: Where Now? 115
Michael C. Dunn
Islamist and Secular Regimes: Is Violence Inevitable? 153
Joyce Davis
Stability and Political Reform in North Africa 175
Louis Cantori
The Challenge to Liberal Modernity: Christianity, Islam, and the
Future 195
Antony T. Sullivan
A Quest for a Model for Conflict Resolution/Management in the Relations
Between the States and the Islamic Movements 215
I. William Zartman
Conclusions 246
Capsule Biographies of Roundtable Participants 248
Preface
In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful,
For many years there has been a call from both Muslims and
Westerners for a dialog between the two. Scholars like John
Esposito have powerfully made the case that we need such a dialog, but
until now little real dialog has taken place. Conferences too
often consist of panels of Western experts on Islam and representatives
of the estab-lishment of Muslim countries. No non-Muslims,
however objective and open-minded, can replace the Islamic
engagé in providing insight into the Islamic revival. Nor
can any establishment Muslim, however sincere in faith, substitute for
the critics of his establishment in explaining the Islamist cause.
The United Association for Studies and Research (UASR) series is
remarkable in its truly roundtable format, which allows Muslim
intellectuals and activists who identify themselves with the Islamic
resurgence to speak to the Western experts on an equal level.
This constitutes a dialog in the true sense. Such a format allows
the experts to add a new dimension to their understanding while at the
same time giving the Muslims a more intimate perspective on the
problems of communication with the West and in-sights into how those
problems may be overcome.
We desire that the benefits of these conversations extend be-yond the
room in which they were held and to provide a record to which all
engaged in the study of the Islamic re-vival and its political
dimension may refer. We are pleased that UASR and the American
Muslim Foundation (AMF) have undertaken the publication of the
edited proceedings of these roundtables and grateful to the Minaret of
Freedom Institute (MFI) for sponsoring the editorial costs. Our
objective is to make the contents and the style of the roundtables
available to policymakers, scholars, journalists, and the general
public.
Having moderated all but two of the discussions presented in this
volume, I am particularly pleased that this first volume in what shall,
in shâ Allah, be a series, is de-voted to an exchange of
perspectives between Muslims–both American and from the Muslim
world–and non-MuslimWesterners. (We plan to focus the next volume
in the series on regional assessments of the Muslim world.) The
fundamental problem confronted by the Islamic revival in the West is
the failure of Muslims to articulate their desires, standards, and
concepts to Westerners in a language they can understand.
Conversely, too few Muslims have had the opportunity to hear the frank
in-formed views of knowledgeable Western scholars in a setting
comfortable to themselves. By engaging first-class Western experts on
Islam in a direct dialog and publishing those results in a format at
once accessible and scholarly, we open the door to a fruitful and
constructive relationship between Muslims and Westerners in general.
The reader who explores these pages will walk away with the realization
that neither the Muslim world nor the West is monolithic. Our
presenters are all Americans, but they range from conservative to
liberal, from diplomats to policymakers, from the academic community to
the in-telligence community and to the media. One presenter is an
analyst from an institute situated at the U.S. Army War College while
another is a fellow with the U.S. Institute for Peace. Muslim
participants include an Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) parliamentarian,
Muslim journalists, presidents of Islamic think tanks, and directors of
Muslim advocacy groups. Most of the participants are both Muslims and
Americans. Brief biographies of all the participants will be
found in the list at the end of this volume.
The format for all discussions was the same: an opening presentation by
the featured speaker followed by a frank discussion with the featured
speaker at the hub. I served as moderator for all the discussions
in this volume except for those featuring Robert Neumann (moderated by
Osman Shinaishin) and Joyce Davis (moderated by Ahmad
AbulJobain). The procedure for editing discussions for this
volume was the same in all cases except one. The editors worked
collaboratively with the presenters to revise the presenter’s
typescript or the transcripts of the formal presentations into a final
typescript. The editors worked directly from the taped transcript
to edit the main discussion. Wherever the final text selected for
inclusion has not been reviewed by the quoted participants, we have
used brackets and/or ellipsis marks to indicate all but minor
changes. The goal was to make the text as readable as possible
while remaining faithful to the style and senti-ments of the
participants.
The one exception to the above procedure is the roundtable with Stephen
Pelletiere. Due to the presenter’s affiliation with the
intelligence community we agreed not to tape the discussion.
Instead, the points he covered have been taken from his previously
published text “A Theory of Fundamentalism: An Inquiry into the Origin
and Development of the Movement,” (Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic
Studies Institute, 1995) which we have adapted and abridged to cover
the subject of the roundtable. Since no transcript of the open
discussion was possible, a series of comments and questions put to Dr.
Pelletiere in writing along with his responses have been appended to
the text here in the same format as the discussions which follow the
other presentations.
Despite the range of perspectives covered in this volume, there
are certain themes that keep returning as a subtext, occasionally
emerging at the center of the discussions. Among them: the
relationship of politics and religion; the positive and negatives
aspects of the Enlightenment; the degree to which “Western” or
“Islamic” values may actually be universal values; the multifarious
definitions of democracy and how they conflict with each other; the
fact that conflicts within the West or the Muslim world may actually be
more significant than conflicts between them; the problems posed by the
systemic ten-dency of politicians to sacrifice the long-term best
interests of their people and country to short-term expediency; the
suggestion that the real conflict in the future may be not between the
Western and Islamic cultures but between secular culture and religious
culture of whatever denomi-nation. Not a few of these issues have
significance beyond the scope of the immediate subject matter of Islam
and the West. I believe that readers who carefully explore the
dia-log that follows will be well rewarded.
The present format is one of frank, direct, face-to-face dialog among
participants with both a wide range of views and a solid knowledge of
the subject matter. We be-lieve this format brings out the
distinctions and shadings of thought within both the Western and the
Muslim camps more clearly and reliably than can be found in any
previous single volume. We want Westerners to understand the
Islamic movement and Muslims to understand the West. We also want the
inclusion of American Muslims in the discussion to be a reminder of the
intersection of the two cultures. If we have succeeded even partially
in these goals, all praise belongs to God. If we have fallen
short, the re-sponsibility is ours. We ask God to judge us by our
inten-tions and forgive us our faults.
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad
Minaret of Freedom Institute
Bethesda, Maryland
May, 1998
