Islamic Fundamentalism and Modernity

Abstract

Revolt Against Modernity by Michael Youssef; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985, 189 pp., cloth. The two books under review are part of a larger literature appearing in the West lately on the encounter between Islam and Western modernity. The underlying assumption of the works of both Watt and Youssef is that Westernization, or "cultural modernization," is the only alternative to the alleged "decline and crisis" of Islam in the modem world. Westernization, in this sense, manifests an implicit cultural superiority over the Islamic culture. Although following different approaches and methods of analysis, both Wan and Youssef contend that if Muslims are to advance, they have to adopt Western premises and notions. In Islamic Fundamentalism and Modernity, Watt argues that the traditional Islamic world view, which still penneates every aspect of the Muslim world, is incompatible with the conditions and demands of modernity. Watt begins with the naive assumption that the modern Muslim mind is still determined by the epistemological rules of the early phase of Islam-what Muhammad Arkoun might call the Classical Islamic phase. Nowhere does Watt mention the historical and adaptive nature of the Shari'ah and the divergent opinions held by different Muslim scholars on matters relating to social and economic needs, historical change, and intellectual proclivities. Watt, who is considered to be one of the most renowned authorities on Islam in the West, offers us a quasi-theoretical reading of the subject. Although modernity is one of his key analytic concepts, he does not advance a clear definition of what modernity is, nor does he adequately portray the dynamics of Western hegemony over the Muslim world and the current consequences. Watt contends that the traditional Islamic outlook, which was formed in the early phase of Islam against the background of the Qur'an and Hadith, as well as consensus, is based on the following premises: 1) the unchangingness of the world; 2) the finality and superiority oflslam, and 3) the idealization of Muhammad as the perfect model that Muslims have to follow. In reconstructing the epistemological foundations of this outlook, Watt argues ...