الإسلام والغرب: نحو عالم أفضل

Islam and the West… for a better world @

impede communication between the two worlds; then to hint at ways of breaking down these barriers. For Gil Anidjar, Jews and Arabs are condemned to everlasting conflict as long as the logic of Western hegemony goes un-deconstructed. To Kenneth White, a symbiosis between Islam and the West is not impossible, provided we succeed in drawing a new mindscape, in mapping a new mental cartography – which requires crossing cultural boundaries and intellectual nomadism. Andreas Rieger invites Westerners in general, and Europeans in particular, to consider viable methods to profit from the rich Islamic tradition and Islamic way of life, instead of blindly rallying against the so- called Islamic terrorism. Abbas Aroua advocates dialogue as a prerequisite to reconciliation and healing of inflicted wounds of the past. Louis Cantori, while warning against abstract democracies that are meant to boost American hegemony, propounds his theory of "Islamic Republicanism." Murad Wilfred Hofmann focuses on the diversity of Islamic civilization and its huge enlightenment potentials. Fabio Rugge considers that the Arab world, like the rest of the non-Western nations, suffers from the curse of political models imported from the West. Nothing basic will change, according to this scholar, unless people are given enough freedom to invent their own models. For Claudio Mario Betti, if there is a clash, then it is simplistic to reduce it to a clash between Islam and the West. The solution to a majority of our problems today dwells in cultural relativism and in getting rid of the idea that one single force can enlighten the whole world. Basheer Nafia assigns the existing malaise in the relation between Islam and the West to concrete political conditions and contending interests that oppose the forces of hegemony to the rest of the world. Unless Western powers rid themselves of their paternalistic attitude towards the rest of the world, the discontent and feelings of resentment will grow in intensity. For Gunter Mulack, education is the key to the development of the most

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