The 2012 Rome Conference Report

The Rome Colloquium
Amplifying Muslim Voices for Reason & Reform

December 7-8, 2012

Report on Proceedings
Part I

Pontifical University of Santa Croce
Piazza di SantApollinare, 49
00186 Rome, Italy

The 2012 Rome Colloquium 2
Contents

Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 3
The structure of the conference ............................................................................................................. 8
List of papers discussed at the conference ....................................................................................... 10
Summaries of papers and discussions on them.................................................................................... 11
Shaker al-Nabulsi Muslim reform: obstacles and opportunities ................................................... 11
Abd al-Khaliq Hussein The western impasse the awareness deficit ........................................... 14
Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari Diagnosing the Arab-Muslim mentality as a precursor to reform ........... 15
Kamil al-Najjar The reform value of a critical reading of Islam and early Islamic history .............. 17
Raja Ben Slama Womens rights as a lever for reform .................................................................. 18
Hashem Saleh Towards an Arab-Islamic Enlightenment ............................................................... 21
Lafif Lakhdar Promoting deep reform through comparative religion ........................................... 24
Lafif Lakhdar - Detailed response to the Almuslih table of questions .......................................... 25
Recommendations ................................................................................................................................ 34
Excursus: A sister-site under the Almuslih aegis focused on Orientalist scholarship ....................... 35
Excursus: An analysis of Hashim Salehs paper My Struggle for Arab-Islamic Enlightenment ......... 37
Preliminary conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 41
Annex I Submitted Papers .................................................................................................................. 43
Lafif Lakhdar The Reform of Islam is both Necessary and Possible ............................................... 43
Kamil al-Najjar The Reform Value of a Critical Reading of Islam and Early Islamic History ........... 50
Dr. Abdulkhaliq Hussein - The western impasse the awareness deficit ........................................ 54
Dr. Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari - Diagnosing the Arab Muslim Mentality as a Precursor to Reform ..... 60
Mohammed Sanduk - Reform: a discourse of intellectuals or a rehabilitation? .............................. 63
Hashem Saleh - My struggle for Arab-Islamic Enlightenment .......................................................... 68
Annex II Press Articles on the Rome Conference ................................................................................ 84
Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari ................................................................................................................. 84
Hashem Saleh ................................................................................................................................ 88
Yusuf Aba al-Khayl ......................................................................................................................... 92
Annex III - Participants at the conference ............................................................................................ 95
Contributing participants unable to attend the conference ............................................................. 97
Annex IV - Feedback from the participants .......................................................................................... 99
Overview
The question is a cultural one, and the battle is, in the first degree,
intellectual. If we do not win the intellectual battle for enlightenment
against the fundamentalists, we will not at any day win the political
battle. (Hashem Saleh)

The Rome Colloquium which took as its theme Amplifying Muslim Voices for Reason & Reform, was
held at the Pontificia Universit della Santa Croce in central Rome on December 7-8 2012. The aim
was to foster discourse between Islam and the West by bringing together leading Western
intellectuals with some of the foremost reform-minded thinkers in the Arab Muslim world. The
conference set itself the following aims:
to provide a forum for discussion for identifying the constituents and the modalities of reform, and to
decide on a programme of media dissemination
to provide a publication underlining the argumentation and methodology of Islamic intellectual
reform
to provide an educational reference work for non-Arabs or those not hailing from a Muslim cultural
background - as to the nature of the debate and the challenges facing it.
to construct a coherent, consistent program intended for implementation
Specifically, the conference aims to provide non-Muslims westerners with important empirical
guidance on how to promote reform in the Muslim Middle East in such a way that it does not
hamper the cause of progressive reform by appearing to lend legitimacy to the forces of reaction.
Reform is a profoundly difficult challenge, not only for those who are themselves the voices of
reform, but even more so for those in the West who do not have linguistic or cultural fluency in the
ideas at stake. The approach was therefore somewhat experimental, since in common with the
Almuslih websites bilingual format, the conference itself was conducted in Arabic with live
translations made available to those attending without facility in the Arabic language, but who
nevertheless wished to follow the debates and contribute to the discussions.
Due to the sensitivity of the issues under discussion and the profile of the speakers most of whom
have been the object of physical threats the conference took the form of a closed meeting for the
purpose of co-ordinating future strategies for the dissemination of reform.
Participating in the colloquium were the following progressive intellectuals from the Arab world:
Dr. Shaker Al-Nabulsi (Jordan, USA)
Lafif Lakhdar (France)
Prof. Abd al-Hamid al Ansari (Egypt/Saudi Arabia)
Dr. Hashem Saleh (Morocco)
Dr. Raja Ben Slama (Tunisia)
Dr. Abdulkhaliq Hussein (Iraq, UK)
Dr. Kamil al-Najjar (Sudan, UK)
In attendance from the western side were:
Tony Assaf (Thomas More College)
Katherine C. Gorka (The Westminster Institute, USA)
Dr. Sebastyen L. Gorka (National Defense University, USA)
Kishore Jayabalan (The Acton Institute)
Fr. Wafik Nasry (Loyola Marymount University)
Robert R. Reilly (American Foreign Policy Institute)
Stephen Ulph (Almuslih)
The colloquium was convened by Stephen Ulph, Director of The Reform Project under the aegis of
the Almuslih website and organised in co-operation with The Westminster Institute under the
direction of Katherine Gorka with the participation of Thomas More College.
The following Report on Proceedings Part I summarises all the elements that made up the
conference, both practical and intellectual
1
. At the time of writing the texts of the papers have yet to
be received in toto for editing and publishing in the dedicated monograph, but the present Report
includes all the recommendations and results of the dialogue that took place at Rome.
One of the speakers, Hashem Saleh, describing his invitation to the Rome conference in an article
dated December 4
th
for the leading Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat, underlined the importance of
the intellectual restructuring highlighted by the Rome conference that must precede meaningful
reform on the ground. This restructuring is
where the basic task of the conference and those attending it lies. For a true, future, political Spring
must first be preceded by an intellectual enlightenment! We cannot forge an Arab future with the
mentality of bygone eras. This is where the great contradiction inherent in the current Spring
resides. But given that this mentality is still predominant and enjoys a historical legitimacy and a
massive public support, we will have to cross swords with it in one form or another. In other words,
we have to criticise it and pull it apart.
He later went on to explain that:
The question therefore is a cultural one, and the battle is, in the first degree, intellectual. If we do not
win the intellectual battle for enlightenment against the fundamentalists, we will not at any day win
the political battle. And for this very reason the Arab Spring will only turn into a fundamentalist
Autumn.
However, this palpable sense of renewed urgency and energy in the writings of progressive
reformers comes up against a significant hurdle. This obstacle is one of a lack of an effective
institutionalisation of their response. For any active agenda for reform, in place of an assumption of
a natural evolutionary process towards enlightenment, is still in need of coordination and organized
support. The reformers remain an under-funded minority who are struggling to gain a foothold with
their audiences. But all that is needed is focus, for as Lafif Lakhdar laments in his paper for the Rome
conference,
There is no institution that unites us or shared programme that defines the task and the priorities ...
the obstacles are many: first among which the absence of an institution tasked with overseeing the
implementation of the reform programme and financing it. All we have left are individual initiatives
that are necessarily disorganised. In the absence of this institution the prevailing understanding of
reform is fragmentary, and does not comprehend all the aspects of reform.
A commentator on Lafif Lakhdars paper put it thus:
I would like to make this observation: that we (that is, those who support the project of reform) need
to stand together and co-operate with each other more. For instance, why do we not found a
commitee comprising those who are concerned with enlightenment thought? Why is there no
participation in shared intellectual projects, for example? It is exasperating to see antediluvian

1
The Report on Proceedings Part II contains the Arabic texts of the participants papers and the articles on the Rome Conference featured
in the Arab press.
thinkers co-operating and standing together while, not long ago, two great scholars of enlightenment
thought Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd and Mohamed Arkoun have now passed away. The geographic
distance between them Holland and Paris was not great, but did they ever meet? I imagine that
that never happened. I give this example to show the psychological gaps separating the bearers of this
project. In my view it is high time for some co-operative work and effort, not to say collective work
and effort.
2

The role of Almuslih in the Rome Conference
Progressive thinkers also lament the confusion in the West as to how to face down the challenge of
Islamists in their midst. Part of the enthusiasm for the participants response to the conference is the
perception of Almuslih as being
in the vanguard among non-Muslims in the understanding of the task that lies before reformers,
which, with its translation of their work into English introduces their mission to everyone, a mission
which Erdoan summarised as the need for Islams conciliation with freedom, secularism, and
democracy the need to integrate Muslims into the world they are living in. As opposed to some
Orientalists of the likes of Olivier Roy who think that the Muslim far right will be participants in the
reform of Islam.
3

In this context the example of the Almuslih website is being considered by these reformers as an
important opportunity and model, one that is playing a paradigmatic role in this process. Where
once printed books could be confiscated in Arab countries, now:
the projects of reformists are read in every Arab country and across five continents and, thanks to the
Almuslih websites translation of them into English they now reach the elite of Islamic lands and
Islamologist specialists all over the world, and interested sectors of the public.
4

The concept of a western conference on reform in the Islamic world might have generated negative
responses, but for the fact that the participants were familiar with the ethos of the Almuslih website.
This fed into the perception of the conference as a positive new change of approach from the
perception of the Middle East as lost to Islamist totalitarianism. Hashem Saleh in his article for al-
Sharq al-Awsat speculated that
perhaps one of the aims of the conference is to pull apart this caricature concerning the Arabs and
Muslims. We shall do this in front of western intellectuals who are participating. The discussion will
take the form of a dialogue of cultures, not a clash of cultures. We are fed up with this sterile,
erroneous type of discussion. The entire history of humanity is one of interaction and exchange
between different cultures. In particular between European culture and Arab-Islamic culture.
He went on to emphasise that:
The traditional, fundamentalist intellectual no doubt exists, and has enjoyed his respect and
legitimacy over history, but the enlightened, reformist intellectual also exists! Now the struggle over
the Arab lands is one between two extremes, a struggle which to a great extent will decide the fate of
the Arabs, or what has come to be known as the Arab Spring.
and he finally promised the readers to
bring back to you as soon as I return a detailed report on the discussion and the thinking that took
place there.
5

2
Yahya Belhasan, commenting on the Al-Awan website, December 16, 2012.
3
See below: L. Lakhdar, Detailed Response to the Almuslih Table of Questions.
4
Ibid.
5
For the full text of this article see Annex II: Articles on the Rome Conference.
Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari also expressed his confidence in the bona fides of the conference in an article
published for the Arab newspapers al-Jarida, al-Ayyam and al-Watan, stating that it was
an attempt to draw the ears of Western intellectuals to the voices of Arab reformers with the aim of
dismantling the typical image in the western mindset of Arabs and Muslims as people recalcitrant to
reform ... to bring the voices of Arab reformers to the West, repair a distorted image and
demonstrate the myth of the Clash of Civilisations or the delusions of a western enmity to Islam, so
as to block the way to those on either side who call for confrontation.
He noted that its purpose was
To correct the mental image of Arabs and Muslims as people unable to grasp the concepts of
modernity, enlightenment and rationality, and whose Islam is somehow recalcitrant to reform ... and
allay the suspicions of Westerners that the Arab arena is dominated by extremists, Salafists and the
Muslim Brotherhood [and] convey the message of Arab intellectuals struggling for modernity and
enlightenment in the field, and underline that it is these who are the ones deserving of support if the
West wants to witness an Arab reform.
The language of the colloquium
A significant and experimental feature of the conference, which all participants commented upon,
was the choice of language for the discussions. Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari wrote, in an article carried in
a number of Arab newspapers, that
it is a matter of pride that the organisers insisted that the language of the discussion should be
Arabic.
6

while Hashem Saleh in his article for al-Sharq al-Awsat article enthusiastically commented on
one last but very important - note: all the papers and discussions will be delivered in Arabic, not the
usual English we must use in conferences around the world! Those who do not know our language
will have translators ready for them. Isnt this something marvellous, especially since it is taking place
in the heart of Rome?
It is clear that the language issue served as a tangible demonstration of good will, respect and
serious intent, and contributed to securing the calibre of participants that attended. In addition, for
all its political influence, the Anglo-Saxon world in general is relatively isolated from the reality of the
debate, which is largely Franco-Arabic in language. It is therefore worth taking these things into
account for future discussions of this type.

The bona fides of the colloquium
The good will issue is of considerable importance, and much attention was paid, during negotiations
with the potential participants, to outlining the constructive purposes of the conference. The
sensitivity of the issue of the reform of Islamic discourse has in the past stirred up negative feeling.
For instance, the Egyptian Islamist Fahmy Howeidi voiced open objections to a meeting convened in
2003 in Paris
7
, in which the theme of the renewal of Islamic discourse was discussed, arguing that
such a venue had suspicious motives and that indeed Paris as a venue appeared to be something
akin to a joke:
But the joke faded when I noticed that The European Union was financing the meeting, and that the
convening of the meeting was organised by an Egyptian organisation funded from abroad in co-
operation with two European organisations. This immediately made me wonder: what have these

6
For the full text of this article see Annex II: Articles on the Rome Conference.
7
Fahmy Howeidi, (Point of Order), Al-Ahram, 30 September 2003.
people got to do with the issue? Since when have they been zealous for Islam and intent upon
renewing its discourse? Could this meeting have taken place anywhere other than on a European
background that answered to the priorities of an American / European agenda?
His opinions resonated well with his readers, but there were some objections to this view. Salah al-
Din al-Jurshi, writing from Bahrayn argued that objections on the geographical location of the
conference were absurd, as was the constant appeal to conspiracy.
8
He argued that a European
interest was not out of place, for
Ever since al-Qaeda lifted the lid, it has no longer been possible to ask world decision-makers to
remain neutral on issues that affected them directly, which interacted in their very capital cities and
caused cracks in their institutions. Today the fate of Islam is no longer something which concerns
Muslims or clerics alone. The issue has security, cultural, political and strategic implications.
It is for this reason that almost every western state is currently consulting with all Islamic capitals on
how to reshape the relationship between Islam, Islamic expatriate communities and the centres of
decision-making. This does not justify each and every form of intervention, it is just that we should
understand that the ground on which we have been standing up to now has entirely changed.

Howeidi wrote off the Paris Declaration that resulted from the meeting as
bearing nothing of any value in relation to the subject. It is designed in the first place to please those
who financed and hosted the conference. What concerns us is its deception, in that it is part of a
creeping encroachment upon Islam and its role in society. It represents an alliance between fanatical
secularists and former Communists ... and in one degree or another coincides with the aims and
interests of a West that considers Islam to be an enemy that must be derailed and excluded ...
Salah al-Din al-Jurshi took issue with Howeidis dismissal of Islamic extremism as something that
arose from the other side, represented by that hidden alliance which reaches us from time to time
and which does not get the attention it deserves,
and instead provided a more accurate diagnosis of the phenomenon, one which equally provides a
useful background to the Rome conference:
Exaggerated attempts to set down preconditions for the conducting of a dialogue in the end risk
leading to excommunication and takfr. Many issues of dispute presently posed require a deep and
free discussion, at least so that these issues can be clarified. This is because many of them in their
turn are posed within the circle of Islamic thought, despite the obstinacy of some or their refusal to
recognise this. The point I am making here is to extract the relationships between Islamists and
secularists from its historical crisis, whenever efforts are made to go beyond this otherwise the
clashes will be renewed and Sisyphuss rock will roll back down to the foot of the mountain.
The advantage, of course, with the Rome Conference, and which all participants commented upon,
was its ideological, political and financial independence. Funding for the Rome Conference was from
non-government, independent sources, including independent grant funding institutions and from
contributions of philanthropic individuals unattached to any agendas. As the above comments
demonstrate, association with a government carries with it the kiss of death risk for reformers
anxious to shake off accusations of foreign collaboration, in addition to such an association being
hostage to political change. Significantly, the Almuslih conference is also independent of academic
funding, which secures it an immunity from undue doctrinal or ideological influence.

8
Salh al-Dn al-Jursh, - (A Response to Fahmy Howeidis article: The
Paris Meeting was a Step Forward, not a Conspiracy against Islam), Al-Wasat (Bahrayn), October 16 2003.
The structure of the conference
Based on the experience of the Almuslih website in learning from, and promoting, progressive voices
in the Arab world, the conference Amplifying Muslim Voices for Reason & Reform aimed to cover the
following broad areas:
Interpreting the Quranic text breaking outside the dogmatic enclosure of the official closed
corpus (to use Mohamed Arkouns terms)
Widening the model: a look at the history of Islamic societies, science and progress
Countering the ideologization of Islam: exploration through comparison
Factors conducive to the indigenization of modernity in Islam
The task of reform is an extremely wide one, and we clearly only had time to focus on what may be
regarded as some fundamental starting points, the core preliminaries that have to be addressed
before anything else. In general terms these are problems of perception and problems of mindset.
Under the problems of perception it was considered useful for the conference first to outline the
principal elements of the social environment that impede reform:
The historical legacy in the Arab Middle East of autocracy and the relationship of the
religious establishment to autocratic currents
The incapacity of the western mindset to grasp the nature of the danger posed by Islamism.
Among the intellectual problems of the current Muslim mindset are:
The current state of the Muslim mentality that is resistant to development
Elements inherent to Islam as a religion and the text of the Qurn that are prohibitive to
reform.
In terms of potential solutions and pointers to a reform programme, the conference then focused on
the following:
An evaluation of the position on women as barometer and lever for reform
The process of enlightenment and emancipation
An exploration of the potential of comparative religion studies as a lever for reform.
Our seven talks therefore reflected these themes in that order.
............
The conference in Rome was projected to bring together some of the leading voices of Islamic
reform to demonstrate how this reform process is unfolding in some detail, and the new challenges
that the cause of reform is facing in the light of recent political developments.
In addition, and very importantly, this gathering of reform-minded Arab-Muslim intellectuals was to
provide the non-Muslim participants with a rare opportunity to listen and learn, and compare notes
with their own historical experience of reform. In particular it was designed to provide some
answers to the following questions:
How do Muslim reformers envisage the task facing them, in releasing Islamic thought from
the grip of uncreative traditionalism and textual literalism?
What problems of public perception do these reformers face?
What are the primary obstacles confronting them?
How is the reform message best disseminated?
Do westerners / non-Muslims have a broadly correct understanding the nature of the tasks
facing Muslim reformers?
Is there agreement on the nature of the problems faced? And if so, how far can the non-
Muslim world contribute to the cause of reform in the Muslim world?
What would Muslim reformers ideally require in the form of support?
How can this support best materialise?
In all, the approach taken by the conference was considered to be a useful and productive
opportunity for like-minded reformist thinkers and sympathetic observers to meet up and provide a
rare example of a productive exchange of ideas on what is potentially a divisive area. (See below:
Feedback from the participants, p.99)

List of papers discussed at the conference

Friday, December 7th
Muslim reform: obstacles and opportunities - Shaker al-Nabulsi
Can the western model of enlightenment and reform be replicated in the Middle East? Is there a comparison to be made between the
movements of Western enlightenment and what is happening today in the Arab arena? What is the relationship between reform and
power?
The western impasse the awareness deficit - Abd al-Khaliq Hussein
How far is the West aware of the dangers to its society posed by political Islam, judging by its absurd handling of Islamist fundmentalists
and the indulgence granted them? If they fail to adopt a decisive position as to how to handle the Islamists, the social consequences will
be serious, particularly for minority Muslim communities.
Diagnosing the Arab-Muslim mentality as a precursor to reform - Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari
Is there an Arab mentality that differs from other mentalities? Is this mentality capable of change? By isolating the salient features of the
current discourse, and how far it responds to culturally inherited prototypes we may highlight the means to reform the society and its
conception of religious belief.
The reform value of a critical reading of Islam and early Islamic history - Kamil al-Najjar
Given that Islam, unlike other transcendental faiths, is more of a political ideology than a creed, is Islam as a religion actually reformable?
Any reform that is undertaken will have to radically review the validity of Muslim historiography and effectively reconstruct a new history.
But since Muslim fiqh is built entirely on this erroneous historiography there will be an existential resistance to any form of change. Given
that there is thus no moral leadership from al-Azhar to undertake any reform, is the exercise a pointless one?

Saturday, December 8
th

Womens rights as a lever for reform - Raja Ben Slama
Despite western media perceptions, Tunisia is a successful example of secularism withstanding the onslaught of fundamentalism, and this
is due to irreversible facts on the ground, not least of which the practice, and need, of women going out to work. But there are deficits
that need to be filled the need for a radical reform of education and the use of an understandable language so that the secularisation
process is undertaken from bvelow, not imposed from above.
Towards an Arab-Islamic Enlightenment - Hashem Saleh
The personal experience of the speaker as a test case in how enlightenment and reform works on the Muslim. The importance of opposing
backward elements in the Islamic heritage with progressive elements within that same heritage. The importance of an inter-Arab Marshall
Plan to improve economic conditions as a precursor for intellectual reform, along with an appeal for western powers to support the
teaching of Islam to Muslims under a modern, rational educational system.
Promoting deep reform through comparative religion - Lafif Lakhdar
The importance of the Almuslih initiative in institutionalising the forces of deep reform. Reform has to penetrate to several deep levels:
economic, political, linguistic and demographic. Most effective, however, is reform through the study and teaching if Islam through the
modern discipline of comparative religion studies. Such a methodology will remove claims to Islamic uniqueness, strip it of its obscurantist
elements, foster a religious rationalism, develop the Muslim as an individual capable of independent judgement and cleanse Islam from
elements conducive to violence. It may be that the reform of Islam has to pass first through the reform of European Muslims.
Summaries of papers and discussions on them
Shaker al-Nabulsi Muslim reform: obstacles and opportunities
To open the proceedings Dr. al-Nabulsi presented a pessimistic view of the prospects for reform. He
argued that the western model cannot be replicated in the Middle East. In his view, those who think
that what happened in the West can take place in the East are gravely mistaken since there is no
comparison to be made between the movements of Western enlightenment and what is happening
today in the Arab arena. This, he explained, is due to a number of factors:
1) Religions cannot be reformed, one can only reform what is said about religions. That is, we
can only reform minds, not the religion itself. This malleable, changeable element of the
human mind, constitutes 80% of the religion, something which has accumulated over 14 to
15 centuries. In this sense, Islam is a supermarket, we have to pick and choose that which
we find conducive to progress.
2) Social, cultural and political conditions constitute major obstacles. We must also bear in
mind the particular economic, social, and educational levels of the Arab Middle East,
particularly the fearful levels of illiteracy. We need to take a look at our own history, which
was dominated by about 5 to 6 centuries of colonialism under the Mamluks and the
Ottomans. We are heirs to a heavy heritage from which we cannot easily escape. We are the
product of a century and a half of Mamluk rule followed directly by four centuries of
oppressive, arbitrary Ottoman rule. In short we are the product of centuries of decline and
oppression, let alone illiteracy, poverty and all the other factors that buttress the popularity
of the fundamentalists and grant them easy victory over us.
3) Christianity is not Islam: There is no comparison that can be made. All of our history has
resulted in us being quite different, socially, culturally, economically, politically from the
West and that therefore there is a narrow space for any meaningful comparison to be
made.
4) Modernisation is in need of power since, as the caliph Uthman put it, God listens more to
the Sultan than to the Qurn. It was Atatrk, Bourguiba and Nasser who ushered in
modernity. We lack the political power at the moment to implement our words. Added to
this is the fact that they have the mosques on their side, religious festivals and
fundamentalist satellite channels too, and indeed Arab leaders who themselves have a
predilection for fundamentalist thought. And all this, at a time when we modernists
constitute no more than a small, unsupported handful. How can we reverse the balance of
power in such an environment? We would therefore have to attain power so that the others
should fear us. But where is the sultan of modernity and his drawn sword? and there is no
power base for modernisation
5) The arena is occupied by Islamists who dominate the mosques, the pulpits, the satellite
channels, all other means are at their service, whilst political power also stands by their side
6) Reform requires an industrialised society not a fatalistic, agrarian society, illiteracy is
widespread and the education system simply reflects that which is prevalent.
7) There is no social or cultural base for reform. The Arab world still consists 80% of peasants, it
is an area which has not yet reached the industrial age. Reform is an industrial society not
one that is dependent on fatalism. Our very system of education reflects an agrarian, tribal
society which inculcates the ability to answer questions, but not the ability to pose them.
What we need is a political social revolution, whereby parents will not agree to send their
children to a school unless they are convinced that it understands the value of questioning.
Comments
Al-Nabulsis diagnosis, taking the form as it did of a framing paper for the conference, naturally
elicited the most comments from the other speakers. These are listed according to the above-listed
points:
Religions cannot be reformed
Kamil al-Najjar: How can we know what has been said about Islam? Quite easily, since Islamic fiqh has
been constructed upon the hadith and the texts. We know the texts, so we do know what is being
said. Tyndale translated the Bible from Latin into English and for this he suffered the death penalty.
Jews have changed their old rites, the caliph Umar deleted an entire Qurnic verse so you can
change Islam, you can change the religion. Islam is a mixture, nothing is frozen, so we do have the
ability to make a comparison. Education is not something which is entirely in the hands of the higher
authorities look at how the United States has affected the Saudi curriculum, and these were
outsiders.
Christianity is not Islam.
Hashem Saleh: We should be aware of this experience. It is a battle of the mind before it is a battle of
politics and power. Intellectual legality must be taken away from the Islamists. Take the example of
France which saw 3000 intellectual reformers against the deadweight of millions. There is no real
difference between Christianity and Islam in this respect we can make the comparison. For the
experience of the church is illustrative. The Vatican changed to the point that it issued a theological
edict on tolerance no less than a theological revolution. It is our duty therefore to pay attention to
reforming the educational curricula.
Modernisation is in need of power
Al-Ansari - Authority would indeed be a fast track to reform, but in a way you can see there are two
theories of how to go about this: 1) penetrate into the depths of the social culture and increase the
role of intellectuals; 2) bet on the fast track however this is unsafe and will not endure. We must bet
on the willingness of people to learn. Change cannot take place from above via authority, but rather
from below. Otherwise it merely remains as an adventure whose results cannot be guaranteed, and
cannot be rooted in the ground. Instead it will remain something superficial and easily overturned, as
has happened recently to the legacy of Atatrk and Bourguiba at the hands of the Islamists.
Bourguibism is in crisis and Nasserism is at an end. Reform begins with a social base since
Allah changeth not the condition of a folk until they (first) change that which is in their
hearts.
9

The efforts of enlightened Arabs over the course of 100 years were not and will not be scattered in
vain, on the simple evidence of what is happening now in Egypt. For the Islamists themselves have
begun to talk the language of modernity and democracy when only 20 years ago these things were
simply written off as kufr, as far as they were concerned. There is a public current for modernism;
we now do speak of these things even Islamists are having to use liberal terminology. Is this not a
victory for enlightenment and liberal thinking?
Lafif Lakhdar (countering Ansaris comments): Revolution is a phenomenon of the lites not of the
masses. History is made by the most refined group of people. The French Revolution for instance was
carried out by a mere 150 people and Bertrand Russell noted that
intellectual enlightenment was carried out by 100 individuals; if they had been assassinated
this European cultural enlightenment would have been put back centuries!

9 The author is citing Qurn XIII,11.
What is required is the transformation of reformist thought into legislation at the hands of the Kings
of Enlightenment such as Bourguiba who adopted the thought of al-Haddd
10
in his work Our Women
in Shara and Society, and which became guaranteed in the 1956 Code of Personal Status
11
. The role
of those enlightened people was to submit their ideas and their proposals, while the role of the Kings
is to transform these ideas into laws. This is what happened under Bourguiba who wrote a thesis on
women in sharia and society in which he advocated all rights to women. In the 1957 mayoral
elections women actually voted against increasing their personal rights. In these elections Bourguiba
lost but his response was:
the women voted against me, but I said no, and declared the elections null and void.
In the United States Lincoln liberated blacks, many of whom opposed him. Moses liberated the Jews
and again he was opposed. Ghannouchi in Tunisia launched a counter project against the Personal
Law reforms of Bourguiba. He revoked the adoption laws on the grounds of the Qurn.
(Al-Nabulsis response: when we talk about the French Revolution we must understand the
different circumstances: the four centuries previous to the French Revolution were different to
that which the Middle East has ever experienced.)
Sebastyen Gorka: The top-down approach is superficial: if you go to Turkey now you will find that the
legacy of Atatrk is being taken apart. As to the comment that you cannot reform a religion, only
what is said about it, we have to understand that what is important is the attitude to truth and to the
role of reason. We can't command, from the top, that people should respect reason. Voltaire had to
come before the Revolution.
Abdulkhaliq Hussein: In the phase we are going through now extremism is inevitable and is a result of
an intellectual progression. Norman Davies at Oxford University states that Nazism and Fascism were
the product of enlightenment the fruits of revolution. That is, that societies do not develop in equal
ways Nazism and Fascism were part of the modernisation process. The Iraqis opposed the British in
the First World War for they had no national identity and therefore they defended the Ottomans. This
is a sign of a quick, fast development. We do not have a problem of illiteracy most problems come
from the intellectuals themselves, the 9/11 perpetrators were not illiterate.
(Al-Nabulsis response: I referred to the problem being one of 80% peasants, not 80%
illiterates).
The ruler will not allow a liberal message we can use technology to submit our message
independently of them.
The education system reflects that which is prevalent
Robert Reilly: There were 3000 philosophers in Paris this was only true because philosophy had
become institutionalised centuries before that and this allows for the impact of the thinking to
make itself felt.
In the West there was a different experience and greater possibilities. For the Middle East the
Islamists have all the weapons.

10 Tahir Haddad (1899-1935) was a Tunisian author, scholar and reformer. In his 1930 book Our Women in the Shara and Society he
advocated for expanded rights for women.
11 The Code of Personal Status is a series of progressive Tunisian laws aiming at the institution of equality between women and men in a
number of areas. It was promulgated on August 13,1956 and came into effect on January 1, 1957. The Code abolished polygamy, created a
judicial procedure for divorce and required marriage to be performed only in the event of the mutual consent of both parties.
There is no social or cultural basis for reform.
Ansari: the Arab picture is not so gloomy, and that the concepts of modernity, rationalism and reform
are indeed making headway in Arab lands and that Arab peoples are undergoing continuous change in
step with the movement of history.

Abd al-Khaliq Hussein The western impasse the awareness deficit
(For the full text of Dr Husseins paper, see below p.54)
Dr. Abdulkhaliq Hussein presented an impassioned plea loudly calling for the West to be on their
guard against the dangers to Western society posed by political Islam. He criticised its absurd
handling of the dangers posed by the Islamists and political Islam, and the indulgence granted to
fundamentalists who exploit their freedoms to sow extremism in the minds of the youth of the
expatriate Muslim communities. He cited the privileges granted to the fundamentalists and the
British government's inability to act and warned of the disastrous fate awaiting Muslims in Europe.
Dr Hussein underlined how western governments have yet to adopt a decisive position as to how to
handle the Islamists, and indeed, appear powerless to act against them. His main points were the
following:
The civilized world faces today the most dangerous threat from the radical political Islam which
presents itself in a way designed to gain support in the West, but whose ultimate goal is
Islamization of the world and imposing the Sharia law.
Our problem is not with Islam as religion, but only with political Islam. We, as secularist liberals,
are strong advocates of freedom of faiths, worship and expression. Our aim is to protect Islam as
a religion and human civilization from the threat of political Islam.
Why are Muslims here in the West? Injustice, and miserable economic and social status but the
injustice and misery did not come from nothing, but from their own cultures which include
religion.
Attempts to Islamize the West - There are many factors encouraging them to pursue this.
1) Islamists agility in using western conceptual language.
2) Western good intentions, plus administrative bureaucracy and judicial procedures. The result is
that the West is sleepwalking into the abyss.
The Islamists ability to speak in two tongues, and lie.
The funding of western academia, which in response turns a blind eye to Islamist activities and
discourages critical views on Islam on campus.
The intimidation of liberals from criticizing Islamists through the offices of lawyers and lawsuits.
Fundamental, deep-rooted disdain for all non-Muslim cultures.
Fundamental anti-democratic stance
The danger to the West naivety as to Islamists intentions and subterfuges cultural
exceptionalism as a means to root Islamism
The following measures must be adopted for protecting the West
1) adopt the Almuslih reform programme
2) intellectual secular Muslims to build bridges with our Western colleagues working in the media and
cultural institutions
3) launch educational and awareness-raising campaigns of Islamism as a totalitarian, fascistic system
4) aid secularizing movements in the Muslim world, including linking economic aid to respect for
democracy, human rights and freedom of expression
5) Western governments to impose pressure on Saudi Arabia to halt its financial support ($87 billion
over two decades, as opposed to $7 billion spent by the Soviet Union over 70 years to spread
Communism) to spreading religious extremism and political Islam
Failure to resolve the Islamist threat in the West risks the depletion of Western patience and the
emergence of right wing politics that will target Muslims in the way Jews were targeted earlier.
Comments
Shaker: Islamists have opportunities opening up to them. The Muslim Brotherhood are showing
themselves to be very intelligent, they want to rule and are able to make the necessary compromises
to stay in power. We liberals are losing people every day. Modernism has receded. We are
responsible for these mistakes, since we have not been using the language of Islam to make our case.
Ashraf Abdelkader: the individual has not yet been born in the Middle East culture. We are also
cowards, and are fearful of authority.
Al-Ansari: we do have to criticise ourselves, but not punish ourselves.
Ben Slama: People in the Middle East are no longer the herds they once were. They are now
demanding their rights, instead of the constant mantra of the Palestinian Question. Political Islam is
effectively undergoing an exam, and will have to transform itself into a form of secularism. Take the
example of the Tunisian Nahda party: it is split, and now maintains only a superficially Islamic
discourse. Mosques in Tunisia are empty, and the Nahda party has lost 30 per cent of the electorate,
not least due to its record on defending human rights.

Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari Diagnosing the Arab-Muslim mentality as a precursor to reform
There are two messages that have to be communicated one to Muslims and the other to
Westerners.
To the Muslims: there is no clash of cultures taking place. Instead there is great room for
optimism and dialogue. The history of humanity is one of exchanges, this is a natural process and
we should not think that the West is in some way plotting against us to undermine or
contaminate our culture.
To the westerners: it is a misconception that the Arabs are in some way dominated by the
Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood, for there are many reformers and enlightened people in
the Muslim world. Raja Ben Slama noted that it is all a matter of education all about
proportionality not content. To take the attitude that the Arabs are not fit for democracy and
therefore the West should not help them, is a mistake. You have to support enlightenment
wherever you find it.
What then are the obstacles? This very same question was posed a century ago to Muhammad
Abduh. Then it was answered to the effect that backwardness was due to the abandonment of
religion. This formula, currently espoused by al-Qaradawi, whereby one has to go back to the
origins, is not true. For instance, for 14 centuries the Arabs, failed to achieve a peaceful solution.
Another question posed asked whether it was the education system that was an obstacle. Or was it
technical and cultural backwardness? The Arab world tried socialism, then the interpretation was
that imperialism stood in the way of progress. Al-Jabri concentrated on the Arab mind, as if in
some way the Arab mind was different from other minds. Is there such a thing as an Arab mind?
What are the ills that beset such a mind?
Descartes said that the mind is the most noble human achievement. It is therefore a human heritage
and what we are dealing with is mentalities, interpretations and environments that constitute the
obstacles. Similarly in the Qurn the concept of plurality is given divine support:
Had Allah willed He could have made you one community. But that He may try you by that which He
hath given you (He hath made you as ye are). So vie one with another in good works. Unto Allah ye
will all return, and He will then inform you of that wherein ye differ. [Qurn V,48]
These are some of the obvious misconceptions. A most useful book for analysing the problem is that
by Abu Shaqqa entitled A Critique of the Arab Mind
12
. His constitutes the first objective criticism
undertaken, one that was brought about by his admiration for the achievements of the West. He
took the view that if we rejected Western intellectuals, we will not be able to understand Islam
itself. We may catalogue qualities that constitute obstacles in the Muslim mindset:
1- Archaism: the Arab mind is captive to a glorious past; the delusion of a flourishing past
that makes us venerate our ancestors to such an extent that we that we seek in them
solutions to the problems of our contemporary societies. The ancients are still ruling us from
their graves.
2- Masculism: the Arab mentality is dominated by a cultural heritage that denigrates woman
and believes in the superiority of the male as wiser and more rational; the delusion of
male superiority informs Arab lawmaking and induces it to diminish the rights of women in
various fields. The male is construed to be the guardian. The cause of this is the nature of
past production, or the life of skirmishes. Women did not have a productive role in this type
of society. Most legislation (even in trade) has this superiority feature. For instance, a
woman still cannot bequeath her nationality to her husband and children.
3- Sanctification: history is sacralised, whereby its moments of glory are selected out while a
thousand years of conflict and division and obscurantism are passed over in silence; we
never talk about the dark side of what Muslims did to others; students do not learn of the
bloody wars fought under the golden reign of Harun al-Rashid.
4- Isolationism: the Arab mentality is one that dismisses the other in the belief that it
possesses absolute truth. Under this scheme only we know what the absolute truth is
there are no economic, religious, or socialist truths when it comes to truth we have a
monopoly. This delusion is the dominant intellectual feature among all Islamic sects in their
disputes as to who constitutes the Saved Sect. The Jews, it is argued, were divided into 70
sects, and the Christian similarly into 70 sects. The Muslims were divided into 73 sects all
of whom bound for Hellfire except the one Saved Sect. The worst symbol of this
isolationism was the PhD awarded by the University of al-Imam in Riyadh to a Saudi
researcher for his thesis: Credal deviancy in the modern culture in which he proscribed 200
Arab intellectuals, describing them as infidel.
5- Suspicion of the other: the delusion of a global conspiracy against Islam and Muslims
dominating the larger part of the Arab-Muslim mindset and its various political currents:
nationalist, leftist and political Islamist. Israel itself is seen as having been created to forestall
Arab unity. Yet over history westerners have sought Arab unity, and not out of some
imperialist plan. Muslim and Arab historians continue to perpetuate the Great Lie, the global
scale sedition, the eternal enmity of the Jew who tricked the Muslims. The Protocols of

12
On this see al-Ansaris article for Almuslih: A Critique of the Muslim Mind.
Zion are considered an undisputed truth, despite the fact that they emanated from Russian
propaganda.
6 The fantasy of reviving the Islamic Caliphate, which dominates all Islamist trends and
forms their subconcious. It is founded upon the background of Muslim conception which
joins all powers the religious, executive, legislative and media into one, so that there is
no checks and balances on its dominion. It is represented by the Egyptian President Mursis
declaration of the Constitution.
7 - The fantasy of the demographic bomb, which dominates among the masses and the elite
politically and religiously. The idea is that by multiplying the number of offspring one
achieves the most powerful weapon to confront the enemy. This is what the Palestinians
believe vis--vis Israel, and what Muslims in Europe believe will aid their cause in the face of
declining population levels amongst the Europeans. Islamists and therefore hold that birth
control policies are Western plot.
8 - Self-aggrandizement: the exaltation of oneself as opposed to the denigration of the other
and the magnification of his faults.
What is the remedy for this? How can we humanise this discourse?
By activating the mechanisms of criticism and review, by raising the ceiling of freedoms of
expression and for individuals to take on their responsibilities in criticising their societies and in
changing their way of thinking, towards one of openness to other cultures and benefiting from them.
The 2003 Paris Declaration on the Renewal of Religious Discourse
13
underlined how Arabs have
always renewed their thought, and continue to do so in the modern period examples being Taha
Hussein and Shaker al-Nabulsi. The renewal of discourse is a necessity, and importantly it should not
be a monopoly of the clerics. We must make a distinction between Islam and the history of Muslims.
This discourse must go with a reform of culture and education, and the opposing of government
usage of religion as a tool.

Kamil al-Najjar The reform value of a critical reading of Islam and early Islamic history
(For the full text of Dr Al-Najjars paper, see below p.50)
Dr al-Najjar provided a highly pessimistic view of the prospects for reform, taking up three broad
points: the nature of the religion, its historiography and its fiqh, and highlighted the obstacle in the
Muslims attitude to any challenges made to any of these three elements.
A political ideology:
Dr al-Najjar argued that Islam is different from other systems of belief in that it is more of a political
ideology than a creed. Moreover, Islam did not introduce any new concepts not already known to
the pre-Islamic Arabs of the 7
th
century. All the rituals of Islam from prayer to fasting, from hajj to
almsgiving were known to the Arab tribes.
Muhammads call was therefore essentially a political call but one which was shrouded in religious
terms. The Muslim Brotherhood is true to this political nature of the call, as can be seen by their
emblem on their official webpage which states that:

13
The Paris Declaration on the Renewal of Religious Discourse stated that the renewal of religious discourse is an internal necessity,
derived from the Arab and Islamic world's sincere dissatisfaction with their increasingly marginal position in the world. The meeting
stressed the necessity of distinguishing between 'Islam as a religion' and 'Fiqh as religious thought', which errs and is subject to adaptation
and development.

Allah is our aim; The Quran is our constitution; The Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; Death in
Allahs cause is our dearest wish
All these slogans have nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with politics and power.
Muslim historiography
Dr al-Najjar argued further on the materials upon which reformers may wish to proceed. Orientalist
scholars such as Goldziher and Watt have challenged the reliability of all the fundamental texts of
the hadith and of Muslim history. Any critical reading of Islam inevitably means getting rid of the
bulk of the Sunna and of Muslim historiography. This would definitely enhance our chances of
reforming Islam, if that were at all possible to achieve.
Muslim fiqh
All Muslim fiqh is the product of faulty sources and even faultier scientific knowledge. The system is
mysogynistic and racist in nature, being the product of eras of ignorance. Even so, it is taught today
unchanged in al-Azhar. Whereas in 19
th
c England the clergy had to study philosophy, physics and
chemistry, in the 21
st
Century Muslim world philosophy is banned in most countries, and the clerical
curriculum is confined to the Quran, the hadith and the sunna.
Takfr
Islam is, and has always been, intolerant of criticism and questioning. That is why when the
Mutazilites started reading the Qurn critically, they were labelled zindiqs (atheistic skeptics). Al-
Ghazali put an end to philosophy and any critical reading of Islam with his work The Incoherence of
the Philosophers, and Ibn Taymiyya followed this in the 13
th
c by labelling anyone who dared criticize
Islam as an apostate. This takfr the labelling of others as apostates has been used by some of
the most learned and tolerant of Muslims and due to this threat very few people have dared read
Islam critically. Those who did in the Muslim World, like the Iraqi poet ar-Rusafi, the late Egyptian
sheikh Abbas Abdel Nour, Faraj Fouda, the present speaker, and so on, have had to live under the
threat of assassination. Indeed, Orientalists who in the past were free to write critically about Islam
now write some of them under pseudonyms (such as Ibn Warraq and the German Christophe
Luxenberg).
Islam is unreformable
There are a number of other reasons why Islam cannot be reformed. After the separation of Church
from State, Christianity lent itself to reform because the Catholic Church has a central authority in
Rome in the form of the Pope. Islam does not have such a central authority, and is plagued with
innumerable sects competing against each other and vying to demonstrate their adherence to the
tradition.
There is also a lack of moral leadership at al-Azhar University. Instead of leading the Muslim World in
reforming Islam and its sunna, the university chose to activate a committee called The Committee
for Defence of Shara.
For all these reasons Islam was not amenable to reform. As a political ideology, Dr al-Najjar
concluded, much like any other ideology it can only be reformed by consigning it to the dustbin of
history.

Raja Ben Slama Womens rights as a lever for reform
Dr Ben Slama reflected an optimistic picture of the position of Arab women and their future. She
reassured the audience that the achievements of Tunisian women under the legacy of Bourguiba
have nothing to fear from the Islamists, since the forces of civic society in Tunisia are fully capable of
defending them.
She argued that change is possible despite the fact that the forces of civic society are everyday
having to defend the state of rights, law and general freedoms at every moment. Were it not for this
desperate defence the fundamentalists would have been able to demolish the achievements of
Tunisian women, achievements which all other Arab women can only envy.
Media misconceptions:
There are some cliches and misconceptions. The West for instance only concentrates on externals
when it comes to interpreting the Middle East. Le Monde, for example, reports on the activities of
Salafists in Tunisia but is not interested at all in the movements for reform taking place there. For
Tunisia is not Iran nor is it Algeria. An evidence of this is that female students who wear the niqab
nevertheless refuse the concept of polygamy.
The scriptural problem
In Tunisia the Islamists pretend to accept democracy. But the fact is that there are dictatorial
elements within Islam itself. Islamists are therefore able to use the Scriptures as an excuse to block
equality. Theirs is therefore an ideological masculinity. Judaism forbade polygamy in the 18th
century, why does Tunisia continue to avoid forbidding it?
Our task is to liberate interpretation of the Scriptures, and render ones attitude to Scripture a
personal domain.
In interpreting the Scriptures you find exactly what you want to find and you can interpret them in
any way you wish. Qurnic verses that have been interpreted in a backward fashion have caused
increased conversion to Christianity education will enable us to deactivate the negative verses.
The reality check of facts on the ground
Islamists are acutally unable to make any attempts againts the achievements of Tunisian women. In
Tunisia the principle of the superiority of men is no longer accepted society has changed. We may
see this in the way the Qurn is looked upon as to what it has to say about women.
1) A symbolic legal reference focusing on the role of the two genders and the law
2) the perception of women the focus on the hijab
The Qurn maintains an insistence upon social rules. Concerning the guardianship issue, Tunisias
women are joining the ranks of those who go to work, and this is leading to a change in this concept
on the superiority of men and the role of the genders.
Due to this change which Islamists were unable to resist, they gave up on the guardianship issue and
focused on the hijab. Women have accordingly adopted hijab, but tellingly they have not given up on
going out to work. This means that the guardianship is now dead. Fatwas on this matter are now
considered a joke. The Muslim family has changed, it is now more modern.
Material reality, therefore, represented by women going out to work, is the most powerful of factors
and works its influence far more than any efforts of reformers, and has brought to an end once and
for all the era of male supremacy all that is remaining being to equalise rights of inheritance.
Progress is threatened, nevertheless, for women still do not have full inheritance rights. Levels of
poverty are greater.
Some of the main elements we have to gamble on in our favour are:
Interpretation a wider basis for this is required, to encourage a freer interpretation
Material reality the progression of history is taking place not in isolation
Globalisation its influence to effect change
Education the fostering of the arts and culture
Secularisation - The reality is that secularisation is important, but it has to be an automatic,
innate reaction. At the moment, three quarters of what a person sees and understands goes back
to religion.
Foreign support this should be considered a neutral, uncharged concept. The West should
maintain neutrality on the reform process in Tunisia. We can handle this ourselves, provided that
the West does not support the Islamists. Political Islam is supported from abroad, but
nevertheless the next elections in Tunis will rebalance matters.
The solution is clearly one of education Political Islam is a reaction against modernity the result of
this is that Shara school graduates inevitably become teachers and al-Azhar graduates cannot apply
their education.
We have to apply principles and to do that we have to teach what real principles are. We have a
tendency to think that speeches represent reality. We mustn't confine ourselves any longer to small
meetings and salon discussions.
We must use an easily understandable language
We must understand reform as a total process the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) is a
useless organisation, in fact it is an obstacle since it does not accept the concept of human rights.

Comments
Al-Ansari: these are positive comments and signs of hope however they apply only to Tunisia and
not to other Arab societies, certainly not to Gulf societies. In her points of view I discerned a
generalisation that was contradicted by the reality of women in all our societies with the exception of
Tunisia. For male domination persists and the rights of women are curtailed.
Lafif Lakhdar: concerning scriptural interpretation, one could point out that 500 verses were replaced
by the Prophet himself, in his capacity as head of the government. The caliph Umar also replaced a
verse when there was disagreement as to its validity. By the ninth century AH the verse on charity/
zakat was also replaced. We have to inculcate through education and the greater availability of
information an openness of minds.
Ashraf Abdelkader: Liberals up to now present ideas and words and very little else; the United States
and the European Union need to develop a Marshall plan;
Al-Nabulsi: Ben Slamas point on guardianship is a very important point, it indicates a religious reform
will not happen of itself, instead we must change the reality. The French Revolution demonstrated
how society had come to accept changes and ideas that had taken place.
(Addressing al-Nabulsis comments on the sacralisation of history): We are frustrated people there
are pages and pages of fatwas but here almost everyone is joking about them so therefore they are
not all sacred. Our task here then is to persuade Muslims not to feel guilty.
Al-Najjar: Tunisia women should send delegations abroad to demonstrate their achievements and the
way forward
Hashem Saleh Towards an Arab-Islamic Enlightenment
Dr Saleh chose to give his personal experience as an illustration of the process of enlightenment.
Sensing the oncoming danger following the Khomeini revolution and the intensification of religious
conflict, he decided to leave Syria in 1979 bound for Paris for the purpose of completing his studies.
There he met with Mohamed Arkoun and studied under him, later becoming a translator of his
works and introducing his work to the Arab world. Today he is a symbol of Arab enlightenment
through his prodigious activities. He explains his tactics for disseminating enlightenment as being of
two levels:
the internal level by highlighting the enlightened elements in the Heritage so as to
confront the obscurantist elements
the external level the translation of Western enlightenment into the Arab world.
On the internal level, he spoke on the theological prison or the doctrinal closure in Islam, how
Muslims are all imprisoned within sects and denominations whether they like it or not. Why is this
so? Because they have grown up with them since they were knee-high and have absorbed them with
their mothers milk, as if they were sanctified, infallible doctrines that admit of no discussion.
Consequently it is very difficult to free oneself from them. Unless, at best, one follows Descartes
who at one stroke (after he grew older and matured) destroyed all of his earlier conceptions! At the
same time the idea that other religions and denominations are all utterly false is rooted in the
Muslim mentality. So how is it that Muslims can possibly love them or respect them? For they and all
the religions are nothing compared to them. Here is where the great peril which threatens the entire
Islamic world lies: for it is still living in a pre-modern phase, that is, one that precedes intellectual
and philosophical enlightenment.
The importance, then, is to fight culture with culture, to fight this inheritance with more of this
inheritance.
On the external level, Dr Saleh highlighted the importance of western scholarship on the origins of
Islam and early Islamic history, as a means of subverting the clerical stranglehold.
14

Answering the question on how the West could directly help the process of Arab Muslim reform? Dr.
Saleh delineated three things:
1) Prevent Western extremists from provoking the Muslims by insulting their religious symbols
(the Prophets) and lend support to the issuance of a UN resolution prohibiting the
defamation of religions, since gratuitous provocations do not help the promoters of reform
and instead serve those who promote conflict. Conversely the West should demand that
Muslims prohibit sermons that defame other religions;
2) The West should support reform by encouraging petroleum states to aid non-petroleum
states through the promulgation of an Arab Marshall Plan, since the success of reform is
bound up with the improvement of economic conditions. There is no need for western
financial resources to be made available for this, simply advice on how to construct such a
plan in the light of Europes own experience.
3) The West should support the forces of enlightenment among Muslims in the West, who
number 30 million in the USA and 7 million in the EU. They should support these by opening
institutes for the teaching of Islam to expatriate Muslim youth under a modern rationalist
methodology as France has undertaken recently.

14
It is to be noted that Mohamed Arkoun entitled one of his works: Islam: To Reform or to Subvert?
In a latter communication with Stephen Ulph, Dr Saleh placed great emphasis on this last element:
I appeal to western states not to leave our expatriate communities prey to fundamentalist education
disseminated in their midst by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists. Advanced western states
must promote a modern historical approach to teaching the Islamic faith among the Arab Islamic
communities living there. Otherwise we will never arrive at any solution to the problem of religious
extremism. Islam must be taught through a modern rational historical method, exactly as Christianity
is taught in the Catholic Institute in Paris or in Protestant divinity faculties.
Dr Saleh concluded with an appeal for patience, arguing that it was a tall order to expect that the
Arab Muslims could achieve in four days what the West achieved in four centuries.
Comments
On the subject of the external level, of the translation of Western enlightenment into the Arab world
and the role of western scholarship on early Islam:
Stephen Ulph: We do, of course, have to be constantly aware of the kiss of death problem of
western engagement. But more than that, we should also be aware of the problem of the knowledge
gap on the achievements of western Orientalism. We should perhaps note Mohammed Arkouns
lament concerning the damage that was being caused by the sudden confrontation of Muslims with
western scholarship, and the negative effect this was having on their ability to conduct an
unemotional debate:
I have observed that Western scholarship on Islamic studies, apart from its fragile results, has
often left Muslims with a field of ruins, without caring about their intellectual responsibility
for any damage caused [and] the psychological, ethical, existential impact of Muslims
suddenly faced with the collapse of their inherited traditional acceptance of revealed Truth
and divine Law.
The problem, he noted, was that:
Orientalists, with their intellectual arrogance, shook the foundations of a sacred tradition,
knowing that no one from inside the community would take up the cudgels and propose new
horizons of meaning to those that had been dismissed.
15

Would there be therefore a need to gradate the distribution of this information, in such a form that
avoids the possibility of rejection as psychotic vandalism and an act of enmity, as labelled by the
few traditionalist Muslim scholars that have come across it?
16

A number of those present opposed the issuance of a UN resolution prohibiting the defamation of
religions:
Ashraf Abdelkader: this will simply be exploited for the purpose of narrowing freedom of expression,
one of the greatest and most important human rights.
Lafif Lakhdar: The world should not have to make concessions to Muslims, rather Muslims should act
as adults and learn to be indifferent like the Westerners.
Raja Ben Slama: Western legal systems are designed to criminalise insults made to the living, not
those made to the dead! Eastern culture, by contrast, sometimes is tolerant of insults made against
the living yet does not tolerate insults against the dead. The Muslim world should be taught how to
take insults.

15 M. Arkoun, Islam: To Reform or To Subvert? Saqi Books, London 2006, pp.70-71.
16 For an example of this see: S. Parvez Manzoor, Method Against Truth, Orientalism and Qur'anic Studies, 1987.
Al-Nabulsi: Almuslih should engage in the translation into Arabic of the works of major Orientalists. It
should do all it can to support the emerging liberal currents in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Ansari: what we need most is a boost to morale; the liberal trend needs to be helped to gain profile
and self-confidence.
In a later correspondence with Stephen Ulph, Hashem Saleh subsequently was at pains to explain his true
intent on this point:
I would like to clarify my position which was misunderstood, or insufficiently clarified in the
conference hall.
I am not against historico-critical study of the religious heritage. In fact I have spent my life pursuing
this. But there is a difference between responsible, enlightening criticism undertaken for example by
academic orientalism, and an attack on religions through insult and gratuitous provocation. What I
wanted to say was the following: the insulting of major religious symbols and Prophets such as Moses,
Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha and so on is very damaging and always unacceptable from an ethical
standpoint. The Prophets have their own majesty, sanctity and status. Moreover, it is an absolutely
irresponsible act. Do we wish to kill the warden or pluck the vine?
We may well present liberating, critical historical studies on them but not disfiguring cartoons or
insults. For indecent insults are not objective historical criticism, and cannot provide a solution to the
problme of extremist fundamentalism. On the contrary, instead of weakening it, it feeds it and greatly
strengthens it. Moreover, it unjustifiably hurts the feelings of milllions of people and to no purpose. It
at times generates seething reactions resulting in many innocent victims. What right have we to do
this? Who can take on such a responsibility?
Even in a highly secular, enlightened state such as France Martin Scorseses film The Last Temptation
of Christ incited violent reactions. A puritanical Catholic group burnt down one of the cinema halls in
the famous Boulevard Saint Michel in the heart of Paris. Thirteen peole suffered injuries from the
explosion, four of them seriously. This took place on 22-23 October 1988. All of this was due to a film
that presented a highly human image of Christ. It claimed that he was subject to sexual temptations
like any other human being, in particular for Mary Magdalene. This is entirely contradictory to the
ideal, sacred, divine image formed of Christ and embedded in the minds of millions of believers over
the centuries. They considered this to be a deliberate disfiguration to His personality or a dispicable
attempt on the part of the director to attack Him. At that time the militant Catholics could not
tolerate it and blew up the cinema, terrorising other cinema halls and threatening them not to show
the film themselves.
So what about the Islamic world, then, where we have yet to witness a philosophical enlightenment
or even a religious reform of the 16
th
century type? Where we are yet to witness secularism, objective
philosophy or even historical criticism or the sacred texts?
Even today there is yet to appear a John Locke or a Spinoza, or a Voltaire, a Diderot or an Ernest
Renan, or dozens of their ilk (with the exception of Lafif Lakhdar and some others). Consequently the
provocation of traditional-minded believers by attacking the Prophets is an unethical and even banal
action. Moreover, it is very dangerous psychologically. It upsets the psychological balance of millions
of people and disturbs them deeply. We say this particularly since the majorty of Muslims are poor
and have nothing left other than their faith to cling to or depend upon in times of harshness, distress
and hunger.
Added to this is that it neither hastens nor delays the process of intellectual liberalisation. Indeed it
severely delays and damages the issue of enlightenment. It grants its Islamic, fundamentalist enemies
an effective weapon to fight against it and defeat it with ease. Moreover, it makes it appear that it
stands for insult, ridicule and mockery, and not for serious, sober scientific research.
It is for this reason that I called on our western counterparts to prevent extremists in the West from
blackening the image of the Prophets, particular that of the noble Prophet Muhammad, in a
defamatory way. These are stupid acts that cause enormous damage to the cause of enlightenment
and reform. They furnish our fundamentalist opponents with an effective weapon with which to
attack us and defeat us with ease.

Lafif Lakhdar Promoting deep reform through comparative religion
Mr Lakhdars paper was made available before the conference (see below p.43) and the paper delivered at
Rome summarised its main points. However, a number of recommendations were also given, which referenced
his detailed answers submitted to the questions posed by the conference invitation letter (see below p.25).
.............
Mr Lakhdar opened with an important observation underlining the importance of the Almuslih
initiative in providing a rare opportunity for progressive intellectuals to discuss reform in such a way
that decreases the isolation of individuals and promotes a collective response. He hoped that the
participants had had the opportunity to read his paper The Reform of Islam is both Necessary and
Possible by the translation made by Mr Ulph. The summary of his paper continued as follows:
The reform of Islam is part of a comprehensive whole: economic reform by its integration into the
globalised world economy; political reform through the reform of decision-making which henceforth
should be done by science and the computer rather than via prayer, as is taking place in Egypt and
Tunisia; the reform of the Arabic language by transferring it from the language of the Qurn to the
language of science and technology by adopting scientific and technological terminology just as they
are with any Arabisation of these terms amounting to no more than the use of the Arabic
alphabet. The successful experience of Israel in this regard is illustrative; demographic reform (Egypt,
for instance, has quadrupled its population in 60 years).
Most importantly, the reform of Islam through its study and teaching via modern studies in
comparative religion since Islamic studies of Islam are like a drug that has gone beyond its sell by
date.
The first aim of this is to place Islam on an equal footing with all other faiths;
Its second aim is to teach Islam, its holy texts, its legacy and historical personalities through
the prism of comparative religion which will place the relationship of the Muslim to his faith
and his culture on a transparent basis, one that is freed of divine legends, riddles or
mysteries;
Its third aim is to generate an Islamic religious rationalism, an aggiornamento, and updating
of his interests to conform with the institutions, sciences, and values of the world it is living
and against which it is still waiting an open warfare;
Its fourth aim argues that this Islamic religious rationalism should produce a Muslim
individual that thinks for himself and chooses his values himself, and his own method of
religious belief so that he frees himself from the directors of conscience, and prevent his
being dissolved into the Nation which generates the ideology of globalised Islamic
terrorism. We see evidence of this new individual forming but we require a reform of Islam
to turn it into the dominant element;
Its fifth aim is to cleanse Islam of violence the violence of the Shara with its shocking
corporal punishments (over the last 30 years Iran has stoned to death approximately 2000
women), the violence of personal status laws which have deprived women of their
fundamental rights for 14 centuries. Legalised violence also manifests itself in jihad, in both
the defensive and the offensive forms of jihad, the latter with its criminal aim impossible to
achieve: the conversion of all humanity to Islam, following the killing of the last Jew! This
violence extends towards enmity to women, to which the Shara has added enmity towards
non-Muslims still active in the concept of the dhimma communities that are deprived of
full citizenship rights. The non-Muslim wife is still deprived of her ability to inherit from her
Muslim husband and sons a discrimination that dates from the Middle Ages.
Islamic Shara law lies outside rational, universal positive law, and that therefore we are obliged,
willingly or not to adjust to this universal law, preferably willingly.
Over the last 10 millennia mankind has succeeded in transforming from the Agricultural Revolution
to the Industrial Revolution, which in turn is transforming into the Information Economy. It is a
transformation from the oral to the written, and thence from the written to the printed, and thence
from the printed to the new technologies. On the political level the transformation has taken place
from the rule of the divine intellect a property of the mediaeval period to the rule of human
intellect a property of the modern era.
Recep Tayyib Erdoan has formulated the paradigm for the reform of Islam thus: the necessity for
Islam to reconcile itself with freedom, secularism and democracy. The obstacle before this is
formed by the traditionalist, politicised Islamic extreme right, one that persists in the worship of the
ancestors, maintaining that it is incumbent upon us in the 21st-century to live as our righteous
ancestors lived in the seventh century!
The reform of European Islam
It may be that the reform of Islam can be achieved in Europe more easily than in Muslim lands, due
to its integration into modern societies with their institutions, sciences, rational and humane values.
The primary obstacle to this integration is the demographic timebomb large families, particularly
polygamous ones (in France alone there are 30,000 families with 600,000 children, which averages
out at 14.5 children to each family, the majority of them failing in their education). 5 million French
Muslims account for 49.6% of the prison population of the country, while 57 million non-Muslim
Frenchmen account for the other half.
The labourers of the 21st-century are all technicians, engineers, researchers, scientists and doctors.
European Muslims constitute a very small minority among these five classes who are qualified to
work in the professions of the future. For which reason marginalisation and unemployment is
increasing among those who fail to complete their education.
After this introduction, I shall attempt to respond to the Rome Conference questions posed by the
director of the Almuslih website Mr. Stephen Ulph:

Lafif Lakhdar - Detailed response to the Almuslih table of questions

How do Muslim reformers envisage the task facing them, in releasing Islamic thought from the
grip of uncreative traditionalism and textual literalism?
I cannot speak for all my colleagues, for there is no institution which brings us together nor any
shared programme that defines the task and the priorities or the possibility of overcoming them. I
personally do not think that there can be any effective combating of textual literalism (the source of
fanaticism and terrorism) other than through a historical reading of the text: the abrogation of all
the verses and hadith that conflict with the interests of Muslims and the interests of humanity.
Finally the separation of that which is religious and mundane by confining it to the private sphere.

What problems of public perception do these reformers face?
Anything new generally has to swim against the tide. This is especially the case in religion amongst
the Muslim public where, to a large degree, the individual has yet to make its appearance. The
individual remains to a great extent dissolved in the nation and does not think for himself in at least
in nine out of ten cases, and instead resorts to the traditional shaykh and the Mufti.
Naguib Mahfouz said that the corpse of Abduh, the Mufti of Egypt and the inaugurator of Islamic
reform remained lying for a full half day in al-Azhar due to the fact that its shaykhs were engaged in
a dispute: were they allowed to pray over him or not? Contemporary reformers, in comparison to
reformers of the 19th and 20th centuries, are fortunate. The information revolution has saved us
from the scissors of the censor. Were it not for this revolution our books would have to be smuggled
in to some of these countries and would have been read by mere dozens of people as opposed to
tens of thousands. Due to the Internet we can get into every house and be read over all five
continents. The information revolution, which has opened up borders as well as minds and mindsets,
will affect this arena sooner or later.
The spirit of the age is also an ally of reform, and the spirit of our age is accelerating history, that is it
is advancing science and technology: the world in the second half of last century has changed more
than it did over the previous two millennia; living amongst us now are 90% of all scientists that have
ever existed over the last 10 millennia.
The readers of reform constitute an important sector which is growing day by day: the modern elite,
the enlightened public, and especially women who are aware and have not ingested the views of
their torturers about them, the minority elites and their publics who daily suffer the pains of the
rulings of traditional Islam, that is, the Islam of a literal reading of the text. The problem which is
passed over in silence and which the reformers have to confront, is fear. This is a legitimate fear,
particularly under extreme right wing governments in the countries of the Arab spring, where they
risk their freedom or their lives. I would remind the reformers of Islam that the Christian martyrs
were strong factor in the spread and the final victory of their faith.
In culture as in economics we have to count on demand not supply. The only ones who will read us
will be those who feel the need to read us. For my part I do not see there are any difficulties with my
enlightened readership, including those in the movements of the Islamic extreme right. The fact is
that many websites and four hardcopy newspapers in Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia are republishing
some of my essays an indication that there is a demand for them. Over the past three years the
Moroccan Minister of education has inserted into the secondary school curriculum a philosophical
study as a source of critical thinking necessary to combat repetition and literalist readings. Yet I have
only been suggesting this for a period of two years. The Egyptian Ministry of Awqaf at the time of
the philosopher Minister Hamdi Zaqzuq, was inspired by what I had written concerning the
qualification of imams in Tunisia. In Egypt around 93,000 imams, even if only half of them have
actually adopted an enlightened religious discourse, have opened up a royal road to reform.

What are the primary obstacles confronting reform?
Reform today is virtually nothing, and needs to become everything. When reform is virtually nothing
the obstacles are many. The first of these is the absence of an institution that tasks itself with
overseeing the implementation of the reform project, finances it, defines its aims and priorities and
apportions work according to the specialisation of each researcher.
Such an institution can stem either from civic society or from the state. Civic society is materially
weak and its awareness of the need for reform is also weak. As for the state, with the exception of
Tunisia 1956-2010, the term Islamic reform was considered to be zandaqa (atheistic skepticism).
Islam, it was argued, is not in need of reform. For did not God himself decide this:
This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed My favour unto you, and have chosen
for you as religion Al-Islam
17

Consequently all that is left is individual, and necessarily disorganised initiatives. In the absence of
this institution there is only a fragmentary understanding of reform, instead of a comprehensive
understanding for all aspects of reform which I've attempted to deal with in my project from the
necessity of the reform of the Arabic language to the necessity of disarming the population
explosion bomb. The lack of reform of the Arabic language has formed an obstacle to scientific
translation and to the teaching of science and technology from primary to upper education. Lack of
demographic reform has created huge problems which hinder the reform of Islam.
The Rome conference in my view is the appropriate place for a collective examination of the
problems and the obstacles to reform.
Previously Saudi Arabia was the primary obstacle to reform. Bourguibas Foreign Minister
Muhammad al-Masmudi, said that in 1972 Bourguiba was about to issue a law equalising rights to
inheritance between men and women in application of the supremacy verse (Nis, 11).
18
King Faisal
of Saudi Arabia then threatened him, in a diplomatic dispatch, with cutting off relations between
Saudi Arabia and Tunisia and with excommunication by all the scholars of Islam in the world,
according to his letter. He therefore stepped back from this. In the year 2011 the head of the al-
Nahda party, Rachid al-Ghannouchi, declared:
The head of the scholars of Saudi Arabia, Bin Baz, saved Tunisia from disaster when he
excommunicated Bourguiba and made him step back from equalising the rights of inheritance!
It seems today that Saudi Arabia is no longer the obstacle that it was in the past but, in the oil-rich
Gulf, whenever one leader dies another takes his place to continue his war against Islamic reform.
The Arabian Peninsula is today the den of enemies of reform. A Tunisian University academic
advised President Ben Ali to abolish the death penalty in law after it had been abolished in practice.
He replied at the time that this would stir the Arabian Peninsula into an Islamic revolution. The
Islamic far right, which issues a fatwa declaring reformers to be apostates and urges them to be
killed, thus forces them to resort to looking out for themselves or keeping silent this is also an
obstacle.
The Islamic far right is today in power, something that will wear it down and rob it of its political
religious programme that conflicts with all the values, institutions and sciences of the modern era. I
have always said, in imitation of Hegel, that we will never be able to pass beyond the Islam of the
literal reading of the text, the Islam of al-wala wal-bara, the Islam of applying the Shara and the
Jihad till Doomsday come, until the Muslim slays the last Jew, as stated by a hadith reported by al-
Bukhari and incorporated by Hamas into paragraph 7 of its charter, until all these things have been
actually put into practice. See how these things today are being achieved in the countries of the Arab
Spring. So what is to be expected from this? Failure to a high degree of probability just as similar
programs in Afghanistan of the Taleban and Sudan of al-Turabi and al-Bashir and al-Khomeinis Iran
have failed. In Iran 80% of the population and 90% of all students have abandoned praying, for
which reason the Islamic government for years now have set aside the month of October for

17
Qurn V,3.
18
Allah chargeth you concerning (the provision for) your children: to the male the equivalent of the portion of two females, and if there be
women more than two, then theirs is two-thirds of the inheritance, and if there be one (only) then the half. And to of his parents a sixth of
the inheritance, if he have a son; and if he have no son and his parents are his heirs, then to his mother appertaineth the third; and if he
have brethren, then to his mother appertaineth the sixth, after any legacy he may have bequeathed, or debt (hath been paid). Your parents
or your children: Ye know not which of them is nearer unto you in usefulness. It is an injunction from Allah. Lo! Allah is Knower,
Wise. [Qurn IV,11].
exhorting to prayer. A full 98% have given up fasting for Ramadan and recently 30% have declared
themselves to be atheists.
19

Recently the Islamic Republic abolished the legal penalty of stoning from Islamic law. Before that
Muslim Turkey abolished the punishment for adultery the thin end of the wedge. This is a historic
indicator that there is no future for the Shara and its supporters.
Thus the government of the Islamic extreme right may be an unwitting tool of history in
implementing, despite itself, the reform of Islam through their turning away the vast masses from it.

How is the reform message best disseminated?
If we take the example of Abduh and Rida, we can say that education and the media constitute the
tools dedicated to the dissemination of religious reform in the best possible way. From 1876 Abduh
worked with the daily newspaper Al-Ahram to disseminate the message of reform amongst the
broadest sector of the elite and the masses. His central thought was the need to develop education
and the press in order to publish the message of reform and defend science as something that was
in the interests of Islam. This was the opposite of what the traditional shaykhs were claiming, i.e.
that it constituted a danger to it. In Al-Ahram he called for the need for reform of the Arabic
language which a century after him is still far from being a language of science and technology.
Tunisian University academics translated the booklet The Qurn by the Orientalist Andre Mikal,
apologising for the difficulty in finding appropriate Arab terms to translate a book on the Qurn into
the language of the Qurn! Since 1882 Abduh was participating in the editing of Al-Urwa al-
Wuthqa, which published his commentary Al-Manar. And in 1892 he proposed a project for
reforming Azhari education which had to exclude chemistry and natural science due to the scholars
of al-Azhar declaring them as constituting disbelief. Incidentally, the Tunisian academic Muhammad
al-Haddad has a book on Abduh that is worth reading and discussing: Muhammad Abduh: a New
Reading on the Discourse of Religious Reform, and incidentally again, when the Tunisian student of
Abduh, Muhammad al-Tahir ben Achour wished to reform education at al-Zeitouna in the 1930s
through the introduction of chemistry and astronomy into its curriculum, he came up against the
traditionalist shaykhs who invoked the Prime Minister. Ben Achour told the Minister I introduced
these two sciences so that the Zeitouna students should not repeat, along with the masses, that
Thunder is the product of a mute angel. The Prime Minister replied: But I also say that thunder is
the product of a mute angel! This incident was related to us by the eminent shaykh Ben Achour in
the College of Law.
The Tunisian academic Abd al-Majid al-Charfi, through his teaching of Islamic studies, has been able
to bring up an entire generation of Islamic reformers who have published their theses or summaries
of them on Islamic themes which they have studied in the League of Arab Rationalists, and has
participated with his books and press interviews in the reform project.
As for myself, I chose the media to escape from the censors scissors. I learnt the lesson from my
books which were confiscated in Beirut despite my self-censorship and the censorship that was
demanded of me by the publisher in order for the books not to be banned, they were confiscated in
99% of Arab countries. And I am happy about this choice since my project and the projects of other
reformists are read in every Arab country and across five continents and, thanks to the Almuslih
websites translation of them into English they now reach the elite of Islamic lands and Islamologist
specialists over the world, and interested sectors of the public. Digital books and articles are the best
tool for disseminating the message of reform. This is in addition to the fact that writing imprint will
end in the foreseeable future.

19
See al-Hiwar al-Mutamaddin 2009, and the Almuslih article: Does the Islamic right wing have a future?
Do westerners / non-Muslims have a correct understanding of the nature of the tasks facing
Muslim reformers?
This is certainly true in the case of non-Muslims resident in Islamic lands. As for non-Muslims in the
West and globally it appears that the vanguard do understand the task that lies before the
reformers, such as Almuslih which, with its translation of their work into English introduces their
mission to everyone. This mission Erdoan summarised for the Muslim Brotherhood and the
Tunisian Nahda as the need for Islams reconciliation with freedom, secularism, and democracy, the
very reconciliation which these two groups repudiate. This reconciliation is necessary in order to
integrate Muslims into the world they are living in. As opposed to some Orientalists of the likes of
Olivier Roy who think that the Muslim far right will be participants in the reform of Islam. I have
really pointed that the project of the Islamic far right, the project of a literalist reading or the Islam
of Jihad and martyrdom, is a direct contradiction of the reform of Islam. Such as the project of al-
Ghannouchi which is barring some concessions in expression or circumstances and some deceptive
use of famous double language the restoration of the caliphate, the comprehensive application of
the Shara, Jihad to liberate Palestine, the excommunication of all who adopt the nationalist project
of the two states, Israel and Palestine, and the necessity for the Islamic State to possess and use
nuclear weapons ... These are delirious, criminal aims and conflict with the aims of Islamic reform.
American diplomacy still supports al-Ghannouchis movement in its internal and external policies,
policies whose aim as the Director of the Faculty of Law al-Sadiq Bilid states: is to break up the
institutions of the Tunisian state ... and upon its ruins establish the authority of the Supreme Guide
Rachid al-Ghannouchi.
Lending aid to such a government does not indicate a correct understanding of reform. Al-Turabi
less evil than al-Ghannouchi since he issued a fatwa following his expulsion from power and his
imprisonment supporting equality of inheritance and the right of a Muslim woman to marry a Jew or
a Christian under his rule turned Sudan into a base for al-Qaeda, with its call for Jihad in the Abode
of War against its civilisation, all things which are the direct contradiction of any religious reform.

Is there agreement on the nature of the problems faced? And if so, how far can the non-
Muslim world contribute to the cause of reform in the Muslim world?
As far as I know there is no institution specialising in Islamic reform that can promote such a vital
agreement. Add to this the fact that the tradition of institutional activity and team spirit has not yet
become sufficiently rooted in the prevailing mindsets. I hope that the Rome conference will discuss
the possibility of instituting just such an institution capable of promoting the fastest and most
effective reform.
Global intelligentsia and civic society can do much in the cause of reform which is in the interests of
all humanity. Almuslih is a fundamental player in the reform of Islam in its translation of our work.
Everyone who studies Islam and its historical personalities in comparative religion, irrespective of his
nationality or creed, is a participant in the reform of Islam. Even studies on Jewish and Christian texts
and their historical symbols participate indirectly in the reform of Islam.
Everyone should participate in the reform of Islam so as to bring an end to the tragic violation in
Muslim lands of human rights, the rights of women, the rights of minorities and the rape of children
who are married off at the age of 9 in the case of girls or the age of 11 for boys and who account
for, according to the United Nations, one out of every three girls, and bring an end to fatwas calling
for people to be proscribed, incitement to Jihad against Jews, Christians and their apostate Muslim
allies.
Other than what I have already said or what I will say, I have no other description as to how non-
Muslims can help the cause of reform. But it might be necessary to convene a special conference for
the purpose of agreeing a shared program for the intervention by the world community and
international diplomacy against infringements of human rights, and that this should form part of
their foreign policy whenever this is possible.

What would Muslim reformers ideally require in the form of support? How can this support
best materialise?
There are, in my view, two basic forms of support:
Firstly, the support of civic society through establishing a website on the model of Almuslih which
would translate into Arabic the most important works on Islam by western and international
Islamologists and the works on the Bible by historians of religion; for every scientific analysis of the
Bible is also an indirect analysis of our Book: the Qurn.
For instance, since the 19th century there have appeared three books in German on Muhammad
which have yet to be translated into Arabic. This in addition to other books on the Prophet of Islam
which appeared subsequently and of which very few have been translated, such as the work
Muhammad by Montgomery Watt. As for the work Mohammed by Maxime Rodinson, it was
translated in the 1970s by Hasan Qubaysi, but after examining it the publishers Dar al-Nashr refused
to have it published out of fear of confiscation and prosecution (On this see Annex V: the Maxime
Rodinson affair). Nldekes book on the Qurn was only translated 10 years ago in paperback form
and was everywhere confiscated. I don't know whether, to save it, it has been republished
somewhere on the Internet.
The second form of support would be to blow the dust off the Qurn copy held by the University of
San which, since 1972, has been concealed from view in the University of Berlin, and to publish it
on the Internet so as to be available to all researchers.
Al-Jabri claimed that a comparative study of the Qurn was neither necessary nor possible since, in
contradistinction to the Bible, there are no other divergent copies from that of the Uthman copy,
following his burning of all the other rival versions of the Mushaf. This is wrong on two fronts: a
comparison of the Qurn in the light of the comparative history of religions can be made with the
texts of extinct religions such as Babylonian or Egyptian religion, or from what the Qurn borrowed
from the Bible particularly the Book of Genesis such as the legends of Noahs Flood, the city of
Gomorrah, from Babylonian-Biblical cosmology, the creation of Adam from clay ...
Secondly, when al-Jabri penned this mistake in the 1990s there had been available ever since 1972
other copies of the Qurn which had been discovered in the attic of a crumbling mosque in San.
Among them was a fragment of a rare mushaf in which there were 900 verses. The Qurn specialist
Muhammad Ali Muzi holds that it is probably a fragment of the mushaf of Ibn Masud or the mushaf
of Abu Ibn Kab. Personally I think that it is likely to be a part of the mushaf of Abu Ibn Kab, for al-
Sijistani tells us in his work The Mushafs that the verse/hadith of the stoning is in the mushaf of Abu
Ibn Kab. This fragment contains this verse.
More importantly, as anyone who examines it will notice, the Qurn and hadith were, and still are,
inseparable. It appears that the committee compiling the Qurn were the ones responsible for
making a separation between the two. The intermingling of the Qurn with the hadith is something
that has been passed over in silence in the history of these two foundational texts. Here and there
we find a passing reference to this intermingling, sometimes indirectly: for instance in the two works
of Sahih, by al-Bukhari and Muslim, there is the statement that Ibn Abbas and Ibn al-Zubayr became
confused concerning the composition of this verse/hadith:
Had the son of Adam a valley made entirely of gold, he would wish for another one too!
Is this a Qurnic verse or a hadith? It is reported by al-Bukhari under the number 5957, and by
Muslim under the number 1739.
The fragment of the mushaf of Abu Ibn Kab is likely to break this silence, a silence which clerics and
commentators have spent centuries veiling.
This rare discovery has the potential to galvanise, like nothing else before it, the study of the two
foundational Islamic texts. But under the pressure of the obscurantist Gulf states the German
University has refused to offer up this scholarly treasure to researchers! But the fact is that the
Vatican has handed over apocryphal Gospels for publication, and this is something which alongside
the Qumran scrolls has contributed to a better understanding of the Bible and of history.
I hope that the Rome conference will devote an international campaign to put pressure on Berlin
University to publish these mushafs - the non-publication of which constitutes a sin against the
rights of scholarly research and Islamic religious reform!
In the quarterly Le Monde de la Bible
20
(n. 201, June-August 2012) there is a special document on the
Mushaf of the Stone. What is referred to here is the Qurn which al-Hajjaj inscribed on rocks along
the Hajj route during the first two centuries of the hegira. Specialists who have analysed it have
noted that there are various degrees of differences with the Uthmanic copy of the Qurn and that
54 Mekkan verses are missing from it. Will this mushaf see the light of day or will its fate be that of
the mushafs of the Sanaa mosque?
The Vatican Arab library contains a fragment of the Qurn which is missing from the Uthmanic
version. A former Saudi oil Minister living in London (whose name I do not recall at the moment)
examined it in 2005 and wrote an article in a Saudi newspaper published by Al-Shafaf, in which he
said there was a difference in expression but not of meaning from the present mushaf. In 2007 I
requested the Vatican permission to examine it, only to receive the reply, the library is closed for
repairs for three years! There is no doubt that one of the guardians of the temple of Islamic
obscurantism had passed by, and it is worth mentioning that this library is a library of the Arab kings
in Islamic Spain which the Catholic conquistadores had sent to the Vatican instead of burning it
down as was our practice. According to the account by al-Tabari, Umar ordered the burning of the
library of the kings of Persia, something which provoked an elegant note of criticism from Ibn
Khaldun in his Muqaddima. In 1973 Qaddafi, in his turn, sent to the flames manuscripts associated
with the history of the Berbers. When Abd al-Rahman Badawi protested he was expelled and took
refuge in Kuwait.
In his introduction to his translation of the Qurn the former director of the Paris Mosque, Hamza
Abu Bakr, wrote that in the 1960s he had examined in India a copy of the mushaf of Ibn Masud. He
may have acquired a copy of it would it be possible to convene a committee composed of
members of the Rome conference to search for this?
The support of civic society and the international media and academia is vital and valuable in this
regard.

In interpreting the Quranic text, how can one break outside the dogmatic enclosure of the
official closed corpus (to use Mohamed Arkouns terms)?
First of all, the reform of Islam stands on a basic agreed point: the separation between religion and
the state. The mixing up of the religious and the mundane was something predominant in the
Middle Ages when the divine intellect ruled over the human intellect. Modernity overturned this in
its constituting mankind's emergence from childhood into adulthood as described by Kant. This

20
http://www.mondedelabible.com/
formula makes a distinction between the divine intellect and the human intellect. Furthermore,
human intellect was empowered over the divine intellect as a result of the studies and analyses of
specialist sciences free of censorship or self-censorship. At that time there was no more need to
interpret the Qurnic text to make it accord with the demands and the changes of modern life, over
which it no longer had any control. In this way the text became irrelevant to political, economic and
scientific affairs or to literary or artistic creativity ... Interpreting it is something that is necessary only
for discussions between clerics and scholars for questions of worship and scholarly study. Even if
some countries such as Gulf States are unable to make a division between them straight away, they
will be forced to take the Qurnic text as an authority in mundane affairs. In handling it there is an
effective, decisive tool, that is abrogation the abrogation of the Qurn and hadith whenever it
conflicts with the interests of Muslims or the interests of mankind. An example of this is Jihad, which
is destructive to internal security and to global security.
Abrogation is a custom which the Prophet of Islam instituted in his own life, for he abrogated the
Qurn with the Qurn there is no doubt that the Qurn is his own speech and he abrogated this
with the hadith. The hadith is his own speech with the consensus of all Muslims ancient and modern.
Verses that were obsolete, that is, those which were superseded by the historical development of
the Muslim community or which conflicted with their selfish interests, were abrogated by the
Prophet of Islam at their request.
In fact I would assume that the Medinan Qurn was not a Qurn like the Mekkan Qurn but was in
fact a hadith. The psychological, medical difference between the two is that the Qurn took place
during a fit of auditory hallucinations usually accompanied by collapse of consciousness or catalepsy,
which is one of the symptoms of schizophrenia. It is usually delivered in rhymed prose form which is
what psychiatric medicine terms echolalia. In psychiatry this is also one of the symptoms of
schizophrenia. The Medinan Qurn was genuinely not delivered in rhymed prose form because it
took place outside fits of auditory and visual hallucination. For this reason it does not contain the
lyricism of the Mekkan Qurn, that is, any fingerprint of subconscious inspiration about which
Nazzar Qabbani in the 1950s wrote an article in the journal Al-Adab with the title: God as poet in the
Qurn. I also presume that many of the verses of the Medinan Qurn/Hadith were laws for
regulating the primitive Medinan state. The Prophet of Islam, holding an office that is the equivalent
to the President of a government today, promulgated laws/verses/hadith as proposals for the
consensus of the Muslims who functioned as a present day Parliament discussing the proposals and
requesting amendments to them that is, their partial or entire abrogation. I shall give here an
example, repeating it so that it acts in the function of pedagogical repetition with the purpose of
embedding it in the memory. Take the verses 65-66 of the surat al-Anfal [Qurn VIII, 65-6]
If there be of you twenty steadfast they shall overcome two hundred (verse 65)
The Parliament of the companions rejected the verse, and in al-Tabaris words, quoting Ibn Abbas,
they considered it an exaggeration, saying to the Prophet and the head of the Islamic state: we do
not accept what you have commanded, that one of us could kill 10 polytheists! So he then
immediately altered the verse to: Now hath Allah lightened your burden, for He knoweth that there is
weakness in you. So if there be of you a steadfast ten they shall overcome twenty (verse 66).
21

There is no doubt that the relieved expression on their faces betokened the sign of their approval,
changing the balance of power equation between Muslims and polytheists: from one Muslim against
ten to one Muslim against two polytheists.

21
The standard Qurnic text actually says: So if there be of you a steadfast hundred they shall overcome two hundred, but the point is the
same.
How can the non-Muslim world contribute?
I have explained this earlier with relation to international diplomacy through economic and
technological cooperation in the defence of human rights in Muslim countries and with relation to
international civic society in the employment of media on the valuable model of Almuslih, and
through the study of Islam via comparative religion. I consider that Vatican II did not only benefit
Catholicism but all three monotheistic religions.
22
This is due to its transformation from a mediaeval
paradigm of the centrality of the divinity to the paradigm of the modern era the centrality of
mankind (= an anthropological centrality). That is, the reforms of Vatican II ushered in a
transformation from the centrality of the divine intellect to the centrality of the human intellect, to
use the terms of humanistic philosophy. Thus Catholicism adopted everything it had fought against
throughout the length of his history up to the year 1962: all the institutions, sciences and values of
the human intellect, from secularism to democracy. Does the reform of Islam have any other goal?
This is the paper prepared for the Rome conference on Islamic reform organised by Dr. Stephen Ulph
director of the Almuslih website www.almuslih.net which specialises in the translation into English of
the works of contemporary Muslim reformers.

22
See Lakhdars article for Almuslih: Vatican II as a model for Islamic reform.
Recommendations
From the discussions concluding the two day colloquium, and from comments submitted
subsequently, the following elements were considered vital to the progress of reform:
Institutionalise and promote the Almuslih programme on religious reform (Hussein)
The need to convene an annual Almuslih conference (all participants)
The need to maintain transparency and independence in an environment heavily charged
with a conspiracy mentality. (Hashem Saleh, Shaker al-Nabulsi)
The need to initiate round-table discussions in Brussels to a) demonstrate why the EU should
involve itself in an issue it has kept clear of; b) to promote policy-making that supports
progressive elements in the Middle East and combats the growing influence of Islamists in
determining EU/Arab relations (Williams)
Promote contacts between Arab Muslim progressive thinkers with their western
counterparts working in the media and cultural institutions for awareness campaigns on
Islamo-fascism (Hussein)
Promote the convening of inter-Arab delegations of reform (Shaker al-Nabulsi)
The need to progress to audio-visual materials necessary for an Arab Muslim public that
already has low levels of literacy but which is also migrating to visual sources for
information. The recommendation is that we should publish videos of several minutes in
duration or an analysis of a single idea, or theory (R. Ben Slama)
23
.
Promote and finance research on textual analysis and comparative philology (Lafif Lakhdar)
Establish bursaries for the support of young, progressive-minded scholars (Shaker al-Nabulsi)
The need for a sister-site under the Almuslih aegis focused on Orientalist scholarship (Lafif
Lakhdar, Hashem Saleh, Shaker al-Nabulsi) and the translation of the original texts of the
Salafis to demonstrate their obscurantism and ignorance (Lafif Lakhdar) (see Excursus
below)
Almuslih should promote translations in both directions and play the rle of mediator.
Do not forget that there are many European Muslims who do not speak Arabic and who
nevertheless are on a journey towards discovering their roots. This, among other things
explains the success of someone like Tariq Ramadan. (R. Ben Slama)
Deconstruct the identity preoccupations and the fundamentalisms in all three monotheisms,
even if Islam is the religion which generates the most violence and the strongest
inequalities. (R. Ben Slama)
Promote a republican or democratic form of Islam. It is not useful to say that Islam is
incompatible with democracy. It is a question of demonstrating or constructing forms of
religiosity that are compatible with democracy and the Rights of Man. Actively engage in
promoting progressive Islam in Muslim countries (R. Ben Slama, Hussein)

23
R. Ben Slama: On the Al-Awan site we have published very interesting interviews with reformers, Islamologists and psychoanalysts. As
soon as I have time I will prepare a list for you.

Promote the linkage between western economic aid to Muslim countries with a condition
that these governments should respect democracy, human rights, the rights of women and
freedom of expression (Hussein)
Present the experiences of emancipation by figures with whom the youth can identify this
is very important (R. Ben Slama)
Prompt Western governments to impose pressure on Saudi Arabia to halt financial support
to spread religious extremism and political Islam ($87 billion over two decades, as opposed
to $7 billion spent by the Soviet Union over 70 years to spread Communism) (Hussein)

Excursus: A sister-site under the Almuslih aegis focused on Orientalist scholarship
During the course of the discussions a number of speakers independently verified what Lafif Lakhdar
proposed in his paper, the need for a website on the model of Almuslih, and hosted by it, specializing
in publishing translations into Arabic of the major works of German, French, Italian and English
Orientalists.
Hashim Saleh made the following impassioned plea for this:
If [Westerners] want to help us succeed in bringing reform and enlightenment to the Arab and Islamic
world as a whole ... One of the methods would be to translate the works of great Orientalists into the
Arabic language. These are works which cast light on the Islamic heritage in an unprecedented
manner through the application of the methodology of historical criticism onto the entire heritage. In
similar fashion European scholars carried out this task with reference to Christianity. There are some
very important works on our heritage published in English, French and German but no one in the Arab
world is aware of them or has even heard of them. These works give an enlightening historical light to
the sra of the Prophet, the Qurn, the hadith, the Shara and fiqh. The mere translation of them into
Arabic offers the greatest service to the cause of enlightenment and reform in the Arab world. For the
prevailing works that we have at the moment on these sensitive subjects are far more traditional than
is necessary and are reverential rather than historical. These works feed the fiery imagination of the
fundamentalists. Consequently the translation of these great Orientalists works and their wide-scale
publication in the Arab world will liberate us from puritanical, alienating, ahistorical and obscurantist
conceptions of the religious heritage.
Lafif Lakhdars comments underline the importance of
a website on the model of Almuslih which would translate into Arabic the most important works
on Islam by western and international Islamologists and the works on the Bible by historians of
religion; for every scientific analysis of the Bible is also an indirect analysis of our Book: the Qurn.
For instance, since the 19th century there have appeared three books in German on Muhammad
which have yet to be translated into Arabic. This in addition to other books on the Prophet of Islam
which appeared subsequently and of which very few have been translated, such as the work
Muhammad by Montgomery Watt. As for the work Mohammed by Maxime Rodinson, it was
translated in the 1970s by Hasan Qubaysi, but after examining it the publishers Dar al-Nashr refused
to have it published out of fear of confiscation and prosecution. Nldekes book on the Qurn was
only translated 10 years ago in paperback form and was everywhere confiscated.
The translation of Orientalist works on Islam is of decisive importance in modernising the
consciousness of the Muslim lite. Why is this so?
Because since the beginning of Islams decline in the mid 11c and especially at beginning of the 12c,
their consciousness was focused on forbidding the interloper or repudiated sciences opprobrious
terms at the time. The interloper sciences were the rational Greek sciences of logic, philosophy,
mathematics, astronomy and music etc. This was because Mutazilite scholasticism and philosophy in
the Islamic framework were born of Greek logic and philosophy. That is why Ibn al-Salah issued a
fatwa that he who practices logic is an atheist, to which another cleric added logic leads to
philosophy and that which leads to kufr is itself kufr.
Since the ninth century, beginning from the birth of Arab Islamic civilisation, al-Tirmidhi (the student
of al-Bukhari) issued a fatwa excommunicating opinion which for him is what reason represented:
he who attacks the Qurn with opinions is an error, and who composes commentaries the Qurn
with opinions is an infidel.
The translation of works of Orientalists on Islamic heritage works which were guided by the
rationalist science of comparative religion will play its part in preventing the brainwashing practised
by religious stagnation for eight centuries, and which continues still.
24

The participants calls for such an initiative support the observations made some years ago by
Mohamed Arkoun:
Even the most innovative books and articles devoted by Western scholarship to Islamic studies, for
example, long remain unknown in Muslim countries for several reasons. Either they are too
expensive, or they are written in foreign languages, or they are censored by political or religious
authorities. As long as the critical function of the social sciences is restricted for all the reasons
mentioned, the intellectual, cultural, and scientific gap between the West and the former Third World
societies will increase and have a negative effect on all the current debates between cultures and
civilisations.
25

Arkoun has outlined the significance of
the pioneering Western researchers in the field of Qurnic studies and Islamic thought in general, to
a point where I am accused by Muslim colleagues of ignoring or excluding Muslim contributors to the
field. [Yet] there is no doubt that Muslims cannot cross the boundaries of the creed based on the
myth of origins which remains for them the greatest unthinkable.
26

But he also listed the obstacles which a war of attrition like this would have to surmount:
The taboo that Muslim orthodoxy has always placed on Qurnic studies was more easily lifted during
the period of historical philological positivism than it is today. The euphoria of scientific reasoning was
boosted by colonial rule. Hence the battle for a critical edition of the text of the Qur'n, including
most notably a chronological ranking of the srt is not as persistent as it was in the period between
the writings of T. Nldeke and those of R. Blachre. All the same, this subject has lost nothing of its
scientific relevance, since it implies a more reliable historical reading, less dependent upon
suppositions, hypotheses and the quest for the plausible ... Unless more revealing manuscripts
related to the history of the text are found, which is still possible, it seems better to draw the
conclusion that an irreversible situation has been created by the systematic destruction of precious
documents or by the lack of interest of people today in all that has become essential for modern
historical knowledge.
27

Publishing the results of research on divergent texts of the Qurn will go some way towards
reversing the irreversible situation that Arkoun lamented. But the ultimate prize of an endeavour to
make available the fruits of the best of western research on Qurnic origins was clear:
If the present resources of historical enquiry allowed it to be established, in accordance with a
scientifically acceptable manner, that the Qurn, when viewed in the ecological, ethno-linguistic,

24
See: Lafif Lakhdars detailed response to the Rome conference questions.
25
Muhammad Arkoun: Islam, to Reform or to Subvert? Saqi, London 2006, p.38.
26
Arkoun, Op. Cit. p.72. (Authors own emphasis).
27
Arkoun, Op. Cit. p.74.
sociological and political theatre of tribal life in Mecca and Medina at the beginning of the seventh
century C.E., cannot but change its cognitive status a whole new field of work will be possible.
28

Lafif Lakhdar, in a subsequent communication to S. Ulph, suggests some practical advice on how to
set about our task:
Instead of full translations, try some extended introductions to each work, say 10-20 pp. That way,
more readers will handle them, and publishers will be tempted to issue full-scale translations.
Almuslih should engage specialist correspondents, its friends and writers, to present a list of
Orientalist books of the 20
th
century translated into Arabic, such as Watt, Gibb, Margoliouth and
Schacht. Most of these works are no longer in circulation, or are worn out and there is no plan to
publish them again since the reading public are readers of Sayyid Qutb and al-Qaradawi and their ilk.
It may therefore be best first to make summaries, and then publish the work in its entirety on the new
website.

Excursus: An analysis of Hashim Salehs paper My Struggle for Arab-Islamic Enlightenment
Hashim Salehs paper (see below: Appendix I Submitted Papers) submitted some time following the
meeting in December, is of particular interest among the submissions for the Rome Colloquium. The
work is a thoughtful analysis and is something of an apologia pro vita sua. It is highly interesting for
the way it details the elements that led to the process of enlightenment in an Arab thinker, and in so
doing provides an analysis of the Arab/Muslim dilemma in its relation to modernity.
The lessons from his experience are of particular interest in providing pointers as to where the
points of tension lie, where to focus future resources, and what the most effective arguments are in
the deconstruction of extremism (since the targets of Salehs reforms are both Muslim traditionalists
and Islamist extremists). His thesis focuses on the following themes and solutions:
epistemological compartmentalisation
the vulnerability of the Arab Muslim education
the urgent need for educational reform
the importance of ideological undermining on Islamisms own terrain
the value of comparative fundamentalism
a new, objective, approach to reading history and the Islamic heritage
the need for a re-reading of Scripture
the propriety and necessity of a bold intervention into Islamic doctrine.

The nature of the problem
As Saleh explains, the problems besetting the Arabs run very deep. An important element of his
diagnosis is the dilemma of epistemological compartmentalisation prevalent in Arab society at all
levels concerning the nature of knowledge and the relationship with modern, global culture:
One cannot make a separation between material modernity and intellectual modernity, as the
traditionalist conservatives among us would have us believe. For modernity is either something
complete and integrated in and of itself, or it simply does not exist.

28
Arkoun, Op. Cit. p.80.
He points to the naivety of the Arab Muslim intellectual class, their pretensions to cultural self-
sufficiency and their assumptions of superiority over other systems of belief and thought:
The level that we are at on the philosophical plane, intellectually, is class one of a primary school or
even Kindergarten! We stand at level zero, or even beneath zero ... If they think that the Arabs (and
Muslims as a whole) can overcome their present ordeal without a radical revision of their absolute
theological certainties and their shrieking, self-isolating ideological slogans, then they are ... deluded.
For the malady is much more dangerous and intractable than they think it is. It is something deeper
and far more thoroughly rooted in the distant past and deep within the nature of our society.
Saleh expresses exasperation at just how widespread and deep-rooted this naivety is at all levels of
society and at all levels of education:
Enclosed, atavistic, fundamentalist thought .... predominates in our schools and universities, and not
merely in our traditional institutions and colleges of Shara. This thought predominates over the
entire Arab Street from the Atlantic to the Arabian Gulf, and indeed the Islamic Street as a whole,
from the far West to Pakistan.
The problem of such a naivety remaining unchallenged is that it provides the underpinning for
the resurgence of movements of self-isolation that pronounce excommunication upon any opening
up to the modern, enlightened philosophy on the grounds that it is Western that is, a Satanic
abomination!
Saleh is therefore at pains to stress the urgency of the need for educational reform:
If there is no radical reform of the educational programs prevalent throughout the entire Arab and
Muslim world, the fundamentalists will remain in control of the arena and will continue to incubate
Taleban fundamentalists in their own image.
Either we succeed in crystallising a new interpretation of our faith and our culture by which I mean a
rationalist, enlightened, tolerant interpretation or we will leave the field open to obscurantist
puritans to wander up and down it at their leisure. Should that happen they will disfigure our image
on a truly global scale.
An important point, he stresses, is the need to take the ideological grounding of extremists seriously,
and to methodically deconstruct it, instead of relying on a presumed future effectiveness of a
security-focused solution to the growing crisis:
It is no use combating these by means of the security forces or even the military. We have to confront
them intellectually on the grounds of the Islamic tradition itself. We have to present a new reading in
place of the old one, or a new interpretation of Islam in place of the traditional, obscurantist
interpretation that is outdated but which nevertheless is still deep-rooted today. For it is this that
confers sanctified legitimacy to the voices of extremists and their terrorist bombings which are
scything down civilians in a random manner.
The opportunities and tools for reform
Certain elements, he argues, work in the favour of the reformists. One of these, judging from his
own experience attending Mohamed Arkouns lectures at the Sorbonne, is that the exposure to
alternative currents of thought and new interpretations of the Islamic heritage itself have a
devastating effect, and indicate the vulnerability of traditionalist Arab education to deconstruction
and collapse:
With the traditional certainties we had grown up with, or inherited over centuries from father to son
shaken to the core, we would at times come out of the lectures in a state of dizzy nausea.
He emphasizes in this context the essential disconnect of the Arab from his own heritage, when
viewed through the lens of objective historiography and one that employs the full panoply of
modern sociological, anthropological and philological research tools:
We would have two employ Nietzsches genealogical method (that is, a method of deep
archaeological excavation) to get to all the buried roots of the matter and unravel the Arab, Islamic
complex at the level of its most basic foundations.
Another effective tool is the employment of comparative history and comparative fundamentalism.
In this context Saleh refers to the work of Hans Kng whose wide-ranging approach across the
religious divide provides valuable pointers to the Arab Muslim reader on the propriety of
undertaking such a study. At the same time, the comparison approach serves the purpose of
presenting the European Enlightenment as it actually was, and why it took place. This is a vital
ingredient laying the groundwork for reform since the educational failure of the Arab world is
constantly reinforced by a failure to comprehend the significance of the western experience. Arabs,
Saleh maintains, are unable
to make a distinction between the positive elements of Western culture and its negative elements ...
In the end this has led to the era of the Arab Nahda being stillborn and the halting of any creative
interaction with European modernity.
In the process of comparison the cultural bilingualism of the author is also important according to
Saleh, since it further authenticates the process of comparison, and adds credibility and penetration.
Saleh singles out, in particular, the comparative approach undertaken by Abd al-Wahhb al-
Muaddib, noting that the insights from this scholar are important since
he does not speak of Islam from the outside but rather from within, since he was born, grew and
matured in Islam ... [He] comes from one of the most famous Tunisian houses of scholarship and
religion and this means that he is imbued from head to toe with Arab Islamic culture. At the
same time he is fully versed in French culture [and] has great affection for the
culture of the Enlightenment and is steeped in it.
Another interesting point of entry, provided the Arab educational vulnerability indicated by Saleh, is
the value of comparison being undertaken within the Islamic tradition. He highlights the qualitative
gap between the mature modernity of the standpoints taken by the scholars of the Islamic Golden
Age and the adolescent exclusionism of contemporary educationalists in the Arab Muslim world.
Focusing on the internal pedigree of enlightenment thinking in Muslim history serves the purpose of
demonstrating
the extent of the ignorance of the traditionalists and their impotence ... not only with respect to
world modernity but also with respect to Arab, Muslim modernity, which once radiated over the
entire planet from Baghdad, Cairo, Cordova and Muslim Spain during the Golden Age. It demonstrates
how the understanding of Islam prevalent today in the Arab world actually trails behind the
understanding of our great scholars and philosophers of the Classical Age 800 or even 1000 years ago.
The entry point lies in a new, objective, approach to reading history and the Islamic heritage, a task
that has deep implications for the prospects of achieving the long overdue reconciliation between
Islam and global modernity. The solution is to provide, in Arabic, systematic analyses of history that
take the reader step-by-step through the intellectual infrastructure of modernity something which
the scholars of the 19
th
and early 20
th
century stillborn Nahda signally failed to do. These new works
must be authored and presented in a digestible form, so that they may compete with the
accumulation of what is an entire edifice of tendentious and misleading historiography:
We will never achieve reconciliation between Islam and modernity unless we undertake a
comprehensive, radical, critical filtering-out of our ancient heritage, just as the advanced nations in
Europe and North America carried out with respect to their Christian fundamentalism.
A principal lever for this process is the translation into Arabic of the major works of Orientalist
scholarship:
The demand for pioneering works of discovery on the history of this great religion has now become
an urgent, pressing matter ... Why should these scientific discoveries and dazzling illuminations
concerning the Islamic heritage remain confined to the walls of the Sorbonne, given that we are more
entitled to them and more in need of them?
His own experience underlines the crucial significance of the translation enterprise which all the
participants at the Rome Colloquium urged the Almuslih project to undertake:
I would not have been able to understand even Arab and Islamic history in an objective historical
manner, had it not been for my study of a number of basic reference works in French. Most of these
works, if not all of them, are yet to be translated into Arabic. And even when they are translated it is
rare that the translation is an accurate or reliable one.
How long will it be that these scientific and philosophical revolutions remain stranger to our Arabic
tongue? How long will the venture of deep philosophical thinking remain unknown or insufficiently
known in Arabic? ... When will all the reference works necessary for attaining knowledge be available
in Arabic?
Salehs aim, in calling for this enterprise, is ultimately to enable the application of the latest
scientific, objective research methodologies to a re-reading of Scripture itself:
first of all with an application of modern philology, followed by the application of the historical
method, then the social, sociological method, the anthropological method and finally with a
comprehensive philosophical evaluation of the Text. In such a way it can handle the religious text and
the religious phenomenon in all its dimensions. By studying all of this and absorbing it fully, we are
able to understand the extent of the difference between the modern rationalist understanding of
religion and the stagnant, traditional understanding that has dominated our minds for hundreds of
years.
The application is to be carried out boldly, and unfettered by claims of cultural inappropriateness of
tools elaborated outside the tradition being brought to bear on sensitive areas. As Saleh explains,
one of the features of Arkouns project that sets it apart from other projects dominating the Arab
arena of late is that it confronts these learning problems face-to-face and does not avoid them. It sets
out to bring modernity into the arena of religious thought itself.
This task of bringing modernity into the arena of religious thought implies, for Hashim Saleh,
effectively the necessity of modernity intervening into Islam. This is the experience of his own life
that he outlines at length in his paper, and this is the formula that he prescribes for resolving what
he holds to be
without any doubt the issue of the 21st-century.

Preliminary conclusions

The next Almuslih Conference
From the recommendations of the 2012 Conference, and the comments of the participants, the
pointers are that the next Almuslih conference should focus on the following areas:
Introducing the historico-critical methodology to the Arab world
Historicising the Qurn introducing a critical reading of the Text
Incorporating the historico-critical methodology into the educational system

Expansion of the website
An Almuslih sister-site dedicated to the hosting of translations into Arabic (or Arabic-language
summaries) of the major works of western Orientalism on the origins of Islam.
29

A number of Almuslih authors demonstrate their familiarity with these works. These
may constitute a core team of translators for this initiative.

The establishment of an Almuslih publishing arm
1) An expansion into print publishing of the Almuslih schedule of translations (in both directions)
A periodic (biennial?) publication of a selection of English-language articles from the Almuslih site
The re-issue, in print format, of a selection of the Arabic articles submitted to the Almuslih site

2) Promoting and publishing research on historico-critical methodology:
Abridged guides to the current state of literary/historical research on the Text and the results of
scientific research on early Qurnic manuscripts
A number of contributing authors to Almuslih have penned larger works. These could be abridged,
translated and issued in the monograph series.

3) Reform strategy papers published in the form of monographs, such as:
The Reform of Islam through its Study and Teaching via Comparative Religion which Lafif Lakhdar
has entrusted to Almuslih to translate into English for the benefit of non-Arab Muslims
Analyses of the prevailing Muslim mindset and its incapacities (e.g. al-Ansaris The Culture of Hate or
Abu Shaqqas Critique of the Muslim Mind)
The commission and publication of works on the major reform themes (monographs such as the
hijab
30
, rationalist readings of Islam etc.)
Schemes for the re-scripting of educational materials employing historico-critical methodology

29
One might start by sourcing the works mentioned by Lafif Lakhdar such as the ill-fated Arabic translation by Hasan Qubaysi of the work
Mohammed by Maxime Rodinson, and the Arabic translation of Nldekes book on the Qurn that has been universally confiscated.
30
A particularly useful monograph would combine Gamal al-Bannas demolition of the Salafist case being made for the veil (The Hijab as a
multifaceted phenomenon with deep roots) with a deconstruction of the arguments voiced by more subtle defenders of it, such as Tim
Winters The Chador of God on Earth: the Metaphysics of the Muslim Veil.
Investigate the possibility of publishing in English translation the works recommended by Lafif
Lakhdar, such as: Muhammad al-Haddad: Muhammad Abduh: a New Reading on the Discourse of
Religious Reform
31

31
: Beirut, Dar al-Talia, 2003. In this work Haddad calls for the Muslim intellectual to shape the
features of a "second renaissance." In his view, this can happen only if "we give up the idea of loose projects on reading the heritage or
superficial applications of modern methodologies and philosophies ... we need to abandon ideological comfort zones and adopt multi-
faceted thought and critical thought. Inherited narratives on the nahda and the West should be rejected in favour of reviewing,
curtailing, dismantling and questioning ... religious reform is founded upon three basic issues: the scholarly comparative studies on the
phenomenon of religion, ijtihad (independent juridical reasoning) and religious reform. Haddad has adopted a delicate approach in his
criticism of Western policies toward the Middle East as negative factors in the Arab cultural debate. His approach is focused on the
internal evolution of Arab thought.

Annex I Submitted Papers
Note: Not all papers were submitted at the time of the conference. The following are those available
and translated to date.
Lafif Lakhdar The Reform of Islam is both Necessary and Possible
In the Reform of Islam Project via the Study and Teaching of Comparative Religion, I attempted to
draw lessons from the failure of attempts at religious reform in the 19th century. The most serious
attempt at reform was that undertaken by Muhammad Abduh. This attempt may be summarised as
having two themes: a return to the Qurn while maintaining a distance from commentaries filled
with legendary material, and a revival of ijtihd.
32

For my part, I proposed that the two foundational texts the Qurn and hadith and the Islamic
heritage be read by means of the contemporary study of religion. This is the only method capable of
placing our relationship with our collective inheritance on a transparent footing, free of riddles or
secrets that challenge the human intellect. In place of ijtihd on permitted matters, for which there
is really no need given the fact that the clerics have prohibited ijtihd on that which there is already
a text whether this be a Qurn with clear evidence or a sahh hadith
33
, I proposed that
contemporary clerics should return to the text, a process which the Qurn itself establishes by
abrogating verses which are not considered appropriate to new developments, or which the
Companions
34
themselves requested be abrogated. I also proposed that decision-makers should
make a distinction between religion and the state, and between the believer and the citizen, working
on the following principle of modernity: the separation of specialisations whereby clerics lead
believers in matters of their faith and politicians lead them in their mundane affairs.
Previous attempts at reform did not take into account the danger of the individuals dissolving into
the Umma (Islamic Nation), a fact which presented, and still does, a significant obstacle to entry
into modernity. I pursued this by prioritising in my project the birth of a new form of individual. Who
is this new individual? It is the individual who is sole possessor of his head and his private parts. The
latter he uses just as he so wishes within the framework of a rational objective law which does not
forbid love between consenting adults. He also has full freedom in his head to think as he wishes,
free from censorship or self-censorship, free of all punishments or threat of punishment. He is an
independent, free individual who thinks for himself, who determines his own fate in his daily life, he
chooses for himself his own personal religiosity and does not hesitate to question his belief or cast
doubts upon it. This individual henceforth is fit to be the object of any reform that is conscious of its
aims and its priorities.
Why so? First of all because the individual that dissolves into the Nation constitutes the solid kernel
of the ideology of Islamic terrorism. Secondly, this [new] individual a believer as a person, but
secular as a citizen is the only one who is qualified to effect a reconciliation with the world he lives
in, divested of any hysterical fears or delirious denunciations of others as infidel. He makes use of
his positive features and actively participates in creating more of these, while mitigating his negative
features either by engaging in the institutions of civil society that specialise in them, or by other
peaceful means. The birth of such an individual en masse constitutes the promise that every
contemporary reformist project holds, or should hold.

32
The effort or endeavour a jurist makes in order to deduce the law, which is not self-evident, from its sources. That is, legal reasoning
independent of what is literally prescribed by scripture. (Ed.)
33
A conversation or tradition of the Prophet which has been evaluated as strong on the basis of the reliability of its isnd (chain of
transmission). (Ed.)
34
The Companions were disciples, scribes and family members of the Prophet Muhammad. Their testimony was drawn upon concerning
the words and deeds of the Prophet, the revelation of the Qur'an and important matters of paradigmatic Islamic practice. (Ed.)
For the reform project to be productive it must be an indivisible part of a comprehensive project for
reform, one that embraces reform of all of the basic sectors:
Reform of the decision-making process by extracting this from the grip of the inspired leader
and his advisers, who are often in need of someone to show them the correct opinion, and
transferring it to institutions that specialise in the decision-making process professionally and
scientifically, and which employ computer technology. The reform of the decision-making
process means, practically speaking, the reform of all the other sectors. For the sickness
afflicting countries in the Muslim world resides in their tragic lack of reality-based decision-
making, decisions which specialised institutions alone can make, and which can enlighten them
as to how to conduct their internal and external policies;
Had these countries possessed such decision-making capacity they would have proceeded over
decades to:
Demographic reform snuffing out the fuse of the population bomb. How would this come
about? By converting to the nuclear family, one that is made up of a mother, a father and a
single child, through the employment both of pedagogic and legal means and a combination of
material and symbolic incentives such as enlightening the parents the mothers in particular
as to the dangers of the population explosion for the future of their country, which will remain
subject to backwardness. And also for the future of their children, most of whom will remain
without a future that is without work, a home or a family, since all the children will suffer from
illiteracy, unemployment and delinquency, particularly from a failure to pass beyond the school
stage.
Demographic reform will also come about through the promotion of free, medically supervised
abortion, as instituted by Tunisia in 1961, and the promotion of the delaying of marriage by
means of the media and education, in place of these last being used (under the sway of the
Islamic far right) to censure and criminalise unproductive mothers for their contravening the
hadith: The loving mother is the fecund mother, lauded by the Sunna! These mothers who
marry late will generally be more content to have just the one child. So while these should
continue to be accorded all the standard married mother rights, family benefits should on the
other hand be curtailed to the level as they exist in Tunisia (curtailed, for example, following the
birth of a second child);
The reform of education and religious education by transferring it from the current Salafist
school which churns out unemployable graduates and semi-clerics, to the rationalist school that
prevails over the globe and which produces 21
st
century workers: technicians, engineers,
researchers, scientists and doctors;
The reform of the Arabic language by converting it from the language just of the Qurn to the
language of science and technology;
And in particular:
The reform of Islam by studying it and teaching it through comparative religion,
35
a process
that will ensure that reform of Islam takes place within a generation (25 years). From the
graduates of this generation will come the decision-makers of tomorrows science generation.

Why the need to reform Islam via the study of religions?

35
See L. Lakhdar, .
Because this alone helps us to understand the religious phenomenon in all of its dimensions. It thus
places the relationship of the Muslim with his faith on a transparent footing and frees him from
religious irrationality. It enlightens him with a rational religiosity that does not accept into his
religion anything which contradicts the values of human rights charters or the institutions and
sciences of the world we are living in. This is the opposite of the religious-based faith study dominant
today, a study which has, and still does, support psychological slavery to the pious predecessors
who established the mindset that controls thinking and behaviour and makes a broad sector of
Muslims see their ancestors as heroes worthy of imitation, but their contemporaries as vile cowards
worthy of hatred and excommunication.
The revival of Mutazilite rationality, philosophy and the interpretation of the Text in the light of
reason as espoused by Ibn Rushd, or in the light of the Aims of Shara under Al-Shtib,
36
is a
necessity, and indeed an urgent one.
Nevertheless this cannot dispense with the study and teaching of Islams heritage, its historical
personalities, legends and symbols through modern religious scholarship, which has evidenced its
value in the study of the Jewish and Christian heritage. Take, for example, the important results
yielded by archaeology in Israel in making Jewish history more and more transparent. For this
reason, in private letters to Saudi rulers, I have requested them to license foreign archaeological
missions to dig in the Hijaz, and have continuously complained about the destruction by Wahhabi
extremists of Islamic remains in the country from the Baq Cemetery
37
to the Graves of the
Companions. Had it not been for the threat of violent intervention issued by Muslims in India the
Wahhabis were poised to destroy the grave of Muhammad himself ... Now, their latest crime is to
turn Khadjas House, discovered recently in 2005, into a public toilet! In this way those labouring
under hysterical fears of reverting to idolatry are allowed to inflict their enmity upon the memory of
Muslims and of humanity and upon defenceless archaeological treasures!
The reform of Islam through modern legislation that is, the abrogation of the Shara personal
status laws and their replacement with modern personal status law based on the authority of
international conventions on the prevention of anti-female discrimination. Or to begin with, as
a basic point of departure, the Tunisian personal status code which prohibited polygamy and
arbitrary divorce and instead made divorce a right accorded to both spouses before a judge. This
cancelled the husbands primacy over the family and replaced it with a partnership between the
spouses. It cancelled the inferior status and capacity of the woman by recognising her right to
arrange her own marriage, and by recognising the right of adoption.
The completion of this code requires the recognition today of the woman's right to marry a non-
Muslim which [the Sudanese Islamist] al-Turabi himself licensed with a fatwa and the right to
equality between the male and the female in inheritance on which al-Turabi also issued a fatwa, in
so doing abrogating the Qurnic verse on inequality in inheritance between the man and the
woman
38
. It requires the recognition of the non-Muslim womans right to bring up her Muslim

36
The concept of Maqsid al-Shara (Aims of the Shara) as expounded in the Al-Muwfaqt of al-Shtib, overrides the literal reading of
the Text, in that the study of the purposes behind the Text is not the study of its authoritative, literal, yet changing meanings but rather a
study of whether these literal meanings are sound. A distinction is thus made between the essential purposes which govern the Text
(which is considered valid for all times and places), and the contextual meanings which change according to the various circumstances.
(Ed.)
37
Built near the Prophets Mosque in Medina and containing many of Muhammad's relatives and companions. It was destroyed in 1925 by
the Wahhabis on the grounds that visiting such cemeteries constituted worshipping the dead. (Ed.)
38
Qurn, IV,11: Allah chargeth you concerning (the provision for) your children: to the male the equivalent of the portion of two females,
and if there be women more than two, then theirs is two-thirds of the inheritance, and if there be one (only) then the half. And to his
parents a sixth of the inheritance, if he have a son; and if he have no son and his parents are his heirs, then to his mother appertaineth the
third; and if he have brethren, then to his mother appertaineth the sixth, after any legacy he may have bequeathed, or debt (hath been
paid). Your parents or your children: Ye know not which of them is nearer unto you in usefulness. It is an injunction from Allah. Lo! Allah is
Knower, Wise.
children should she be divorced or widowed, or to inherit her husbands or Muslim childrens
property, so as to put an end to this scandal of religious racism!
The abolition of the jurisprudence of the Dhimma
39
and the personal status laws inspired by
this, particularly in Egypt, and the legal recognition of the full rights of citizenship for non-
Muslims and other minorities in conformity with the international agreement on the protection
of minorities;
The recognition of the rights of the child as guaranteed by the International Agreement on the
Protection of the Child, which the Tunisian state in 1990 established as a national law;
Every reform passes through two phases by which the collective conscious absorbs it: the written,
legislative phase and the phase whereby it impresses itself on the collective mindset. This last task
requires the engagement of the media, the education sector and of enlightened religious discourse.
Incidentally, both secularists and enlightened religious believers all agree on the necessity of
legislating for religious reform.
The reform of the economy by integrating it into the global economy and promoting tourism
and foreign investment, things which the Islamic far right considers as constituting dependency
and a threat to identity. Did not the consultant to the Islamic government in Tunisia declare, in
an Al-Nahda conference, that tourism is covert prostitution? Did al-Ghannouchi not call for
hall tourism: that is, hotels for men and separate hotels for women?
The reform of the Arabic language by turning it into a language of science and technology
instead of the language just of the Qurn, or by Arabizing a term (that is, retaining the word as
it is in its original language and simply spelling it out in the Arabic alphabet), in the way that
Hebrew has Hebraized terms, and in so doing becoming an Indo-European language in its
technical vocabulary, conveying science and technology on an equal footing with the European
languages.
40

Prognostic studies expect the Middle East in the coming decades to be the theatre of religious and
other wars. The reform of Islam on the other hand may help the lite and the masses to turn it into a
peace-loving region whose inhabitants co-operate in the struggle against dangers to the
environment, against poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, the population explosion or against social
disparities among the classes, and who co-operate in the cause of continuous growth, instead of the
prevailing economy of war and waste.
The only industry that Muhammad Al
41
set up was that of the military. Nasser inaugurated his
industrial project with military factories. As for Saddam Hussein, throughout his rule he breathlessly
sought to obtain weapons of mass destruction, while the Mullahs of Tehran still maintain their
suicidal obstinacy to obtain nuclear weapons. All of this may be classed as the Abode of Wars
historical dynamic of vengeance. Why is this so? In the final analysis, it is so as to take their revenge
on Europes supremacy over the Muslims in the 16th century secured by their possession of firearms
that defeated the Mamluks of Egypt, and to avenge the defeat of Abd al-Qdir al-Jazir !
42
.
I am writing this intervention at a time of rabid, narcissistic demonstrations against the provocative
film on the Prophet Muhammad. It is perhaps useful to clarify the motives for this stormy emotional

39
The covenant of protection. The ahl al-dhimma (people of the dhimma) are free non-Muslim subjects living in Muslim countries who
enjoy protection and safety and the freedom of worship within limits. They also retain the right to manage affairs pertaining to personal
status (marriage, divorce, etc. ) according to their own laws, but enjoy no political rights. Since the state is theoretically theocratic, the ahl
al-dhimma are outside the full community of the state. (Ed.)
40
See L. Lakhdar, : 1997 .
41
Muhammad Ali Pasha (1769-1849) was viceroy of Egypt under the nominal suzerainty of the Ottomans. The dynasty that he established
ruled Egypt and Sudan until the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. (Ed.)
42
An Algerian Islamic scholar and military leader who led a struggle against the French invasion in the mid-19th century. (Ed.)
reaction as one that stems from the absence of religious reform. It is an absence which, in turn,
means an absence of modernisation, or of any civilizing taming of time-worn Arab, Islamic
mentalities and behaviours, to the point that they respond to a cartoon with acts of violence!
The reality of colonialism, which transformed the Arabs and Muslims from conquering imperialist
masters into humiliated subjects of a defeated empire, has afflicted them with a narcissistic wound.
It was an act of castration to their psychological virility, one which destroyed their self-confidence
and made them feel ashamed of their two-fold impotence: firstly that they were no longer worthy of
their ancestors in their ability to contest their (infidel) contemporaries. Secondly, that God Himself
had placed them as the best community that hath been raised up for mankind,
43
and yet due to their
laxity in applying the teachings of their faith the best community has been turned into the least
community to punish them. God has washed His hands of them for their having dispensed with His
religion and returned to Sayyid Qutbs delirious jhiliyya of the 20
th
century and Rachid al-
Ghannouchis delirious desert religion. Both of these have adopted two hadith which express the
final, schizophrenic end of the world delirium: This faith began estranged and shall return a
stranger just as it began and The raising of the Qurn from the breasts of men as a sign of the
Coming of the Hour.
This religious delirium has paralysed Arabs and Muslims from coming to the only conclusion capable
of curing their narcissistic wounds and bandaging their injured pride: realistic decision-making that
defines realistic goals, their priorities and the means suitable to achieving them. Were they to do
this they would achieve the same results that the Japanese achieved following their defeat by the
United States in 1853 when, without a fight, they surrendered to its fleets demands to open their
borders to their exports, and in 1945 after their crushing defeat, for which the Japanese militocracy
in all courageousness and maturity took sole responsibility: we shall surrender to them and then
imitate them, so as to follow them and then peacefully surpass them by contesting their markets
and products. The Japanese were able to take this realist decision because their religion, as opposed
to ours, does not intervene in the economy, nor in scientific research, nor in cultural or artistic
inventiveness, nor in matters of love between mature adults, nor in matters of politics. The Japanese
decision was to imitate those who had vanquished them. We, on the other hand, are unable to make
this decision since our religion forbids us to imitate the inhabitants of Hellfire that is, the Jews
and the Christians.
The issue of opposing the inhabitants of Hellfire even if what they had would benefit us as Ibn
Taymiyya put it in his work Iqtid al-Sirt al-Mustaqm Mukhlifat Ashb al-Jahm (Cleaving to the
Straight Path and Opposing the Inhabitants of Hellfire) and which the Islamic far right has turned
into a religious manifesto, is one of the obstacles that have impeded the minds of Muslims. It has
prevented them from analysing their reality, bravely recognising it and working to reform it by
starting from the reform of their religion and cleansing it of the obstructions that have impeded their
integration into the world in which they are living and by adopting its institutions, its sciences and its
modern values.
Their wounding sense of weakness has afflicted them with an exaggerated sensitivity towards
criticisms made of their ancestors or their religious symbols (historically their only resource),
criticisms which they view as an act of enmity against their Holy of Holies, against the last refuge left
to them. Their response to this is insane vengeance: if anyone belittles you by insulting your
ancestors and your paragons by making them a laughing-stock among nations make him pay a high
price, insult him with a thousand tongue-lashings and beat him with a thousand kicks! Demand that
the United Nations promulgate a law prohibiting the defamation of religions our religion, that is,
even if this law would infringe upon a core value of the democratic world, the freedom of
expression, or even upon any number of other freedoms!

43
Qurn, III,110.
There is no forgiving wounded pride. Only vengeance can assuage the pains for a while, in the
expectation of a renewed insult and a new act of revenge and so on and so forth from one mad
religious turn to another!
An important sector of Arabs and Muslims today are passing through a phase of religious delirium.
How should the worlds intelligentsia respond? In my view, the only effective, humane response
and I stress only is to promote shared economic and technological development in the Middle
East with a generous, active assistance in the reform of Islam, so that it finally confines itself to an
exclusively religious sphere and abandons the general arena of worldly affairs. One must also resolve
the Palestinian-Israeli struggle in a project that envisages two nations living in peaceful symbiosis
and co-operating economically and scientifically. The achievement of this last task will be a huge
leap forward in facilitating the achievement of the other two tasks.
Such a historical decision is capable of applying balm onto the narcissistic wound, thus converting
the Arab and Muslim mindset from one of self-disdain to self-reliance, and a collective self-esteem. I
am willing to wager that this will make their reactions more rational and train them in a culture of
mutual forgiveness and dialogue a culture that relies on the force of argument rather than the
argument of force, after the fashion of civilised peoples.
The reform of European Islam entails the demographic management of Muslims, a reform in the
training of imams and preachers and of preachers in prisons, some of whom in France (it has
become clear) are actively inciting prisoners to acts of terrorism. It entails the establishment of
audiovisual media and a bureau, under the supervision of Islamic institutions, to promote public
awareness of an enlightened Islam that assists Muslims to integrate into society and its values.
It is vital to provide imams and preachers with a modern training. This also has to be the product of
Europe or of its schools, that is, a product replete with its humane values and its secular, democratic
traditions. In the United Kingdom a mere eight per cent of imams are educated in Britain, while 45
per cent of preachers have come in from Pakistan over the last five years.
Close all Qurnic schools which are currently allocated for children aged four years and above, and
which operate after their general school-day classes are over. First of all, the Qurnic school
deprives them of their necessary playtime and interferes with their homework preparation;
secondly, it instils in them the habit of repetition, which conflicts with critical thought. The number
of Qurnic schools in Britain, for instance, is 3,500 and the number of the children attending them
stands at 250,000, in addition to the fact that infants in them are exposed to corporal punishments:
punches, kicks, and even acts of rape.
The training of imams and preachers in an enlightened Islam will likely put an end to the incitement
by some to beat wives, or engage in forced marriage, or anti-Jewish and anti-Christian hatred as at
times is practised by some in the Friday sermons that are broadcast by eastern media. As evidence
against the Jews and Christians these sermons employ the combative Medinan Qurnic verses as
evidence, in place of the ecumenical (universalist) pacific verses that recognise the Jewish and
Christian faiths as the means of spiritual salvation for their believers.
Inciting them against their Jewish and Christian citizens only adds fuel to the flames of hate-culture,
instead of refreshing the believers memory on historical events that speak of recognition and
tolerance. Examples of these events are the Prophet of Islams granting permission to a delegation
of 60 Christians from Najran, headed by the Bishop of Najran, to offer their prayers in his mosque,
and his commanding those distributing the Zakt alms to start with our Jewish neighbours. There
is also his standing up, out of respect, at the passing of a Jewish funeral cortege, and his preservation
of the images of Mary and the Messiah on the day that images were removed from the Kaaba. There
is Umars response to the Arab Christians request for exemption from the payment of the
humiliating jizya tax and its replacement with Zakt payments, or Umars command to the Muslims
treasurer on the day that he saw an aged Jew begging on the street: Will ye consume his youth
when he was young and waste it now that he is old? Give him aught from the Muslims wealth!
Umars command to them is to be explained as practically tantamount to the social integration of
the Jewish beggar into the Muslim community, which is the equivalent today of his integration into
the community of the nation-state. And this is in contrast to reminding them, as is broadly done in
Egypt and Jordan, of the ill-reputed Covenant of Umar
44
with the non-Muslims (and which the
attribution to him is disputed).
Enlightened European Islamic discourse must establish two principles: the diversity and specificity of
cultures and the unity and universality of the values of human rights and citizenship. In this
perspective, citizenship in a non-Muslim culture does not conflict with faith, in contradistinction to
the clerics of the Middle Ages and their heirs among the contemporary Islamic far right. This
unacceptable confusion between faith and citizenship has meant that 40 per cent of French Muslims
see themselves as Muslims before they see themselves as French. And this has turned some of
them, in the eyes of their fellow-citizens, into a fifth column of any potential Muslim enemy of
France, Islamic terrorists included.
Such a culture of amity towards non-Muslims may have a praiseworthy influence on the ethnic and
religious racism that they suffer from. According to surveys, 18% of non-Muslim Frenchmen have
been targets of insults and racist comments such as: filthy pig eater! or filthy kfir (infidel)!
They could also be reminded of the discussions that took place with Jews, Christians and atheists in
the mosques of Baghdad and Cordoba, and the promotion to the status of vizier of a number of Jews
and Christians over the centuries. The Islamic-Christian-Jewish cultural co-operation only came to an
end when Islam entered into its age of decline from the 12th century onwards. Hostility towards the
other and hostility towards reason are the principal causes of the continuous decline up to now in
the Islam of the Islamic far right.
The enlightened European Islamic elite are capable of reforming this Islam, and Islam across the
world too, if it grasps the nettle and takes the initiative to annul the violent, combative Medinan
Islam (that is, 1,573 verses of the Qurn that are legalitarian, jihadistic and hostile to non-Muslims
and to women) and contents itself with the peaceful Meccan Islam (4,664 verses) in their entirety.
The population explosion constitutes a barrier to integration. For instance, 30,000 polygamous
families produce 600,000 children, that is, an average of 14.5 per family. There is no doubt that
failure in school, unemployment, and delinquency is widespread among them. This has raised the
number of Muslim prisoners to a level that is seven times their proportion as inhabitants in France,
and eight times those in Britain! They therefore constitute around 50 per cent of all prisoners in
France! Co-operation between leaders of Islamic and official bodies is important for regulating this
exploding demography and curing its causes, for the sake of Muslims themselves who are
threatened with educational failure and the lack of a future, and for the sake of their fellow-citizens
who are inflicted with a fear of Islam and who react with acts of Islamophobia. I would lay bets that
at such time as the ratio of Muslim prison inhabitants equates to the ratio of Muslims in France,
Islamophobia would recede commensurately. All that would remain would be the trademark of the
racist far right, which has no future in this optimistic scenario.
Islamic media, in the way that Radio Shalom in France and other Jewish media do it, can also help to
disseminate shared values and a culture of integration and dialogue, to combat the culture of hatred
which extremist groups the Muslim brotherhood chief among them promote. European Judaism,
which underwent reform spurred on by the French Revolution in particular, enjoys a long and rich

44
The Covenant of Umar of the year 637 stipulated the conditions for some measure of religious tolerance under the new Muslim rule,
requiring non-Muslims to pay the Islamic poll tax in return. It limited Christian and Jewish religious freedom by stipulating that no new
houses of worship could be built, while those falling into disrepair were not to be restored. The covenant also required that Christians and
Jews refrain from proselytizing, while requiring that they allow their children to convert to Islam if they so chose. (Ed.)
experience in integrating into its host societies. Judaism drew benefit, as did its host societies, from
the participation of the Jewish elite in all spheres of the economy, science and the media. Hence the
necessity for the institutions and the lite of European Islam, to co-operate with the institutions and
the lite of European Jewry to learn from this experience. The participation of the director of the
Paris Mosque, Dall Ab Bakr, alongside Jewish clerics, in publishing joint books, is a pioneering
initiative that should be welcomed and promoted in other European countries. The provision of a
modernist training for imams at the Catholic Institute in Paris is also an example worthy of imitation
by all Europe.

Kamil al-Najjar The Reform Value of a Critical Reading of Islam and Early Islamic History
Before we can discuss any critical readings of Islam to assess their relevance to Islamic reform, we
need to answer this question: Is it possible to reform Islam?
Islam is different from other systems of belief the so-called transcendental religions in that it is
more of a political ideology than a creed. Islam did not introduce any new concepts that were not
already known to the pre-Islamic Arabs of the 7
th
century. The Arabs at that time were familiar with
Christianity and Judaism, and also with the newly founded Ahnaf movement, which believed in one
god, in resurrection and in the Judgement Day. All the rituals of Islam from prayer to fasting, from
hajj to almsgiving were known to the Arab tribes. Many of these tribes had adopted Christianity.
Muhammads call was essentially a political one, but one that was shrouded in religious terms. This
is borne out by a statement attributed to Muhammad when he first addressed the Meccan Arabs of
Quraysh:
I have come to you with a word, which would allow you to control the Arabs, and would make the
Ajam non-Arabs submit to you.
45

This is confirmed by the Indian ideologue Abu Ala al-Mawdudi, in his statement:
Islam is not merely a religious creed [but] a revolutionary ideology, and jihad refers to that
revolutionary struggle to destroy all states and governments anywhere on the face of the earth,
which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam.
46

The fact that Islam is a political ideology is borne out by the fact that all the Islamic parties active on
the scene in the Muslim World concentrate their efforts on gaining power, rather than encouraging
Muslims to observe the teachings of Islam by leading by example. It is worth noting that the Muslim
countries are the most corrupt in the world, and lack any accountability for the actions of individuals
or their governments.
So as to deceive the public into voting for them, the Islamic parties came up with slogans like Islam
is a religion and a state, Governance is for Allah, and so on. The emblem of the Muslim
Brotherhood Movement on their official webpage, states that:
Allah is our aim
The Quran is our constitution
The Prophet is our leader
Jihad is our way
Death in Allahs cause is our dearest wish.

45
Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, Al-Durr al-Manthur fi al-Tafsir bil Mathur, vol. III, Surat al-Anaam, 108
46
Geert Wilders, Marked For Death, Islams war against the West and Me, Regency Publishing, 2012, p 114
All these slogans have nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with politics and power.
So if Islam is a political ideology, is it actually amenable to reform? History tells us that all political
ideologies such as Nazism, Fascism, and Communism can only be reformed by consigning them
to the dustbin of history.
The History of Islam
There is no reliable Islamic history. At the presumed time of Islams beginnings in the 7
th
century,
Constantinople had a university with a huge library, and had historians. Ash Sham (Syria) and Iraq
were learning centres for Christianity and had many schools. At that time also there were many
Greek explorers who travelled extensively in the Arab lands and wrote books about their journeys.
None of these sources mentioned Muhammad or Islam. On top of this we have coins dating from the
7
th
Century minted in Byzantium and Persia. None of them mentioned Muhammad or Islam, save for
one coin found in Taif in Saudi Arabia, which had Muawiyas name on it. Surely some of these
sources would have mentioned Muhammad or Islam had they existed in the 7
th
Century.
Until the beginning of the 8
th
Century Islamic history was a matter of verbal anecdotes handed down
from father to son. This kind of history can only be relied upon to provide names of tribes or of
individuals, as Patricia Crone believes.
47
The earliest written form of Islamic history is the Srat
Muhammad of Ibn Ishaq (ob. 150/767 AD),. But even this work reached us only through citations of
it in Ibn Hishams (ob. 218/833 AD) own Srat. Another work of Ibn Ishaq, (Tarkh al-khulaf) cited
many times by al-Tabar, is extant on one sole papyrus fragment.
48

As for the Sunna, especially Muhammads Hadiths, the first written account of these is perhaps the
Sahh of al-Bukhari (ob. 256/870 AD). Al-Bukhari collected between 300,000 to 600,000 hadiths, and
accepted only about 4,000 of them as authentic. His student Ahmed ibn Hanbal maintained the
same in his Musnad. But since Ignaz Goldziher
49
demonstrated that a vast number of hadiths
accepted even in the most rigorously critical Muslim collections were outright forgeries from the late
2
nd
/8
th
and 3
rd
/9
th
centuries, we simply cannot rely on hadiths as a form of history.
Accordingly, if we read the history of Islam critically we may be able to get rid of the bulk of the
Sunna and Islamic historiography. This would definitely enhance our chances of reforming Islam, if it
is at all possible to do so. The problem is that the Muslim scholars depended on hadiths for the
elaboration of Islamic jurisprudence. In fact they accorded hadiths a priority over the Qurn itself.
For instance, in Srat al-Nr, the last sra revealed before Muhammads death, the second verse
says
The adulterer and the adulteress, scourge ye each one of them (with) a hundred stripes. And let not
pity for the twain withhold you from obedience to Allah.
50

This is a very clear command from Allah, but Muslim scholars preferred a hadith narrated by al-
Bukhari, which relates a story of the Jews of Medina who brought a woman and a man to
Muhammad and told him that they were adulterers and wanted him to judge them. He ordered
their stoning. Stoning thus became the prescribed punishment for fornication.
If we read this story critically, we reach the conclusion that the story is fabricated because the
Qurn says to Muhammad:

47
Humphreys, R Stephen, Islamic History, Revised Edition, I B Tauris Publishing, 1999, p 87
48
Ibid, p 87
49
Ibid, p 83
50
Qurn XXIV,2.
But why do they come to you for a decision, when they have the Torah before them? Therein is the
plain command of Allah, yet even after that, they would turn away, for they are not really people of
faith.
51

If the Jews did go to Muhammad to judge the Jewish couple, they did not accept Muhammads
decision and turned away, as the Qurn says. Therefore, Muhammad did not stone the couple.
Islamists claim that Muhammad wrote the first constitution in history when he concluded a pact
with the Jews of Medina giving them the same rights as Muslims and imposing on them the same
duties. This pact however, lacks credibility; the original document is not extant and it has reached us
through Ibn Ishaq some 150 years after Muhammads death. Ibn Ishaq gave no reference for this
pact, and did not tell us whether it was a unilateral pact made by Muhammad on his own, or
whether the Jews discussed the terms with him and signed up to it.
The pact did not even come to us directly from Ibn Ishaq. We learn about it from Ibn Hisham and
other sources. Montgomery Watt, in his book Muhammad at Medina, doubts the authenticity of this
document on the following grounds: there are variations between first, second, and third-person
forms of address; there are repetitions of important clauses at scattered points throughout the text;
the names of the three major Jewish clans of Medina are omitted, even though many minor ones are
included. These considerations led him to reconstruct the development of the Constitution in the
following way: roughly the first half of the document would have been drawn up before the battle of
Badr (these clauses may even represent the terms under which Muhammad had been invited to
Medina). Later on, a second block of articles was added, governing relations between the Muslims
and the Jewish clans. Finally, other clauses were in turn added or dropped at various times in order
to fit changing conditions, so that the Constitution as we have it is a composite of the whole Medina
period.
52

Islamic history books such as those of at-Tabari (ob. 310/922 AD) and al-Waqidi (ob. 207/822 AD) are
no more than anecdotes compiled some 200 years after Muhammads death. Some of the events in
the books defy logic. We can therefore conclude that Islamic history is non-existent.
Islamic Fiqh(Jurisprudence)
The four sunni schools of fiqh, those of Ab Hanfa (ob. 150/767 AD), Mlik (ob. 179/795 AD), al-
Shfi (ob. 204/819 AD), and Ibn Hanbal (ob. 241/855 AD), were founded in the second half of the
first century following the Hijra and the first half of the second. Each of these schools was affected
by the environment of its founder. Ab Hanfa, who grew up in Iraq with its abundance of water and
greenery, and its long history of tolerance between Christianity and Zoroastrian faith, formulated a
mild, tolerant school. However, Mlik, who grew up in the desert surroundings of Medina, stuck to
what he had heard about the Prophets companions and came up with a school slightly more strict
than Ab Hanfas. Ibn Hanbal was a renegade against the excesses of the Abbasids Caliphate, and
formulated a very strict school of jurisprudence.
Most of the chapters of fiqh are about women, menstruation and child birth. Due to the scholars
ignorance of the anatomy and physiology of women, they ended up producing erroneous rulings
concerning these conditions. For instance, the Hanbal school gives the duration of pregnancy as four
years at the most. This is scientifically impossible, yet they are still insisting on it.
All Muslim scholars were affected by the prevailing racism at the time and came up with tomes on
the fiqh of slaves and that of the Dhimmis (Christians and Jews). No person with the slightest trace of
humanity would come up with such rules, yet the religion lulls the senses into a deep sleep. The

51
Qurn V,43.
52
Humphreys. Op. cit., p 93.
tragedy is that in the 21
st
Century Al-Azhar University still teaches these topics, while slavery is still
practiced in Sudan and Mauritania.
In 19
th
Century England the clergy had to study philosophy, physics and chemistry, whereas in the
Muslim World of the 21
st
Century philosophy is banned in most countries, and the clerical curriculum
is confined to the Quran, the hadith and the sunna. They have no idea about physics or
mathematics. This is one of the reasons they come up with fatwas bearing no relation to science or
logic; such as the fatwa issued by the late Bin Baz of Saudi Arabia which declared that the earth is
flat, and that anyone who says otherwise is going against Allah and his apostle.
Because of such fatwas, Tariq Ramadan concluded that:
Islamic text scholars live in autarchy, well removed from research in the exact, experimental and
social sciences; they make do with scanty information, with research-based conclusions, to issue legal
rulings about realities and contexts that are inevitably more complex than they can understand.
53

A Critical Reading of Islam
Islam is, and has always been, intolerant of criticism. The Qurn discouraged the Arabs from asking
Muhammad questions because questions indicate doubt, which Muhammad wanted to stamp out in
his followers:
O ye who believe! Ask not of things which, if they were made plain unto you, would trouble you.
54

That is why when the Mutazilites started reading the Qurn critically, they were labelled zindiqs
(atheistic skeptics) and were persecuted during Caliph Mutawakkils reign. Al-Ghazl (d 505) put an
end to philosophy and the critical reading of Islam with his book The Incoherence of the
Philosophers. Ibn Taymiyya followed suit in the 13
th
century and labelled anyone who dared criticize
Islam as an apostate. The Wahhabi brand of Islam practised in Saudi Arabia is the most strict form of
Islam to appear so far.
It is strange that the ready-made label of Kfir or Murtadd has been used by some of the most
learned and tolerant Muslims. For instance, the philosopher Ibn Arab of Andalusia called those who
criticised Yazd ibn Muwiya kfir.
55
Due to this threat of being labelled a kfir, very few people
dared read Islam critically. Those in the Muslim world who did, such as the Iraqi poet al-Rusf, the
late Egyptian shaykh Abbs Abd al-Nr, Faraj Fouda, the present writer and so on, have had to live
under the threat of assassination.
In the past Orientalists were free to write critically about Islam, since few Muslims read their works.
Now some of them have to write under pseudonyms, such as Ibn Warraq and the German
Christophe Luxenberg.
Why is Islam Unreformable?
After the separation of Church from State, Christianity lent itself to reform because the Catholic
Church has a central authority in Rome in the form of the Pope. What he says, goes. Islam does not
have such a central authority, and is plagued with innumerable sects competing against each other.
The role of al-Azhar University is limited to issuing fatwas, which are not binding upon anyone.
Early on in the 12
th
century the scholars of Kufa in Iraq decided to close the doors of Ijtihad of
independent juridical thinking. They believed that the ancestral salaf scholars had left nothing for
future scholars to ponder over. Since that time no scholar has dared come up with a different fiqh or

53
Tariq Ramadan, Radical Reform, Islamic Ethics and Liberation, Oxford University Press. 2009, p 127
54
Qurn V,101.
55
Amin, Ahmed, Dhuhr al-Islam, vol. 3, p 58, (quoted by Ali al-Wardi in Wuaz as-Salatin, p 244
even a different solution for any problem. Any deviation from the known fiqh is considered bida
innovation, and any innovation is viewed as going astray, and this leads to damnation in Hellfire.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has spent billions of dollars in spreading Wahhabism throughout
the world, is using its strong financial lever to force the United Nations to adopt a resolution
criminalising any criticism of Islam. Through the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation they have
managed to force the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2010 to criminalise any Defamation
of Religion
56

There is a lack of moral leadership at al-Azhar University. It is well known that the Sahh of al-Bukhari
contains many hadiths which can be considered defamatory to Muhammad. An Egyptian lawyer
sued al-Azhar for refusing to edit the book and remove the defamatory hadiths and those hadiths
which contradict the Qurn. Instead of leading the Muslim World in reforming Islam and its sunna,
al-Azhar chose to inaugurate a committee called The Committee for the Defence of the Shara. The
decision to form this committee was taken 17 years ago, but it remained a paper exercise until
enacted now.
57

For all these reasons I believe Islam is not amenable to reform and that we need a new Kemal
Atatrk to separate religion from the state.

Dr. Abdulkhaliq Hussein - The western impasse the awareness deficit

Clarification
This paper was presented at the Rome Conference on Islamic Reform organized by Almuslih directed by the
scholar in Islamic studies Stephen Ulph. The conference was held at the Pontificia Universit della Santa Croce,
on 7-8 December 2012, and was attended by a number of Arab and Western intellectuals, for the purpose of
putting forward a strategy to reform and to reconcile Islam with freedom, secularism, democracy, womankind
and modernism. And to identify what sort of help Muslim reformers required from the West. In this article, and
as requested by the director of the conference Stephen Ulph, I did not touch on matters of reform as such, since
we knew that most of the papers of other colleagues would concern this matter. We agreed instead that I
should focus on the tactics adopted by Islamists in the West to take advantage of the facilities available to
them, while Westerners turned a blind eye to the dangers posed by political Islam.

Introduction
The civilized world today faces a highly dangerous threat from radical political Islam. To achieve their
purposes Islamists have adopted various means and tactics, depicting themselves in different forms,
both peaceful and violent, including terrorism (Al-Qaeda and its affiliates). Apparently peaceful
moderate organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood (and its offshoots under different names),
are employing every means the Western countries provide them, such as democracy and human
rights and so on, but their ultimate goal is the Islamization of the world and the imposition of Shara
law, particularly on the West.
I would like first of all to emphasize that our problem is not with Islam as a religion, but only with
political Islam. We, as secularist liberals, are strong advocates of freedom of religion, worship and
expression. Our aim is to protect Islam as a religion, and human civilization, from the threat of
political Islam, since the Islamists are using religion to suit their own political ends and personal
interests to impose a despotic regime on people. By doing this in the name of God and religion, they

56
Geert Wilders, Marked for Death, p 117.
57
www.dd-sunnah.net/view/id/3117.
will effectively send these societies back to the distant past. Our aim, therefore, is to liberate religion
from politics and politics from religion.
As I alluded to earlier, in order to achieve their purposes the Islamists have been, and will always be,
clever in their employment of all means and facilities made available to them by the West, and in
applying them to their best advantage. To clarify this point I would like to make the following points:
A clash of cultures ... Why are we living here?
It is widely acknowledged that the main reason for the migration of most Arabs and Muslims to the
West is the miserable economic, social and political circumstances imposed by unjust rulers in their
countries of origin. Needless to say, this injustice and misery did not emerge ex nihilo, but rather
from their own cultures, including religious culture. There is a saying (hadith) attributed to the
Prophet Muhammad that runs:
You have to listen and obey the ruler, even if he should whip your back and take your property.
This hadith was most likely fabricated by preachers whose purpose was to please their rulers (the
caliphs and the sultans) so as to secure their income and save their skin. Like it or not this hadith has
become part and parcel of Islamic culture, requiring from their citizen subjects a blind obedience to
their rulers, no matter how repressive they are. In other words, it is the very same culture that
forced them to flee their homelands and take refuge in the West.
Furthermore, the power that has attracted Muslims to the western lands is western civilization and
its cultural values which include: democracy, freedom, progress, the rule of law, and so on, things
which have granted them the freedom to live in peace with security and dignity.
But the problem is that, once settled in the West, some Muslim immigrants start to work against this
western culture and its laws, in a bid to impose their own culture over western nations, and again
the very same culture which was the main reason for their fleeing their countries of origin in the first
place. In short, they seek to Islamize Europe and impose Shara law upon it.
At this juncture I feel that it is worth quoting the words of the Prime Minister of Australia Julia
Gillard, addressed to Islamists who were demanding the imposition of Shara law there:
Immigrants, not Australians, must adapt. Take it or leave it... We will accept your beliefs, and will not
question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with
us This is our country, our land, and our lifestyle, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy
all of this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about our flag, our pledge, our
Christian beliefs, or our way of life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great
Australian freedom, the right to leave If you aren't happy here then leave. We didn't force you to
come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country you accepted.
We would urge every western prime minister to echo Mrs. Gillards message to their immigrant
Islamists.
Attempts to Islamize Europe
There have been well-organized and co-ordinated attempts by political Islamists, and specifically by
the Muslim Brotherhood party and its offshoot organizations under various names and faces, to
replace western culture with an Islamic one, that of the so-called Shara law. Many factors
encourage them in their actions against western societies.
On the one hand, Islamists have gained in experience and they know how to manipulate western
values such as democracy, freedom of expression and worship, the ability to change one's religion
and belief, human rights, multi-culturalism and so on.
On the other hand, western good intentions in addition to their tedious administrative
bureaucracy and drawn-out judicial procedures leave them unaware of the danger of what the
Islamists are planning against the West in the medium and long term. In short, Westerners are
sleepwalking into the abyss since, as the saying goes: the road to the Hell is paved with good
intentions. Besides this there is the Islamists ability to address the western people in the language
they understand and approve. I will come onto this in a moment.
There are many examples that demonstrate the ignorance and bureaucracy of Westerners. For
example, western governments have granted asylum to leaders of political Islam, some of them
terrorists, regardless of the risks they posed to the West and to their countries of origin, and of their
role in terrorist activity. An example of this is the Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, who was
granted asylum in London despite the fact that there were ample evidences proving his relationship
with al-Qaeda, his role in the bombing of the battleship USS Cole in the port of Aden. His case cost
the British government millions of dollars, and took something like eight years of deliberation and
court trials. Eventually the Court issued a final decision two months ago to deport him to
Washington DC to face justice.
Another example is that of the Jordanian Abu Qatda who is accused of terrorism, and a fugitive
from justice in his country of origin. He is still living with his family in London. British judicial
authorities refuse to deport him to Jordan for fear of his being subjected to torture there. It is worth
mentioning that his family are staying in a luxurious house, worth something in the range of 1 million
pounds, or about $1.6 million.
The Islamists' ability to talk with two tongues, and even lie
Another factor helping political Islamists to mislead Westerners is their double-standard and their
understanding of the western mentality, that is, how to address them in a way that meets with their
approval. Islamists have been able to promote Islamist scholars to professorial positions in the most
prestigious western academies such as Oxford University. They are able to convince their audiences
that they are supporters of democracy, human rights, women's rights and equal opportunities, and
so on.
As I have noticed in some TV discussions held by some western cultural institutions, they bring on
unveiled modern Muslim girls to participate in such televised debates, to defend political Islam in
an indirect way, and to allege that there is no difference between western values and Islamic values.
The intention here is to polish up the face of political Islam. Yet when they talk to their own people
in Islamic countries, they then change their tune and their language, exposing their ugly reality. An
example of this is Sheikh Mahdi Akef, the former Murshid (Supreme leader) of the Egyptian Muslim
Brotherhood party. In interview with Roz Elyousif, a Cairo based liberal magazine, he stated that he
would prefer a Malaysian Muslim to be president of Egypt than an Egyptian Coptic Christian. We also
know that the Egyptian President, Muhammad Morsi (of the Muslim Brotherhood), has recently
issued constitutional amendments that place him above judicial oversight.
Gulf state donations to western universities to establish Islamic Studies centres
Such donations solved many financial problems for universities, which respond in return by banning
any criticism of Islam on campus. Criticisms of this sort have become a form of taboo and may lead
to dismissal. Again, in return for this financial support, universities have turned a blind eye to the
activities of Islamist students on campus and their employment of verbal intimidation, or even
physical violence and the marginalization of those opposed to them. The best proof of this are the
confessions of former Islamist students from the British Hizb ut-Tahrir (the global Islamic political
party working for the re-establishment of the Caliphate), for example, Ed Hussein in his book: The
Islamist.

The intimidation of liberals from criticising Islamists through the offices of lawyers and lawsuits
They do this by making them bear the expense of defending themselves and thus draining them
financially so as not to dare criticise political Islam again. We have many examples of that. (See, for
example, the experience of Italian Orientalist Professor Valentina Colombo
58
).
The disparagement of western and all non-Muslim cultures
Political Islam looks down on non-Muslims, and even Muslims who fail to agree with them. They are
particularly hostile to Muslim liberals, to the point that they even issue incitements to kill them
unless they declare the type of Islam recognized by the jihadists. They naturally denigrate and
despise western culture, regarding it as a form of ignorance (jhiliyya
59
). In his book entitled The
Ignorance of the Twentieth Century, Shaykh Muhammad Qutb (the brother of Sayyid Qutb, and the
Mentor of Bin Laden), regarded everything produced by the West including knowledge, culture,
philosophy, science, technology, and modernity and so on since the time before Socrates until now,
as absolute ignorance, while the only real knowledge is belief in the Qurn and the Sunna (the
hadith).
According to the Islamists, non-Muslims and even Sha Muslims are to be granted a warning and
given three days grace to convert to Sunni Islam, or be killed and their wives and children taken into
captivity or sold in the slave-market, with their properties taken as booty just as they were doing
14 centuries ago. Yet this was announced by the Imam of Mecca in an interview on BBC Arabic TV
last year. By todays standards, such an edict constitutes a fascism that threatens human civilization.
The Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri was once asked that if he hated and despised the West to
such extent why did he live in the United Kingdom? He replied coarsely that he was only here
temporarily, and that Britain for him was just like a toilet!
The Islamists also circulate the following saying by Ibn Taymiyah (1263-1328): If you live in Dr al-
Kufr for learning, treatment or trade, live with them while harbouring hostility to them. This saying,
incidentally, is taught to school children in Saudi Arabia.
Anti-democratic stance
Political Islam does not recognize democracy, and if their leaders proclaim their acceptance of
democracy and human rights, this is but a tactical stance to win over the West. At such time that
they seize power they will show their true colours.
For example, when Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, was a political
refugee in Paris, a French journalist asked him in an interview as to what system he intended to
establish in Iran after the overthrow of the Shahs rule? He replied that it would be a democratic
system, just like that which existed in France. And we all know what subsequently happened a
theocratic dictatorship. We also heard and read statements by Shaykh Rachid al-Ghannouchi, the
leader of the Tunisian Renaissance Movement (a Muslim Brotherhood party). When he was a
refugee in London , he was interviewed by BBC correspondents concerning the regime he wished to
establish in Tunisia. He replied that he intended a democratic one, yet we know what subsequently
happened in Tunisia the harassment of women, school girls and female university students,
attempts made to impose the veil on them, and the forced separation between male and female
students.

58
Valentina Colombo: Jihad by court is spreading in Europe and needs a counter-jihad
http://www.annaqed.com/en/content/show.aspx?aid=16182
59 The term was originally understood historically, to denote the unenlightened, pre-Islamic age but under the influence of Islamist
ideologues such as Ab al-Al al-Mawdd and Sayyid Qutb it has come to mean, for the Islamists, a contemporary pagan state of mind
or a political system that is insufficiently Islamic. (Ed.)
Clearly political Islam never believes in democracy, but rather considers it atheism as their leaders
and clerics frequently announce. They make pretence to accept democracy, human rights, equal
rights between men and women and other values of western civilization as a temporary tactic
employed whilst they are in weak position. Yet when they seize power and get into a position of
strength, they will forget all their former promises. Islamists, Sunni and Shiite, regard their people as
ignorant, treating them as children incapable of knowing what benefits and what hurts them and
unqualified to make laws, and consider that God alone is the legislator, while other Qurn is the
only valid constitution since on the grounds that it is the very word of God.
Shiite political Islam believes in the so-called Wilyat-e Faqh, the Rule of the Jurisprudent, which
Khomeini considered the most important of the pillars of Islam. The concept is similar to the
Hkimiyyat Allh, the Governance of God, of Sunni political Islam, that is, the Muslim Brotherhood.
The means justifies the ends
Since the so-called Arab Spring, which has turned into an Islamic Spring after Islamists high-jacked
the revolution winning the elections in Egypt and Tunisia due to their superior organisation,
coordination and experience over and against their democratic secular rivals we have noticed a
rising tide of attacks on unveiled, western-dressed women, including crimes of sexual harassment in
these two countries. The purpose of these abuses is to force unveiled women to cover themselves
and don Islamic dress.
The dangers of political Islam for the West
The problem with Westerners and their governments is that they remain unaware of the
subterfuges employed, and perils posed, by the Islamists. As I mentioned earlier, Islamists exploit all
means and laws, all western cultural values and systems including democracy, human rights
organizations, the freedom of expression and publication, and use them to their own advantage in
recruiting for, and expanding, their Islamic organizations, and in disseminating their
fundamentalism, extremism and fanaticism.
Islamists have effectively imposed Shara law in some parts of London, posting up signs saying
You are now entering a Shara Zone, while the authorities have turned a blind eye to these
abuses;
A few years ago the British government appointed a number of Muslim clerics, paying them
generous salaries in order to rehabilitate Muslims criminal prisoners, most of whom were
youths. However, a number of these Muslim clerics actively fostered a culture of extremism
among these prisoners, and even succeeded in radicalising some of them into becoming
terrorists;
Some Islamists are demanding that Christmas celebrations should not be promoted since, as
they claim, they offend the feelings of Muslims!
There are also some who call for the establishment of special schools for Muslim children, to be
funded by the state. Such schools will doubtless lead to the segregation of Muslim children from
the rest of western society and promote a culture of hatred, thus isolating them in ghettos like
those of the Jews in Europe in the past. It was a policy that led to the escalation of hostility
against Jews and which ended in the Holocaust.
The acts that the Islamist extremists have perpetrated on 11 September 2001 in America, the
bombings on the London Underground, or the Madrid railway, the slaughter of Dutch filmmaker
Theo van Gogh in the Netherlands, and other terrorist incidents these have led to some violent
reactions from native citizens in these countries. In turn this has led to a surge in popularity of racist,
right-wing, extremist political parties which target immigrants, particularly Muslims (Muslim liberals
included), since their appearance and names are enough to expose all of them to the dangers posed
by the extreme right.
How to protect the West and humanity from the threat of the Islamists?
Firstly adopt the Almuslih programme in religious reform put forward by a number of liberal
Muslim reformers with the help of their western intellectual colleagues at the Rome Conference
held on 8-9 December 2012, and its recommendations.
Secondly as intellectual secular Muslims we must build bridges with our western colleagues
working in the media and cultural institutions to disseminate information and launch educational
campaigns to awaken western peoples and governments from their indulgent leniency, and raise
their awareness of risks of Islamisation, by demonstrating that political Islam is an extreme version
of fascism and Nazism, and even worse and more dangerous than these since the jihadists are
aspiring to rewards in the Hereafter and to immortality in paradise.
Thirdly we must halt the production of extremism in their countries of origin. It is not enough to
combat Islamic extremism solely in the West while new waves of immigrants import more
extremism with them. This will require helping secular democratic liberal movements in the Arab
and Muslim worlds to spread their ideas of Enlightenment in those countries. It also means asking
western governments, especially those of the USA and the EU countries, to link economic aid to
these Islamic governments to their levels of respect for democracy, human rights, freedom of
expression and conscience, and to not leaving Islamic forces free to persecute the forces of
secularism, or disseminate a culture of extremism, intolerance and hatred against others, or violate
human rights especially the rights of women in Islamic countries.
Fourthly There is much research and evidence to confirm that Saudi Arabia is playing the major
role in disseminating religious extremism and political Islam throughout the world. In a study carried
out by Mr. Curtin Winsor, Jr an U.S. ex-ambassador to Costa Rica reference is made to the
testimony of one expert during the hearing before the Justice Committee of the Senate on 26 June
2003, that Saudi Arabia has spent $87 billion during the past two decades to spread Wahhabism in
the world, while it is believed that the level of funding has risen in the past two years due to high oil
prices. The researcher compared this with the $7 billion dollars spent by the Soviet Union in
spreading communist ideology over a period of 70 years.
60
Without Saudi support for political Islam
and its dissemination of Wahhabi religious extremism, the world would not be facing the imminent
danger that it is facing today. Western governments should therefore be prompted to apply
pressure on Saudi Arabia to halt its financial support to the spread of religious extremism and
political Islam.
Conclusion
If the situation is left unchanged, and those of us from the Muslim backgrounds do not take the
necessary actions to put a stop to this madness, I can assure you that Western patience is limited
and stands close to exhaustion. It will probably lead in the future to an explosive situation, with Nazi,
fascist parties gaining in popularity and achieving power, as took place in the first half of the
twentieth century. What happened to the Jews of Europe during the WWII will happen again. Only
this time, the Arabs and Muslims in the West will be the fuel for the coming Holocaust.

60
Ambassador Curtin Winsor, Jr., Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism and the Spread of Sunni Theofascism
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6107
Dr. Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari - Diagnosing the Arab Muslim Mentality as a Precursor to
Reform
Attempts to diagnose the factors contributing to paralysis and obstacles to Arab reform date back
more than two centuries. They began at the end of the 18th century on the heels of the cultural
clash with a triumphant West that overran the region with its developed weaponry and modern
technologies, with its sciences, expertise and advanced systems. Such things stunned the Arabs,
shook them out of their slumbers and made their thinkers ask themselves these questions: why did
the Westerners advance and why did we fall behind? Where does the defect lie? How can we
undertake reform and advance? Questions like these have occupied thinkers for the whole of the
19th and 20th centuries, and up until the present-day. They have spurred them to establish a proper
diagnosis for the state of Arab backwardness the number of diagnoses is many and the solutions
proffered vary according to the intellectual stripes of the various thinkers. The most conspicuous of
these are the following:
1 - The religious solution: the earliest explanation by the Arabs for the backwardness of their
societies was their alienation from their faith and their failure to make the Shara dominant.
Religious preachers repeated the formula that only what was considered good by its earlier
members is of benefit to the latter-day members of the umma, that is, what the pious ancestors
practised. However, according to Abd al-Azz al-Khtir, any reform relevant to the first members of
the umma is limited to that time and cannot be a reform project for every time and place. The
contents of this propaganda came to be crystallised in the slogan Islam is the solution. But this is a
somewhat loose slogan, since the Muslim Brotherhood solution is different from the Salafist
solution, which in turn is different from the Sufi solution, while the Sunni solution is different from
the Sha solution. So where is the political program that can put this slogan into action?
2 - The democracy solution: its exponents see the cause of backwardness to lie in the deep
rootedness of the culture of despotism in Arab societies and its ruling systems. This culture has
established the rule of the autocrat and his domination of the masses. Therefore there is no solution
other than in democracy and an alternative culture, in terms of values, education, behaviour and
systems.
3 - The scientific solution: Arab thinkers see that there is no way for Arabs to progress other than
through science and technology, as took place in the West. However, scientific progress in the West
was preceded by an intellectual enlightenment.
4 - The education solution: most Arab educationalists see the reform of the education system as the
entry point to a more generalised reform. This is true but, according to Shamln al-s, how can we
reform the education system if the culture of the societies concerned are prohibitive and resistant to
reform?
5 - The cultural solution: Ibrahim al-Buleihi holds that the dilemma of the Arab backwardness is in
the first place a cultural one, and that cultural backwardness is the mother cause that feeds other
forms of backwardness political, scientific and religious. Children automatically absorb the culture
of their societies from their earliest age and are programmed in them, and the mentality, behaviour
and view of others take shape. Their mentality is dominated by first impressions, and these
constitute serious obstacles to reform.
6 - The intellectual solution: the distinguished critic of the Arab mind, al-Jabr, saw the Arab
mentality as the principle reason for failure, in that it was an antiquarian mentality dominated by
voices of the ancestors and afflicted by two maladies: the absence of a critical spirit and the loss of
an historical perspective. Critics of al-Jabr, however, see the use of the term Arab mentality as an
intellectual error in that the intellect is a common human property, a single phenomenon not a
multiple one, and that there is no difference between the Arab mind and the Western mind.
According to Descartes of all things the intellect is that which has been most fairly apportioned
amongst mankind, the intellect is therefore one and the same whilst mentalities vary. These are a
collection of conceptions and beliefs and opinions and behaviours that one particular society may
share to the exclusion of another as regards their way of life and their way of thinking. Mentalities
differ in step with the differences in societies and cultures and their ability to activate the
mechanisms of reviewing and criticism. The multiplicity of mentalities is a feature that enriches
societies and elevates them through a creative interaction. The Muslim Arab mentality is the product
of a prevailing, inherited culture which, like other cultures in the world, has its positive and active
elements as well as its negative and retarding elements.
What then are the negative and retarding elements in the Arab mentality? There are a number of
fantasies acting like intellectual obstacles paralysing the Arab mentality, the most prominent of
these being:
1 - The fantasy of a flourishing past: this is a tenacious fantasy; that the Arab mentality is still captive
to a glorious past and we still refer back to our ancestors in search of their solutions to the problems
of our contemporary societies. The agents of the past are the supreme authority for our societies in
general, and we are still preoccupied with the past more than with the future. The Arabs past, as is
the case with other nations, has things to admire and to condemn, but a selective approach to
teaching these things brings to the fore only some illuminating moments in history while concealing
a thousand years of darkness!
2 - The fantasy of male supremacy: this is a widespread fantasy that has been in existence since the
pre-Islamic era when womankind was incapable of conducting hit-and-run raids and carrying off
booty. The teachings of Islam came to promote the equitable treatment of women, only to be
immediately replaced and overcome by tradition. The view of society still maintains that women are
emotional and incapable of conducting themselves without the guardianship of the male.
3 - The fantasy of a world conspiracy: this is a fantasy that occupies a broad space in the Arab
mentality. More than any other people the Arabs are a constantly targeted people, a belief that
extends deep into history with the blaming of the Jew Ibn Saba for the Great Sedition of old, and the
belief in the truthfulness of the Protocols of Zion and the (modern) Western conspiracy against us,
while the Qurn indicates that the trials afflicting Muslims stem from their own hands, and is not
because of America or the West or Mossad.
4 - The fantasy of processing truth and superiority: this is a predominating delusion held by all Islamic
denominations in their mutual disputation as to what constitutes the Saved Sect that will enter
heaven. The doctrine of the Saved Sect constitutes the basic foundation for the doctrine of
exclusion practised by Islamic denominations and ruling authorities. It is the doctrine promoted
today by the Islamists in Egypt.
5 - The fantasy of resurrecting the Islamic caliphate: this fantasy dominates all currents of political
Islam engaged in the attempt at gaining power and it shapes their consciousness. It is based upon
the background perception of Muslims that joins together all of the powers: religious, executive,
legislative and juridical. There is no overturning of a court nor any restrictions placed upon power,
and this phenomenon is represented by the Egyptian president Mursis announcement on the
constitution.
6 - The fantasy of the demographic bomb: this is a delusion that is prevalent both among the masses
and the religious and political elite. It holds that the multiple birth-rate constitutes the strongest arm
with which to confront their enemies. Palestinians see procreation as the best weapon against Israel
and Muslims in Europe see their increasing numbers and the decline in European birth-rate as acting
in the interest of Islam, while Muslims generally see their numerical plurality is something which is
praiseworthy and to be aspired to, one that guarantees them a majority. This is according to what
the Organisation of the Islamic Conference published, that the number of Muslims for the year 2025
will surpass the number of adherents to other religions. Conversely, Muslim propagandists see in the
policy of birth control a form of Western conspiracy and a challenge to the Islamic formula against
the West: if you have nuclear bombs, we have population bombs!, while Iranian President
Ahmadinejad has threatened American interests with ten thousand suicide bombers.
How can we free ourselves from the domination of these fantasies over the Arab mind? By activating
the mechanisms of criticism and reviewing, by raising the ceiling of freedom of expression, by
individuals in society taking upon themselves their responsibilities in criticising their societies,
changing their way of thinking and opening themselves up to other cultures so as to derive benefit
from them.
In short, these are the main elements of my paper for the Rome Conference on Islamic Reform (7-8
December), organised by the Almuslih Project.

Mohammed Sanduk - Reform: a discourse of intellectuals or a rehabilitation?

The West experienced its resurgence during the period of what has come to be known as the
Renaissance, the period between the 14th and 16th centuries. Subsequent phases of development
continued organically thereafter. But with the exception of some basic attempts made at the end of
the 19th century, and the period which followed the First World War (a situation which had its
implications) there is no precedent throughout the long history of Arab and Islamic culture for
anything that can be termed a Renaissance in the contemporary meaning of the word.
Yet Arab and Islamic history did experience a renaissance prior to that which took place in the West,
although it was not termed as such. This occurred in the first three centuries following the rise of
Islam, that is, between the seventh and tenth centuries AD.
61
There are very many studies devoted
to this period, but what distinguishes this renaissance was that it turned out to be a passing
historical phase that was not destined to endure. Subsequently these societies entered into periods
of cultural and intellectual regression lasting for many centuries until dawn of the 20th century.
During this Dark Age Egypt experienced a limited cultural renaissance following Napoleons
campaign (1798-1801), and even though this campaign lasted a mere four years it was an important
basic constituent in the later construction of the modern Egyptian state.
Arab and Islamic societies are unceasingly fascinated by this Renaissance and extol it without asking
themselves why it disappeared never to be repeated. Today in the West many purported academic
institutions in traditional Arab and Islamic sciences are proliferating, financed by Arab and Islamic
states. Their intention is perhaps to study these scientific achievements which are of historical value,
but there is no single centre specialising in the study of the reasons for the collapse of this scientific
activity. For the reason behind the collapse of science is the same reason that lies behind societal
backwardness and cultural regression. A study of the phenomenon and a knowledge of its causes
would resolve the issue.
During this several centuries long period of cultural somnolence mankinds thinking was fuel for a
constant battle towards modernisation and cultural development in all its human and material
aspects. The cultural somnolence led to the halting of intellectual inventiveness and the arrest of
societal development in all its aspects. Not only that, it led to the consolidation in these societies of
intellectual and behavioural concepts, habits, traditions and patterns, to the point that the word
conservative became a term sanctified by society, and anyone who departed from it considered an
apostate. Over this long period of time societys mindset became closed and the social apparatus
were at their furthest removed from modernity. Everything prior to the First World War therefore
became preserved. When the British occupation army entered Baghdad at the beginning of the
20th century it discovered something amazing in a city which had been known from history books as
the city of the 1001 Arabian Nights: at the time of its occupation Baghdad constituted nothing more
than a pile of ruins and a society that was in a pitiable state of backwardness and ignorance.
62
This
was no doubt due to its conservation and self-isolation.
Some intellectual attempts, some basic cultural tinkerings, were made by the lite at the end of the
19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. These some historians, as can be seen in the
discourses of Jaml al-Dn al-Afghn, Muhammad Abduh and Hibbat al-Dn al-Sharastn, treated as
if they were part of a fresh Renaissance! These characteristically were limited attempts undertaken
by clerics and those who were and still are representing a class of people influenced by the

61
M. I. Sanduk, Growth of science under the social influence in Arabic-Islamic and Western Civilisations, 700-1900 (Statistical Models)
http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/9012/ .
62
See Almuslih article: M. I. Sanduk, Intellectual self-isolation and the prospects of constructing a culture, here.
prevalent mindset in society. Their proposals therefore took the form of exhortations and their
exponents were not spared the anger and rejection of the religious institutions or their incitements
against them. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of modern states in place of their
former colonies, various political tentatives for renewal here and there took place. These attempts
came up against local obstructions rejecting modernisation
63
and some major difficulties, but they
were necessary attempts nevertheless. What principally distinguishes these attempts is the
following:
They focused on the construction of the city more than, as was more necessary, of the rural
village (as we shall see later);
They concentrated on furnishing of state administration structures and social services without
focusing on the building of a modern social culture, which was non-existent then and still does
not exist now;
They busied themselves with building vertical systems of education (from the primary to the
doctorate level) without concerning themselves with the nature of primary instruction or
modern societal training for the individual, in place of a merely professional training;
They at times concerned themselves with campaigns for the eradication of alphabetical illiteracy
without concerning themsleves with the eradication of cultural illiteracy, in a culture that could
equip the individual for living in the modern age;
There was weakness or absence of societal training.
As can be seen, these tentatives are no more than enthusiastic attempts at hastening national
construction, and were born of dazzlement at the West and its achievements. Consequently they
demolished things and built anew, but lost more opportunities faster than they constructed new
ones. These attempts are no more than cultural tinkerings, made in an ill-considered bid for
resurgence. They embarked on the procurement of social, political and military systems that had
been developed by developed societies. The building up process was therefore a superficial and
temporary one and these programmes began to collapse. Not only this, the construction and
demolition operation went on, and still does, with the result that these societies, after having exited
the prison of time, are still confusedly searching for their way. The construction and demolition
process will thus go on unabated until it reaches the point of exhaustion. These societies are paying
the cost of the intellectual self-closure bequeathed them by their forefathers for nigh on ten
centuries, and they are today still unable to diagnose the cause. One fears the consolidation of this
intellectual self-isolation that has led, and is still leading, to this tragic result.
The 20th century has passed away and yet these societies are failing in their construction and
dismantling programmes without having made any steps towards active social modernisation. Much
like the inane ambitions and attempts of the politicians, Arab Muslim thinkers have made their
special, considered contributions. They were not slow to propose modernising programmes both of
reform and renaissance. I do not wish to pause further on these attempts or the great thinkers that
lay behind them, but just to say that these intellectual innovations amounted to no more than
philosophical or intellectual discourses more akin to theoretical proposals than anything else. There
was a wide gap between these and the facts on the ground. Consequently they were never able to
produce anything practical.

63
M. I. Sanduk, The Challenges and the initiatives towards the enhancement of US-Muslims collaborations, Conference on Initiatives in
Education, Science and culture towards enhanced US-Muslims countries collaborations, Bibliotheca Alexandrina 16-18 June 2010.

Whatever the case may be, is it possible to ask what it is that these societies want? Is it renaissance
or reform? A renaissance needs to be fed by intellectual currents contemporary with their time and
upon which it can base itself. Can these societies boast such contemporary intellectual currents, on
which a renaissance can base itself? Clearly these societies do not possess any contemporary
intellectual structures, as can be seen from the intellectual fragmentation they are experiencing.
So we find ourselves standing before the option of reform. But what reform is this to be? There are
some who call for a religious reform. But the Islamic religion is supported by independent
institutions that have detached themselves from power almost since the age of the Umayyads
institutions that have remained influential and dominant over societys mindset up to the present-
day. Like any other religion, Islam can only institute reforms via the religious establishment, yet the
Islamic religious establishment does not speak with one voice and cannot be induced to change its
intellectual convictions for the sake of reform.
We are therefore faced with the problem of a social mindset that has become established and
deeply embedded over centuries. The inadequacy of this mindset has been demonstrated in the way
it confronted modernity. In confronting challenges, contemporary global society takes for granted
the existence of characteristics specific to a modern society, and to a modern individual, and this is
what contemporary states seek to develop in every new generation. It is possible to construct a
modern city over a number of years, particularly if oil wealth smoothes the task. Its sons may well
import the most modern global technological innovations and the like, and a construction
programme like this may well not require much more than a few decades.
But can all these formal measures build an innovative modern society that understands its social
responsibilities in various, interactive systems whereby the individual is free and inventive, while at
the same time constrained by law? Can this present period create a society that overcomes the
social complexes built up and embedded unresolved over centuries? Will these few decades be
enough to restore innovative flexibility to a human mindset enchained and petrified for centuries? A
programme of school building might well succeed in eradicating alphabetical illiteracy but how can
there be an escape from cultural illiteracy, and how long would such an operation take?
Social culture has constructed its own place and its own time for itself. The previous century
revealed patterns of behaviour, even among liberals and Marxists in these societies, which operate
in a framework very similar to the paradigm of religious thinking under which society has been
raised over centuries. This is reflected in the reformist leaders themselves, since it never occurred to
Atatrk, or the Shah of Iran or 20th century Arab leaders that what they were doing was no more
than applying make-up or merely painting on modernity, while concealing beneath it all a social
backwardness ten centuries deep. Consequently, what was demolished was demolished and that
which is not on the way to demolition simply awaits its turn, if not now then tomorrow.
Contemporary political Islamic thought attempts to put its hand to the task, just as previously other
political currents attempted to do with their claims to, or attempts at reform or renaissance. What is
worth noting is that contemporary Islamic thought is nothing but a natural extension of the mindset
that refused the first Renaissance and machinated against it for ten centuries, one that has
controlled societys mindset throughout this period of cultural regression. A mindset like this is too
far removed from any understanding of the nature of the present era and its requirements to be
able to draw up any programmes for reform. Such intellectual patterns prepare the ground for
heaven, and abandon Gods servants to be slaves devoid of any power on Earth. They do not
understand that life on Earth is subject to laws which only those who possess freedom of thought
and the scientific method can understand. Failings in society and on the battlefield are nought but a
natural product of this intellectual paradigm.
We face a unique problem, one which, in short, is the problem of societies that have been captive
for a millennium to closed patterns of thought and which now find themselves in a time that is not
their own. This situation is entirely different from the situation of primitive societies. Primitive
societies are not captive to closed patterns of thought and they can therefore modernise and
integrate themselves easily into contemporary global society.
Some see that the problem of Arab and Islamic societies vis--vis the West is confined to their being
the exporters of terrorism, whereas the greater problem stems from their sole pre-occupation with
productive capacity, with the exploitation of potentials, with natural and human resources, the
raising of standards of living and with the means for manipulating technology and the modern age.
These societies are faced with the challenge of seeking an identity after having entered into the
jungle of a complex modern age. Many Arab thinkers successfully diagnosed this problem of
intellectual self-closure before the emergence of the phenomenon of international terrorism.
Just as there is a large cultural gap existing between Arab-Islamic societies and the West, there is a
great cultural divide in these societies between the city and its rural areas. Just as there is a flight in
the direction of the West there is a flight in the direction of the city. Due to its contacts with the
outside world (that is, the West) the city is more amenable to modernisation than the village, which
is characterised by isolation. But villages and economically undeveloped areas constitute the larger
part of these societies. The Arab-Islamic village has remained far removed from modernisation while
politicians occupied themselves with building cities and prestigious localities, in the same way that
they busied themselves with constructing universities, leaving primary education to be confined to
the teaching of basic scientific facts a long way from training a generation opened to thinking.
United Nations statistics
64
show major population growth among southern countries in where
population growth predominates in the rural areas (Islamic states numbering almost 47
constitute a predominant block of these southern countries). For this reason emigration from the
countryside to the city is increasing and this is leading to the ruralization of the city, whereas the
opposite the urbanisation of the countryside is not taking place. Rural regions in the West have
progressively developed to the point where cultural divides within the one society have disappeared.
The discourse of modernisation may be acceptable to a certain extent in the city but this is not the
case in the rural areas. As emigration to the cities increases the cities become less and less accepting
of modernity.
An ongoing tragic picture stands before us, and a perilous challenge confronts these societies, with
all the destruction they cause both to themselves and to the international community. The problem
is too big to be resolved by the proposals of a philosopher or the recommendations of an
intellectual. The problem requires a massive study and the combined efforts of institutions both
local and international. It is a problem of mindset, of society and or economics. In other words it is a
complex problem. One might talk of the rehabilitation of the individual, but is it possible to
rehabilitate entire societies? All of this does not mean a slavish imitation of the West the West is
not an example to be followed, yet Western societies have for centuries proceeded along a path of
modernisation steadily over the time required, until they took on their current individual
characteristics. They demonstrated how they created their strength on the ground through a
freedom of thought that led, and continues to lead, to inventiveness and to balanced, coherent
societies. What happened in the West will not necessarily happen in these societies now, but the
Western experience must be studied and the beneficial experiences that led to the age of the
Renaissance duly drawn from it.

64
United Nations, 2004. World urbanization prospects: the 2003 revised population database. UN, New York, NY, USA.
http://esa.un.org/unup/ . M. I. Sanduk, The Challenges and the initiatives towards the enhancement of US-Muslims collaborations,
Conference on Initiatives in Education, Science and culture towards enhanced US-Muslims countries collaborations, Bibliotheca
Alexandrina 16-18 June 2010.


Hashem Saleh - My struggle for Arab-Islamic Enlightenment

Philosophers of the European Enlightenment who showed me the way
Religion is the summit of all summits and the end of all ends. It supersedes all but is not superseded
by anything. For traditional societies, societies that predate modernity, it is the Holiest of Holies.
Consequently, if the understanding of it is corrupted, then everything is corrupted. If its
interpretation is corrupt, then politics, economics, society and life in general and so on, are similarly
corrupted. This is what I have come to understand from the experience of Europe. After the class of
clerics were corrupted during the Middle Ages, and they began to merchandise their religion and sell
indulgences, Luther and religious reform movements appeared as a corrective. So when religion was
transformed into hateful sectarian intolerance and fearful religious wars broke out between
Catholics and Protestants, a religious and a philosophical enlightenment emerged to cure these
things.
Each time they cleansed religion from the accumulated impurities and accretions, from intolerant
self-isolation, in order that they could start again from scratch. Religion, in fact, has been the basic
theme among my priorities; I wanted to free myself from the traditional conception of religion, a
conception I was brought up with since I was knee-high. I wanted to shed my old oppressive,
medieval, theological education that was weighing heavily upon my shoulders and was pressing in
upon me to the point of paralysing me. I knew that Syria, and indeed all Arab countries, was set to
explode due to the issue of religion or more precisely doctrinal sectarianism.
This obsession never left me for a moment ever since my leaving Syria, and was there even before I
left the country a full 35 years ago. I used to say to myself that we needed to find a solution to the
problem of sectarianism, to the doctrinal problem, or else national unity would never be achieved.
And I will say in all frankness and without beating around the bush, that had I not been granted the
opportunity to go to Europe 30 years ago I would have lived and died without understanding
anything of note about this issue! For I had gone through the world blissfully without finding a
solution to the religious problem theoretically at least. That is because, practically speaking, the
solution is one that will require several decades. For an Arab Islamic enlightenment, as opposed to
the European Enlightenment, has still not taken place and will not occur for at least another 50 years
I have no illusions about that.
The experience of going to Europe is a decisive one for a number of reasons. The first is that it gives
you the opportunity to stand outside yourself and place a distance between yourself and your early
environment, the world around you and its nightmares. In short, it allows you to breathe a sigh of
relief, and look back at your past and your origins from a distant vantage point. It allows you to
settle accounts with yourself and thus lift all the weight and burden off your back.
Secondly, it allows you to speak a modern European language in which so many authoritative works
have found expression in various fields and specialities of knowledge I would not have been able to
understand even Arab and Islamic history in an objective historical manner, had it not been for my
study of a number of basic reference works in French. Most of these works, if not all of them, are yet
to be translated into Arabic. And even when they are translated it is rare that the translation is an
accurate or reliable one. I would not have been able to study any of the pioneering works of science
achieved in Europe from the 16th century up to now, if I had remained in Syria hemmed in by my
mother language Arabic. When I say this I do not feel a sense of pride so much as a sense of
despair and sadness, and even fear. For I love the Arabic language deeply and I have no desire to
substitute it with something else. But it pains me and causes me to shudder to know that modern
science is simply not available in Arabic other than at some very fragmentary level. At times I ask
myself how long will it be that these scientific and philosophical revolutions remain stranger to our
Arabic tongue? How long will the venture of deep philosophical thinking remain unknown or
insufficiently known in Arabic? When will the Arabic language become a language of science and
philosophy like English or French or German and the other, modern, living languages? When will all
the reference works necessary for attaining knowledge be available in Arabic?
Thirdly, standing back from yourself allows you to understand yourself better. It is as if by distancing
yourself the image becomes clearer and you see yourself properly and objectively from afar. To
understand yourself you must detach yourself, even if it is just for a moment. Similarly, you must
extract yourself from all the history that has shaped your personality, and all the accumulated
inheritance that has formed it and become a burden to it. You must also detach yourself from the
environment you were born into originally, for too close an association can blind your vision, and
even choke you.
Finally, there is a basic reason that conditions all these other reasons, and that is: freedom of
thought and expression. I might go so far as to say that it is the freedom to breathe. It is important
to grasp the fact that it was the breath of freedom blowing for centuries over Europe that created its
glory, its civilisation and its supremacy over all other peoples of the world. Europes experience in
criticising its accumulated, inherited sectarianisms, in isolating these things that is, its impurities
and accretions is the most valuable thing in my life that I have studied. How many stimulating
hours I passed in the company of the thinkers of the European Enlightenment! How much I felt that I
was speaking to them in my own home, sharing their concerns and reading what they had to say! I
used to ask myself: why not detach myself from my own person too? Why not do what Descartes did
when he resolved on destroying all the erroneous conceptions and thoughts he had inherited from
his childhood, from his family, and from his religious faith? Why not do what Spinoza did when he
deconstructed all the beliefs he had grown up with since he was a child? This is the fundamental
lesson that Europe taught me.
Had I not come to Europe I would not have known that there was another way to understand
religion from the centuries-old inherited way. I would have remained prisoner to an ancient
mentality in the belief that that mentality was the only one possible. I would have remained blind in
vision and perception! I am not ashamed to say this, nor do I hesitate to state this plainly before
witnesses. For the greatest breakthrough in knowledge granted to me was precisely this discovery of
a new way to understand faith. In my view this is more important than the discoveries of Newton
and Einstein. One might say that it was the discovery of this that led to the emergence of prodigious
personalities of the stature of Newton and Einstein, for it spelt freedom for the soul, a liberation
from the chains and shackles that bound it, from gaols of theology and its terrors.
Indeed, it was this wind that filled Europes sails towards the modern age. Since the 16th century, or
even the 14th or 15th centuries, this wind, this breath of freedom began to blow across the
continent, refreshing all the arts and the sciences, all the literatures and philosophies. It
revolutionised their understanding of religion and turned it upside down. Read Leibniz and Lessing,
read Pierre Bayle and Voltaire, read Diderot, the Encyclopaedists and others, and you will
understand what I mean. And with their renewed understanding of religion their genius was set
loose and the European genie released from the chains and ties that stifled its energies and held it
back from resurgence and innovation. It was then that they achieved all these scientific,
technological and philosophical advances that dazzle us today.
So the renewal of the understanding of religion is the first and primary condition required for
cultural advancement. I do not mean the cancellation of religion or its marginalisation. Far from it! I
mean the renewing the understanding of religion and its interpretation in the light of philosophy and
historiography. For as long as we remain bound by ancient interpretations, those which are forced,
coercive and sectarian, our energies will remain stifled, repressed and abortive. In such a state the
Arab, Islamic spirit will be unable to break out of its shell and set off to conquer both itself and the
world. This is what I came to understand after studying the thought of Descartes and the other
philosophers of the Enlightenment who had managed to escape from under their cloak of darkness.
All of them were obsessed with this story: the presentation of a new interpretation of the Christian
faith in place of the prevailing, hoary medieval one. They did this in order to save their countries
from the inferno of religious and civil wars. France, as we all know well, had become split into two
major denominations: the majority Catholic denomination and the minority Protestant one, and
these had been slaughtering each other for two centuries.
France had been destroyed and its economic energies squandered as a result of this hellish religious
conflict. Sectarian civil war had decimated the country on a grand scale. But at that time there
appeared the philosophers of the Enlightenment who said: We cannot remain silent about this. Is it
reasonable that men should slaughter each other in the name of religion? Is it reasonable that
society should be destroyed in the name of faith? And their answer was: No, for it is being
destroyed in the name of an erroneous and bigoted understanding of religion. For there is a
difference on the one hand between religion with its transcendence, majesty and sanctity, and on
the other hand between the false, bigoted understanding of it.
In the Middle Ages ignorance and obscurity prevailed, along with the infamous courts of the
Inquisition and Christians went on to slaughter each other on the basis of identity. This is the lesson I
learned from the philosophers of the French Enlightenment. Had it not been for the Enlightenment
interpretation of religion and its lofty message, Frenchman would have carried on until now
floundering in their religious conflicts and slaughtering each other on the basis of identity. They
would not have achieved all this civilisation that now radiates over the world from the capital of light
Paris. But they overcame their divisions and mutual hatreds by disseminating rational knowledge
and Enlightenment.
This is the task which stands before us today as Arab intellectuals. Knowledge, like air and water,
must be made available to all people, as the pioneer of Arab enlightenment and the Minister of
Information in his day Dr Taha Hussein put it in 1949. It is when the light of culture becomes spread
abroad in a land that the dark shades of ignorance progressively recede. Whenever the dark shades
of ignorance recede people become more tolerant and more understanding of each other. It is at
that point that problems can be solved through constructive, civilised discussion instead of through
violence and brutality, through massacres and the shedding of blood. This is the lesson taught to us
by civilised Europe.
For this reason I found myself impelled to engage in the fight on two fronts: the European
enlightenment front and the Arab, Islamic enlightenment front.

An existential loss, or an epistemological loss?
During the 34 years of my continued residence in France my abiding preoccupation was to engage in
the struggle on these two fronts. Naturally I did not grasp my task straight away but wandered about
for a period of 10 years at least before understanding the nature of my standpoint and my task in
life. For intellectual faltering, contrary to what we imagine, is not an entirely negative thing. Creative
chaos is a sound concept that may be applied to the individual as well as to human societies. Indeed,
the faltering is at times necessary for us so as that we may be guided onto the right path and
understand the nature of our task in life. This faltering, in the sense of creative chaos, can in the end
lead you to what you desire to attain. How Descartes was lost and wandered about before setting
foot on solid ground, before the truth became clear to him! But faltering in the sense of destructive,
absurd chaos can only lead to a dead end and collapse. All the great thinkers who have set for us the
model to follow today lived through a period of confusion and loss, before arriving at the essential
point: the right path or the effective method to follow. Just by way of example we might cite Martin
Luther, Descartes and Jean Jacques Rousseau.
Why did Descartes write the essay on Discours de la mthode? When I say this I do not intend to
compare myself with these great thinkers! It would be silly for me to do so. But I just want to
demonstrate the problem. What I mean by this is that ones task in life is not made evident until
passing through a period of loss and wandering, during which period the fog may be of long or short
duration.
What then was the loss which I endured in Paris before I discovered the right way and redirected my
course? It may be illustrated by the following simple example: for the first 10 years in the city I felt
that it was my duty to concern myself with the latest achievements of modern French thought, and
leapfrog over the fore-runner stages, under the delusion that I had ingested these much like the
European intellectuals and that therefore they no longer meant anything to me. I believed that my
task lay in acquainting the Arab reader with the latest achievements of French thought in modern
theories and scientific discoveries. I therefore focused upon the prominent personalities who
dominated the Parisian arena at the time, people such as Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Georges
Balandier, Todorov, Castoriadis and dozens of others. I managed to meet most of them and
published these encounters in a number of Arab periodicals.
I did all of this with great enthusiasm in the deluded belief that the concerns of French intellectuals
were the same as those of Arab intellectuals! Since we were living in the same era I fancied that we
shared the same concerns and problems. Afterwards I discovered all of a sudden that I was marching
on the wrong track, towards a dead end, in fact. In reality I was unconsciously feeling unhappy with
what I was doing. I felt that I was lacking something, that there was a link missing. But I did not know
what it was. Due to my deep dazzlement at these unique thinkers I had forgotten that the concerns
of French culture were not the same concerns as those of Arab culture. In fact they are entirely
different. I was missing something fundamental a sense of history or the placing of things within a
historical viewpoint. It is impossible to give a sense of the historical disparity between the Arabs and
the West without a clear distinction being made between chronological modernity and
epistemological modernity. How could I have missed this point? How could I have been so blind to
what is so patently obvious? I do not know. Possibly it was intellectual adolescence. But how could I
have been unaware of an issue closer than my jugular vein? I still do not know. Or at least, I do and I
dont. Being something so very close I had simply failed to see it. It is as if I had been searching for a
pen and a ruler whilst they were all the time in my hands. Suddenly I discovered my error, and how
contented I was when this occurred! By surrendering to reality there a sense of peace comes over
you, even if the result is a sense of disappointment.
65

Why did I remain arrogant and obdurate in considering that Arab culture had attained to the same
advanced level reached by French culture?
This frantic panting behind the latest theories and developments and intellectual fashions merely
exhausted me and failed to solve my problem, by which I mean the problem which I bore with me
from Syria when it was at its most intense level of crisis. I felt great discomfort until I began to study
Voltaire, Rousseau and the other philosophers of the Enlightenment. At that point I felt that I had

65
At the time I said to myself: God have mercy on the man who knows himself! This is the level we have attained to as Arab inheritors of a
historical hiatus and centuries of decline. The level that we are at on the philosophical plane, intellectually, is class one of a primary school
or even Kindergarten! We stand at level zero, or even beneath zero. Anyone you find arrogant or haughty, well, it is best to just leave him
to himself. I am fed up with all the slogans and the bragging claims and empty haughtiness. If they think that they can come out of the
bath tub through laziness or taking pride in their parents and ancestors, then they are deluded. If they think that the Arabs (and Muslims
as a whole) can overcome their present ordeal without a radical revision of their absolute theological certainties and their shrieking, self-
isolating ideological slogans, then they are also deluded. For the malady is much more dangerous and intractable than they think it is. It is
something deeper and far more thoroughly rooted in the distant past and deep within the nature of our society. It would take intellectual
bulldozers to extract Arab, Islamic history from its deepest levels and free it from itself. We would have two employ Nietzsches
genealogical method (that is, a method of deep archaeological excavation) to get to all the buried roots of the matter and unravel the
Arab, Islamic complex at the level of its most basic foundations. This is what my 34-year continuous sojourn in France taught me. Had I
remained in Syria, or anywhere in the Arab world, I would have lived and died without understanding anything. Apologies for repeating
this point.

pinpointed my error and come close to understanding myself. I felt that I was reading things that
were a thousand times more important to me and my culture than anything that Foucault or Derrida
or Deleuze or other contemporary thinkers were saying. I said to myself at the time: Good Lord! The
concerns of Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot are my concerns! They echo deep within me! For they
suffered the same problem that I suffer from now the misguided, puritanical and bigoted
understanding of religion. They endured the courts of the Inquisition, the petrifaction of their minds,
the absence of freedom of thought. Their societies were also groaning from religious wars and
sectarian massacres, just as Arab societies are suffering from them today.
Why had I not understood this from the beginning, from when I first arrived in France? Why did I
spend 10 years or even more finding out where I was, or what my task was in life or what my
intellectual priorities were? Due to my lack of a sense of history I thought that the concerns of
French culture were the same concerns as that of Arab culture! I thought that the task before Arab
intellectuals was the same task that faced French intellectuals. In the meantime, as regards truth and
history, I felt that I was lacking something, that my basic direction was leading nowhere, that I was
wasting my time on things that were beyond me. In some vague sense I was feeling that I had lost
course. I naturally do not regret the time I spent introducing to Arab readers the post-modernist
thinkers such as Foucault and Derrida and the like, since I in the process I absorbed their highly
useful thinking and methodology. But then all of a sudden I discovered where I was going wrong in
life. When did this occur? It was when, by chance, I began to read the writings of the Enlightenment
philosophers such as Voltaire, Rousseau and the Encyclopaedists.
Now, all of a sudden, I felt at home and in familiar territory. Suddenly I understood that their
concerns were my concerns and their problems were my problems, and that the language they were
using was my language too. At that point I grasped that it was high time to wake up from my
slumber, that it was time to find my path after all this time spent in wandering about. It was then
that I recognised that my intellectual ally was not Michel Foucault who was living near me in the
same city and under whom I studied every week and saw face-to-face. Rather, my true ally was his
predecessor Voltaire who died about two and a half centuries ago. My ally was also his predecessor
Jean Jacques Rousseau who lived a full 300 years ago, one whose tri-centenary the world today
celebrates (1712-2012). I do not know how the following basic point had escaped me: that religious
fanaticism no longer presented any problem as far as John Paul Sartre or Michel Foucault or Gilles
Deleuze or any other contemporary French thinkers were concerned, or that Christian
fundamentalism, which so long troubled their predecessors in the past with the courts of the
Inquisition and the famous massacre of St Bartholomews Day, no longer existed in contemporary
French society. For they had been superseded ages ago. It had become part of history. The problem
had been solved and ended and was now an ancient relic. So why would they occupy their time in a
problem that had already been solved?
And what about me? Had my problem, by any chance, been solved?
Had the rationalist interpretation of Islam gained victory over the traditional, deep-rooted
fundamentalist interpretation? At that point I discovered that I found myself at the same moment in
time as Voltaire in his day. For the issues that were preoccupying him were the same ones that were
preoccupying me now. And what about Foucault's preoccupations? What was my connection with
them? Why was I wasting my time adopting these? Indeed, I discovered that what was keeping
Voltaire awake at night 200 or 300 years ago was keeping me awake at night now.
So I bid farewell to the latest Parisian intellectual struggles and delved deep into European history,
burying myself in the books of the Enlightenment philosophers in a bid to understand how they
solved the religious and sectarian problem which had destroyed their society and set them
slaughtering each other from many long years. The product of these successive readings and studies
were four books, the first of which was An Introduction to the European Enlightenment and the last
was The Battle between the Enlightened and the Fundamentalists in Europe. This is the first theme I
occupied myself with and it is one that still occupies me now.
To this day I am still preoccupied by the following issue: Why were Jean Jacques Rousseau and his
followers excommunicated and their books burnt in Paris, Geneva, Bern and Amsterdam, despite the
fact that Rousseau believed in God and in the sanctity of high religious and ethical values? For one
very simple reason: he was crystallising a new interpretation of the faith a free, rationalist
interpretation appropriate to the spirit of the modern age. This essential, rationalist interpretation
was coming into conflict with his contemporaries, in particular with hidebound, fundamentalist
Christian religious authorities, who proceeded to stir up the public against him and who subjected
him to excommunication, persecution and stoning.
66
Indeed, he had enraged several figures who on
more than one occasion attempted to eliminate him one might take as an example his dispute with
the Archbishop of Paris Christophe de Beaumont
67
. But I was not content merely to study the
problem through the eyes of the philosophers of the 18th and 19th centuries. No, I went further
back: to the age of Spinoza and Pierre Bayle in the 17th century, and delved back still further in time
to the age of the Renaissance and its great figures such as Erasmus, Martin Luther, Rabelais and
many others. I recognised that I was finding myself more and more at home here. For here I had dug
down to the very bedrock and placed my foot on the deepest level, as it were. I then recognised the
nature of my illness and my problem: I understood that I shared the same hieratic self-isolation as
the people of that time, and that I needed to escape from this deep well-shaft, from all these fearful
mediaeval nightmares, and from my own childhood!
68

The story of my encounter in 1977 with Mohamed Arkoun at the Sorbonne
I am constantly asked why it is that I have spent all these years in translating the work of a single
thinker, Mohamed Arkoun. I have always been surprised by this question me since I consider it an
obvious matter that needs no defending. Can there be a more important or more lofty task than
translating into Arabic bold, critical rationalist studies of the Arab Islamic heritage? Is this not the
fundamental issue for our age? Do we not need to liberate our minds from intellectual petrifaction,
from misleading conceptions, bigotry and religious coercion? Have we not become a problem for the
entire world over the last few years precisely due to this confusing dilemma? Actually this answer
was not so obvious even to me when I began work over a quarter of a century ago at the end of the
70s and early 80s. Many Arab intellectuals used to think that the issue of ancient heritage had been
settled and that we were now going beyond it having become Marxists, Progressives, Nationalists,
Socialists or what have you. But then the fundamentalist movements exploded over us like some
raging torrent and everyone was forced to revisit issues of Islam and its heritage.
In this context I remember the following comical point: I was on my way one day to attend one of
Arkouns lectures at the Sorbonne when one of my friends stopped me at one of the cafs next to
the university. Sit with us dear fellow, where are you off to?, he said, to which I replied to attend
a lecture by Arkoun. His response was: Why are you bothering to study religion: this is an antique,
outdated matter ... It has long ago been sorted and is no longer of any interest to anyone. Soon
afterwards puritanical fundamentalism turned into the abiding preoccupation of Arab intellectuals.
But before getting into the heart of the matter allow me to relate another humorous anecdote.
When I met Arkoun for the first time in 1977 to request that he supervise me for my doctorate, I had

66
The author is here referring to the stoning of his house at Mtiers in September 1765. (Ed.)
67
Archbishop Christophe de Beaumont issued a formal condemnation of Rousseau's mile. Rousseau replied in his Lettre a M. de
Beaumont (1762), insisting that freedom of discussion in religious matters is essentially more religious than the attempt to impose belief
by force. (Ed.)
68
That is, that I lived through all these ages either at one stroke or in succession: from prehistory to post-modernism.
never before heard of the man. After a relatively long discussion he accepted, but I nevertheless
sought to replace him when I had the opportunity to meet with Andr Micel during the course of a
party at the Collge de France. I approached him respectfully to ask him if he would supervise my
doctorate in place of Arkoun. He replied with a quizzical, amazed look: Why do you wish to replace
Arkoun? He is much more important than me. And there the matter rested. It could be said that we
Syrians, graduates of the Arabic Department at the University of Damascus, had only heard of Andr
Micel as a great professor supervising Arabic University doctorates in Paris, alongside Jacques
Berque. However, Berque was now old. We felt that if we were awarded a doctorate at the hands of
either of them it would be more prestigious, something we could be proud of when we returned to
our country.
69

Moreover, the khwaga complex
70
as our Egyptian brothers term it still dominated our minds.
We still feel that a foreign professor is more important in all respects than an Arab or Muslim
professor. I later discovered that Mohamed Arkoun was one of the rare professors able to hold his
own among the great professors of the Sorbonne, and perhaps was the only one able to out-argue
them and give them lessons in methodology, terminology and scholarship. I observed this myself on
several occasions, and in the Academy of Ethical and Political Sciences I saw how he lectured to all
the eminent French figures with both competence and authority. For me as a Syrian Arab it was a
source of pride to be able to see an Algerian thinker operating at a level of these disntiguished
foreign thinkers, if not actually surpassing them. I am not sure if we possess any other thinker of this
type or authority. Other than the late Palestinian thinker Edward Said I know of no other famous
name, although I hope I am wrong.
71

One would have had to have attended the lectures of Mohamed Arkoun at the beginning of the
1980s, and witnessed his analysis of the Islamic heritage using the latest methodologies and
technical terms, to understand the meaning, importance and glory of intellectual reflection. For I
would at times emerge from his lectures flabbergasted by the intensity of discovery, the depth of
analysis and the boldness of his propositions. I actually needed some time to fully recover from
them. I felt that the entire history of Islam had been laid out clearly before me and that penetrating
spotlights had been shone upon every arena. I understood even then that these lectures constituted
an unprecedented historical event with respect both to Islams past and its present. With the
traditional certainties we had grown up with, or inherited over centuries from father to son shaken
to the core, we would at times come out of the lectures in a state of dizzy nausea. I knew then
where I had gone wrong. Everything I had been vaguely groping toward, I found here. All the
questions that were troubling me when I was still in Syria, I found answers to in Arkouns weekly
lectures. All the burning self-questioning that I carried with me from Syria to Paris in 1976, and
which I thought intractable, I found had been delved into down to its deepest roots and resolved
by a great Algerian thinker.
It is for this reason that I began to translate the works of Mohamed Arkoun. Why not enable others
in the Arab world to study when I studied?, I thought, Why should these scientific discoveries and
dazzling illuminations concerning the Islamic heritage remain confined to the walls of the Sorbonne,
given that we are more entitled to them and more in need of them? I was amazed that no one
before me had translated this eminent scholar, one who had inaugurated an intellectual revolution

69
Needless to say, I did not return to Syria after graduating from the University of the Sorbonne and I did not become attached to the
University of Aleppo as was expected. And how well I did not do that! What would I have done in Syria which I knew had to explode
sooner or later? If I had returned I would not have been able to achieve anything in the field of thought and intellectual translation. I say
this particularly since my studies focused primarily on religion and fundamentalism. The atmosphere of freedom that France vouchsafed
me was not possible in Syria. I say all this with a heavy heart.
70
Cultural inferiority vis--vis the Westerner. From the Egyptian colloquial term khwja (European from the Turkish hoca man of
distinction, teacher, master). (Ed.)
71
I should make the exception of the researcher Wil Hallq, the specialist in fiqh and Islamic Shara at Columbia University, New York.
Before these, the Pakistani Fazlur Rahman was also one of this rare lite.
in the history of Islam no more, no less. Some may be so bold as to ask: why such an interest in
translating Mohamed Arkoun? As if this were not obvious! But in fact they no longer pose this
question, now that his thought has turned into a huge wide wave penetrating to all corners of the
Arab world.
We are now reaping the harvest of the fruit of all this labour, and now is the time to sow further
seeds and commence work. The spread of his thought at such a speed in the East and in the West
has been the result of translations and efforts that have gone on for a quarter of a century. I am not
therefore not surprised by this success. I knew in advance that this would be the result. I understood
with unerring intuition that the Arab lands were thirsting for this new thinking on Islam. I was well
aware that people were tired of all the traditional thinking regurgitated constantly for hundreds of
years. Arkouns thinking was therefore something long awaited. Had it not been so I would not have
staked my entire future on this nor spent the flower of my life in this cause. I knew that one day
serious scholarly studies on the heritage had to find their place. I say this in particular since there is a
very palpable need for them. And I say this above all since, at the time or shortly thereafter, the
problem of Islamic fundamentalism burst onto the scene, so the demand for pioneering works of
discovery on the history of this great religion has now become an urgent, pressing matter.
Indeed, I was well served by the historical turn of events. Had it not been so then perhaps these
translations of Arkoun would have remained confined within the library walls exciting the interest
only of a few specialists. It could be said that I was one step ahead of this historical juncture, or at
least I was in step with it and sensed it straightaway when others were preoccupied with secondary
politico-ideological issues which internally collapsed soon after.
I hope the reader will in the end forgive me this somewhat crude vanity and egotism. This is not my
intention. I just want to point to the issue of the relationship between thought and reality and how
one precedes the other. For if thinking does not fulfil the needs of reality or illuminate its concerns
and its fateful problems, it is not worth one hour of ones time. It is vital that thought keeps one step
ahead of events and illuminates the way ahead, rather than vice versa. For, in the end, if the intellect
does not face up to important issues, issues that others steer clear of for the sake of a quiet life,
then it has no purpose. Thought and danger, as Frederick Nietzsche put it, are bedfellows. At
times if not most of the time thought teeters on the brink of huge danger.
The only thing I regret is that I was able to translate only a limited portion of Mohamed Arkouns
work contrary to what most people think!
What is the fundamental issue of our era after the problems, of course, of food and drink and
education? It is the issue of the reconciliation between Islam and modernity or between Islam and
the spirit of the modern age. The fact is, we have not found to this day an effective solution to this
question. Our societies have split into two warring sections the first forward-bound and the second
backward-bound; the first progressive and enlightened, and the second reactionary and
fundamentalist. I say this fully aware that I am presenting these issues in a quick and simplistic form
simply for the purposes of clarification. It is because of this split that we have engaged in open or
implicit civil wars throughout the length and breadth of the Islamic world. Indeed, we have become
a problem for the entire planet ever since the appalling crime of September 11
th
and what came
after. Things therefore cannot remain as they are. For intellectuals are the vanguards of the nation
and they must therefore stir themselves to confront a situation like the one we are in, one that can
no longer be tolerated. Either we succeed in crystallising a new interpretation of our faith and our
culture by which I mean a rationalist, enlightened, tolerant interpretation or we will leave the
field open to obscurantist puritans to wander up and down it at their leisure. Should that happen
they will disfigure our image on a truly global scale.
And it is here that we find that Arkouns thought can do much to help us confront the situation,
since he posed this problem necessarily at its widest and deepest.
All of his studies are but an expression of a critical reading of the Islamic heritage in the light of
modern human sciences. All of them represent the deep struggle between tradition and
contemporaneity, between fundamentalism and modernity. Arkoun is the greatest reformer of Islam
in our present age. This does not mean that he yields to modernity in everything and dispenses with
everything associated with the tradition not at all it is just that he illuminates one with the other
and vice versa. For despite all its great liberalising achievements, modernity does have its downsides,
and also its excesses and deviations. We are not obliged to accept everything, or indeed refuse
everything, from Western modernity. Rather, we pick and we choose. That is, we select that which is
appropriate to our nature and which is historically authentic, and we reject that which lies outside
this authenticity. In the Arab Islamic tradition there are lofty ethical, spiritual values that no sane
person would wish to sacrifice, yet none of this can become truly clear to us without a struggle or
confrontation taking place between our deep-seated heritage and global modernity. This is how I
understood, and still do, Arkouns thinking. It is for this reason that he interested me more than
others and I became attached to him. For he puts the entire heritage to the test of modernity, and
puts all of modernity to the test of tradition. And by means of this finely tuned and rigorously
applied confrontation, some brilliantly illuminating and liberating results ensue.
Arkoun in fact makes a distinction between two forms of modernity: material modernity and
intellectual modernity. Any society such as, for example, the Gulf oil societies can import all the
material forms of modernity, all its equipment and tools, but nevertheless it will still remain a
backward, and indeed highly fanatical, traditional society in terms of religion. This has become clear
now to anyone who has eyes to see. Those in control of these countries have come to recognise it
and are calling for the reform of educational syllabuses that incubate extremists. This is what they
laid stress upon in the closing statement of the Arab Summit Conference convened in Riyadh in
2007.
In one of his last statements Arkoun regrets that any rationalist critical thinking on religion is
forbidden in Arab Muslim societies, whether this be on the part of ruling institutions or their
fundamentalist opposition groups (there is no difference in this respect). Consequently the teaching
of Islam, right from primary school to University level remains to this day in the hands of traditional,
closed-off minds that are ignorant of modernity and its liberating scientific and philosophical
achievements. So if there is no radical reform of the educational programs prevalent throughout the
entire Arab and Muslim world, the fundamentalists will remain in control of the arena and will
continue to incubate Taleban fundamentalists in their own image. It is no use combating these by
means of the security forces or even the military. We have to confront them intellectually on the
grounds of the Islamic tradition itself. We have to present a new reading in place of the old one, or a
new interpretation of Islam in place of the traditional, obscurantist interpretation that is outdated
but which nevertheless is still deep-rooted today. For it is this that confers sanctified legitimacy to
the voices of extremists and their terrorist bombings which are scything down civilians in a random
manner.
When we do something like this the extent of the ignorance of the traditionalists and their
impotence is highlighted not only with respect to world modernity but also with respect to Arab,
Muslim modernity, which once radiated over the entire planet from Baghdad, Cairo, Cordova and
Muslim Spain during the Golden Age. It demonstrates how the understanding of Islam prevalent
today in the Arab world actually trails behind the understanding of our great scholars and
philosophers of the Classical Age 800 or even 1000 years ago! The current understanding of the
fundamentalist leadership of Islam trails behind that of Ab al-Hasan al-mir, Ab Hayyn al-
Tawhd, Miskawayh, al-Umar, Ibn Rushd and all those who stood between reason and faith, or
between Islam and Aristotelian philosophy.
Arkoun sees the educational policy pursued ever since independence as responsible for the growth
of extremists and religiously coercive movements that have lately flooded over the arena like a
raging torrent. If the authorities had not consigned the task of educating future generations to
traditionalist teachers cut off from the march of science, reason and modernity, none of this would
have happened. If it were not for the absence of a modernising programme with respect to the
realm of culture, scholarly research and educational syllabuses, Islam would not have been deprived
of the positive developments that European Christianity enjoyed. After all, liberalism or the type of
thinking that liberates the mind is the product of modernity. So it is high time that the Muslim world
attain to modernity and accept its breakthroughs in knowledge and its positive achievements
without imposing any restraints or conditions, at the same time as rejecting, of course, its excesses
and negative aspects.
For this reason Mohamed Arkoun calls for the second liberation of the great Maghreb and the
whole Arab Muslim world without exception. What does he mean by this second liberation? He
means the following: the era of external liberation from imperialism has come to an end and what
remains for us now is to embark upon the internal liberation from backwardness,
underdevelopment, ignorance, bigotry and the false understanding of religion. In other words, the
phase of the Lesser Jihad has passed and the phase of the Greater Jihad has begun that is, the
jihad against the self and against its deviations, its defects and backwardness. Is it a matter of
chance that it was the long-suffering, mujhid land Algeria a land that has paid the greatest price
for the external liberation from French colonialism (the Million Martyrs Revolution) and the greatest
price for its internal liberation (100,000 dead or martyred over the course of the black decade of the
1990s) that sired the greatest thinker in the history of Islam from the era of Ibn Rushd to the
present-day? I do not think so.
All that I do know is that the abiding preoccupation for Mohamed Arkoun, over the course of half a
century of research, teaching and deep intellectual struggle, was to liberate us from our false
consciousness and from our unhistorical, mythical conceptions of our history and heritage. For as
long as a rational understanding of religion, an interpretation that reconciles faith and science,
philosophy and religion (as Ibn Rushd achieved in his day) fails to materialise, there will be no
solution or salvation. Look at Ibn Rushds famous work Fasl al-Maql fm bayn al-Hikma wal-Shara
min al-Ittisl (The Decisive Treatise on the Connection between Learning and Shara). At that time
Ibn Rushd was able to reconcile our deeply-rooted Islamic heritage with Aristotelian philosophy
which at the time constituted intellectual modernity. This is the same project Mohamed Arkoun is
attempting to carry out today taking into consideration the huge time gap that separates our era
from that of Ibn Rushd, Miskawayh, al-Jhiz, al-Tawhd, Ab al-Hasan al-mir and the entire
humanist, rationalist current which once flourished in Islamic lands before becoming extinct and
dying the death of classical philosophy. Ibn Rushd died in 1198, and so between him and ourselves
there is an interval of at least eight centuries.
Aristotelian philosophy is no longer enough, to say the least. This is because between us and its first
teacher there is a gap of 2500 years! Great philosophers went on to appear after him and after the
death of Ibn Rushd, while amongst us in the Islamic arena philosophical thought came to an end. It is
enough for us simply to record some names: Francis Bacon, John Locke, Descartes, Kant, Hegel,
Marx, Nietzsche, Freud and Heidegger and all of contemporary philosophy, in particular the
philosophy of religion which expanded our understanding of the phenomenon.
In addition to this, Arkoun applies to our Arab Islamic heritage the methodologies of human sciences
so as to illuminate it from the inside with consummate competence and in a manner unmatched to
this day. For instance, his book Readings in the Qurn begins first of all with an application of
modern philology, followed by the application of the historical method, then the social, sociological
method, the anthropological method and ends with a comprehensive philosophical evaluation of the
Text. In such a way it can handle the religious text and the religious phenomenon in all its
dimensions. By studying all of this and absorbing it fully, we are able to understand the extent of the
difference between the modern rationalist understanding of religion and the stagnant, traditional
understanding that has dominated our minds for hundreds of years. We will never be able to break
free from the religious conflict and sectarianism that presently threatens Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon,
Yemen and the Arab Gulf with disintegration, civil war, mindless bombings and genocide unless we
extract ourselves from this mediaeval, sectarian, obscurantist understanding of religion and adopt
the modern, tolerant, rationalist understanding crystallised by Arkoun and a number of other
thinkers within the Arab world and beyond.
It is for this very reason that I spent all these long years translating his texts into Arabic
72
and then
explaining and commenting upon them. I knew in advance that we would get to this huge explosion
point. And it is for this reason that I did not return to Syria following my graduation from the
Sorbonne and my presentation for my doctorate. I knew for certain that the problems of Arab
Muslim societies would one day blow up in our faces. And this is indeed what subsequently
transpired. The issue, therefore, is not purely an academic one, but rather a question of life and
death. The entire world will not respect us, and we will have no presence among the nations on the
world map, unless we first clean up our front door and engage in the struggle for the Greater Jihad
which, God willing, will save us from the false conceptions that pronounce others disbelievers and
clothe with religious, and even theological, legitimacy all those mindless criminal bombings, while
true religion is innocent of all of this.
For does a man blowing himself up in front of public buildings or in a crowd of innocent civilians who
happen to find themselves at the market or in the streets or in the cafs, constitute a jihad and
something approved of by God? All the teachings of Islam, from the Qurn to the hadith, stand four
square against this. All of them condemn suicide or the taking of ones own life. It says in the Holy
Qurn:
O ye who believe! Squander not your wealth among yourselves in vanity, except it be a trade by
mutual consent, and kill not one another. Lo! Allah is ever Merciful unto you.
And directly on from this follows this verse:
And whoso doeth that through aggression and injustice, we shall cast him into Fire, and that is ever
easy for Allah. [Qurn IV, 29-30]
Therefore, the suicide bomber who kills himself constitutes a Disbeliever according to the
unambiguous text of the Qurn. But now they wish to present him to us like some great martyr,
even if he has killed at random thousands of innocent civilians! Is this reasonable? Sadly, the
ignorance of many Muslims concerning the true teachings of their religion induces them to accept
this and maintain an implicit sympathy with these criminal acts, or at least remain silent about them.
This is a fact which both secular intellectuals and rational clerics must confront openly, face-to-face.
It is no longer enough to condemn with lip-service and then go on to find exceptions and
justifications for the benighted takfirists who spread corruption over the land and deform the image
of this true faith in every corner of the world. As for the Prophets hadith, it also categorically forbids
suicide when it says:
Whoever kills himself with an iron weapon will be holding it in his hand and stabbing himself in the
stomach in the Fire of Hell for all eternity; whoever takes poison and kills himself will be taking poison
in the Fire of Hell for all eternity; whoever throws himself down from a high mountain and kills
himself will be throwing himself down from a mountain in the Fire of Hell for all eternity.
There is therefore a deep antipathy to suicide in Islam. For it equates to pure Disbelief. Thus you can
see that I can refute the legality of these senseless criminal acts from within the Islamic tradition
itself and not from outside, so that the condemnation retains a greater credibility and import in the
heart of the Muslim. Of course, in modern human philosophy, the philosophy of the Rights of Man
and the citizen, these acts are equally vehemently condemned.

72
Mohamed Arkouns writings are mainly in French (Ed.)
Finally I would like to say the following: we will never achieve reconciliation between Islam and
modernity unless we undertake a comprehensive, radical, critical filtering-out of our ancient
heritage, just as the advanced nations in Europe and North America carried out with respect to their
Christian fundamentalism which was no less violent and benighted than our own current
fundamentalism. This is why I said earlier that it is necessary to clean up our front doors first and not
cast the responsibility continually on others so as to absolve ourselves of any responsibility. This is
an entirely unacceptable position and will get us nowhere, but it is unfortunately widespread among
many Arab intellectuals or pseudo-intellectuals. In this respect Arkouns thought offers itself as an
alternative to the enclosed, atavistic, fundamentalist thought which predominates in our schools
and universities, and not merely in our traditional institutions and colleges of Shara. This thought
predominates over the entire Arab Street from the Atlantic to the Arabian Gulf, and indeed the
Islamic Street as a whole, from the far West to Pakistan.
So it is indeed a major, massive issue. It is without any doubt the issue of the 21st-century. One of
the features of Arkouns project that sets it apart from other projects dominating the Arab arena of
late is that it confronts these learning problems face-to-face and does not avoid them. It sets out to
bring modernity into the arena of religious thought itself and does not content itself with importing
the tools of technology or modern inventions. The fundamental point here is the modernisation of
the Muslim mentality, whereas the elaboration of new tools and inventions will be but the result or
sum total of this process. Consequently one cannot make a separation between material modernity
and intellectual modernity, as the traditionalist conservatives among us would have us believe. For
modernity is either something complete and integrated in and of itself, or it simply does not exist.
We committed a fatal error when we consigned the education of our youth after independence to
the traditionalists and the Muslim Brotherhood who stood in opposition to every form of intellectual
and mental modernity. We have subsequently reaped the bitter harvest of this in the form of a huge
wave of fundamentalism.
As far as I understand it, this is the essence of Arkouns 50-year project. All of the intellectual
struggles he engaged in concern this very battlefront. He presents a new, rationalist interpretation
of the Islamic heritage in place of the ancient traditionalist interpretation with its exceedingly deep
roots. I do not, however, believe that his thinking will prevail over the Islamic world for the next 20
or 30 years. For it is easier to raze mountains than alter mentalities! You cannot fight against one
thousand years of religious stagnation, intellectual mummification and mental calcification.

The second Parisian beacon: Abd al-Wahhb al-Muaddib
If Mohamed Arkoun was my first professor in the course of the liberation of my thought, the
Tunisian writer and poet Abd al-Wahhb al-Muaddib was my second professor in France. Arkoun
was not the only thinker on whom I depended to crystallise the Arab Islamic enlightenment project,
even if he was the principal one. I also derived great benefit from other Arab and French thinkers
resident at Paris. I also particularly benefited from the Swiss-German theologian Hans Kng. It is well
known that he presented enlightening analyses on the question of fundamentalism and religious
puritanism, whether of the Christian, Jewish or Islamic type. His insights were important since they
were carried out by means of what we might call comparative fundamentalism. He did not study
fundamentalism in just the one religious tradition but as manifested in a number of religions, and
this is what most distinguishes him.
We may say the same thing about the France-based Tunisian thinker Abd al-Wahhb al-Muaddib.
He is the product of the two great currents of Arab Islamic enlightenment and secular European
enlightenment. But as opposed to Garoudi and Hans Kng and other European scholars, he does not
speak of Islam from the outside but rather from within, since he was born, grew and matured in
Islam. His father was one of the shaykhs of the famous Zaitouna University and his grandfather was
one of its distinguished professors. He therefore comes from one of the most famous Tunisian
houses of scholarship and religion and this means that he is imbued from head to toe with Arab
Islamic culture. At the same time he is fully versed in French culture, not only since he writes
in French and has been living in Paris since the mid 1960s where he has been teaching in
one of the French universities, but because he has great affection for the culture of the
Enlightenment and is steeped in it. He has an equal fondness for the Arab Islamic
Enlightenment and the European Enlightenment, being fascinated by Ibn Arab and at the
same time by Dante, Voltaire, Diderot and Ibn Rushd. Hence the importance of his
researches and his illuminating insights into our heritage, our problems and our concerns.

Abd al-Wahhb al-Muaddib and the Arab Islamic Enlightenment of the Golden Age
Al-Muaddib sees that the Arabs participated in the Enlightenment in two phases: the first phase was
during the Golden Age at Baghdad and Cordova, and the second phase was during the era of the
Nahda that extended from the 19th century to the mid-20th century. During the first phase the Arab
Enlightenment preceded the European Enlightenment by a number of centuries and, indeed, was a
teacher to the latter.
73
In the second phase we became students of Europe. Regarding the first phase
al-Muaddib sees that the Arabs inaugurated culture and enlightenment between the years 750-
1050. During this period they demonstrated an amazing intellectual fertility at a time when Europe
was steeped in a profound darkness. At that time the Arab Muslims demonstrated a brilliant
intellectual freedom with respect to the study of religions and the phenomenon of thought in
general. Al-Muaddib says that this is a point he wants to insist upon since the Enlightenment
constantly aimed at dismantling religious dogmatism, blind intolerance and the popular superstitions
that religious belief occasionally, if not predominantly, carries with it.
74

In their criticism of fanaticism and religious, dogmatic self-isolation, the thinkers of the Arab Islamic
Enlightenment placed themselves at the service of the intellect. This is one of the first principles of
enlightenment, for there can be no enlightenment without the intellect or without rationality. The
phenomenon emerged a century or more after the appearance of Islam at a period of brilliant
cultural efflorescence. But who were the exponents of this first enlightenment under Islam? They
were people of the calibre of Ibn al-Muqaffa, Ishq ibn Hunayn, Ab Bakr al-Rz, the Mutazila
school and many others besides. In the introduction to his work Kalla wa-Dimna we find Ibn al-
Muqaffa (720-756) criticising religious fanaticism and extolling the intellect. He even went so far as
to say that ethics were independent of religious belief. This is because, on the one hand, one could
make pretence to faith, piety and the observance of religious ritual, and yet on the other hand,
commit fraud and theft and all the other vices. One could also dispense with the observation of
rituals and yet at the same time remain an honest and righteous man in ones personal life.
Abd al-Wahhb al-Muaddib sees that Ibn al-Muqaffa resembles Kant to a certain extent. Kant is
recognised as the greatest Enlightenment philosopher in Europe after Voltaire and Rousseau. Like
Kant, Ibn al-Muqaffa restricts the definition of religion to good behaviour and the commitment to
high moral values, values that are represented in the following commandments: do not kill, do not
steal, beware of gossip and backbiting, do not commit fraud and do not steal and so on. Anyone who
keeps to these values is a true believer, as far as Ibn al-Muqaffa is concerned, whatever religion it
happens to be that he is practising. This is a very advanced conception for its age, and reminds us of
the features of Kants practical intellect. For Kant also confined religion to ethics, in much the same
way as the Prince of poets Ahmad Shawqi expressed this idea:
Nations are none other than the ethics they embody.

73
See Roger Garoudis book: LIslam en Occident. Cordoue capitale de lesprit. LHarmattan.1987.
74
See his work Pari De Civilisation. Seuil. Paris.2009.P.121 fol.
When their ethics go, they will follow soon enough.
Among the enlightened thinkers of this Golden Age who populated Arab Islamic culture, we should
mention the great Christian translator Hunayn ibn Ishq (808-873). He played a major role in
transferring the Greek philosophical and scientific works into the Arabic language. He was a highly
gifted polymath who mastered three languages and cultures Syriac, Greek and Arabic and was a
scholar of two additional cultures the Persian and the Indian. He reminds us of the great thinkers
of the age of the European Renaissance, and it is for this reason that some have compared him to
Erasmus the Prince of the Age of the Renaissance. In some of his works he was able to go beyond
his personal faith and avoid the religious deference that many ordinary believers fell victim to.
Instead of this he began to employ the science of rational logic in the study of religions and,
moreover, posed highly audacious questions such as: how is it that error can at times seep into an
area of religion and impose itself upon religious believers as if it were an absolute truth? This, par
excellence, is a groundbreaking question and one that was far ahead of his time.
Abd al-Wahhb al-Muaddib sees the medical scholar and philosopher Ab Bakr al-Rz (845-925) as
one who, more than any other, advanced in the direction of rationality and thus comes close to the
spirit of the philosophers of the European Enlightenment. But we may also recall al-Jhiz, al-Tawhd
and al-Maarr who represent the highest pinnacle of heroism in Arabic literature. There is also the
Mutazila school who held out for two centuries before finally succumbing to the Hanbalites around
the year 1000.
Abd al-Wahhb al-Muaddib wonders why it is that critical thought in Islam came to an end after
such a brilliant efflorescence. Why was it that rationalist philosophy died? It died because the closing
of the door to independent interpretation, which took place around the year 1000 AD, spelled the
end of history in the Arab Muslim world. History became frozen and placed in the refrigerator over
the long centuries of Seljuk, Ottoman and Safavid decadence. There are many who criticise the imam
al-Ghazl for being the cause of the death of philosophy with his violent attack on it in his work The
Incoherence of the Philosophers. Al-Muaddib sees Ibn Taymiyya as playing a crucial role in defeating
the intellectual enlightenment of Islam when he attacked Greek philosophy and any cultural
interaction with other civilisations. The antibiotic to him was Ibn Arab who recognised the
legitimacy of all religious beliefs and was astonishingly open to all religions, yet without his ceasing
to be a true Muslim believer. He penned the following scarcely believable verses which we would
not dare to recite among Islamist circles at the beginning of this 21st-century:
Before today, I would censure my fellow,
if my faith was apart from the one he would follow.
My heart has become capable of every form;
It is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
And a temple for idols and the pilgrims Kaba,
And the tables of the Torah and the book of the Qurn.
I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Loves camels take,
That is my religion and my faith.
75

We find the sum total of the comparative history of religion in these verses! This is also the faith of
the modern age too: an open faith, one that is free, broad and as wide as the Universe. It is,
moreover, a tolerant faith that goes beyond all the sectarian and religious exclusivities we were

75
From Ode XI of Ibn Arabs Tarjumn al-Ashwq. The translation (other than the first stanza) is by R.A. Nicholson (1911). (Ed.)
perforce brought up with. For this reason the arch fundamentalist extremist Ibn Taymiyya declared
Muhy al-Dn Ibn Arab an infidel and violently attacked him. Indeed, many other faqhs also
declared him to be an infidel, and among these we may mention al-Shawkni, al-Izz ibn Abd al-
Salm and Burhn al-Dn al-Baq. The latter actually authored a work entitled Tanbh al-Ghab il
Kufr Ibn Arab (Alerting the Fool to the Disbelief of Ibn Arab)!
What distinguishes the researches of Abd al-Wahhb al-Muaddib is the fact that he reveals to us
the illuminating side of our inheritance and knows how to distinguish it from its darker or obscure
side. He extracts it much as you would extract a hair from a ball of dough, and in so doing allows
Arabs and Muslims to feel that the adoption of European Enlightenment or European culture does
not imply any betrayal of their own great heritage. On the contrary, it puts them directly in contact
with it once again by establishing the connection between, on the one hand, the Arab Islamic
Enlightenment and, on the other hand, the European Enlightenment of the Renaissance and the eras
that followed it. It is well known that the Renaissance of the Europeans did not take place until after
translations of our scholars and philosophers were carried out. This is a highly intelligent intellectual
strategy which the Tunisian thinker is employing to confront the exclusionist, fundamentalist current
in our present culture and heritage. It is par excellence an effective strategy and explains his focusing
in upon all the enlightened thinkers, past and present, in our tradition.
In the past he may call as witness Ibn Rushd, Ibn Sn, al-Frb, the Mutazila and other
distinguished personalities. In the present he may call as witness the great thinkers of the Arab
liberal age lasting from the 19th century to the mid 20th century. But in order to combat puritanical
fundamentalism on their own ground, he adduces as evidence the emir Abd al-Qdir al-Jazir or
Muhammad Abduh. Can anyone cast doubt upon the Islamic credentials of the great emir or of the
pious professor? Al-Muaddib sees that the emir Abd al-Qdir al-Jazir was a noble student of his
professor the great shaykh Muhy al-Dn Ibn Arab. He was the one who renewed the
interpretation of his message so as to harmonise with his own age, and he was the one who adopted
some of the propositions of European Enlightenment philosophy, just as enlightened Muslims had
done. The fact is, that in confronting the challenges posed to us we have to become familiar with
developments in Europe that are the product of the Age of Enlightenment. Some major Muslim
theologians have re-prioritised the employment of the intellect over blind repetition, and among
these enlightened fuqah (doctors of law) we may mention the mufti of Egypt Shaykh Muhammad
Abduh (1848-1905) who argued to the effect that whenever a difference emerges between the
intellect and tradition (or the Sunna), the last word should go to the intellect.
Abd al-Wahhb al-Muaddib sees that contemporary doctors of law have restored to the concept of
innovation its positive meaning, one which was predominant during the era of the Abbasid fuqah
who wished to derive benefit from the innovations of conquered societies that were more advanced
than the Arabs. For the Arabs were coming across new things that they did not know of beforehand
in Mecca or Madina, and they considered them to be positive innovations and licensed their
adoption in the interests of Muslims and Islamic civilisation. The reformist Ottoman sultans
depended upon these ancient fatwas to legitimise the adoption of a constitution on the European
model. Reformist doctors of law added to the concept of positive innovation another concept which
was that of the concept of interest, in the sense that if anything acted in the interests of the Nation
then it had to be adopted, even if it ran contrary to scriptural texts.
76
Consequently, not all Muslim
doctors of law are obscurantists who reject modern culture in toto in the way that hardline Wahhabi
Salafists do. This is what Abd al-Wahhb al-Muaddib is trying to say: that in fact Islam has two
heritages: the heritage of self-isolation following Ibn Taymiyya and his ilk, and the heritage of
openness on the lines of Ibn Rushd and Ibn Arab and those who follow them, right up to the
exponents of the Arab Renaissance of the liberal age.

76
On all of this see al-Muaddibs aforementioned work, p.132-133.
For this reason enlightened clerics of the likes of Jaml al-Dn al-Afghn and Muhammad Abduh
came into conflict both with local potentates and foreign imperialists. And here al-Muaddib makes a
very important point: that European civilisation itself has two faces which persist to this day an
illuminating, enlightened face which is of great benefit to us, and a repugnant, expansionist,
imperialist face. Many great Muslim thinkers at the time felt the glaring contradiction between these
two faces that is, between the idealistic principles of the Enlightenment and the arbitrary acts of
European invaders carried out in the name of modernisation but all the while betraying it. For by
their savage, bloody invasion of Algeria, the French trampled over the noble principles of the French
Revolution.
And it is for this reason that the credibility of enlightenment in the Arab world has been dealt a
severe blow. No one dares any more to speak of the philosophers of modernity and the
Enlightenment or the positive elements of European civilisation, for fear of being labelled a poodle
of imperialism. It is said that Taha Hussein himself, the pioneer of the Arab Enlightenment, suffered
a severe blow when he heard what French imperialism was doing in Algeria or how Damascus had
been pounded by artillery fire. He became ashamed of his earlier expression of admiration for
French civilisation. We might add that the absolute support enjoyed by the Zionist, colonial,
expansionist project from the great Western powers has deprived the Enlightenment of whatever
credibility left to it.
And this is the worst thing to afflict the Arabs. For a state of confusion and ambiguity now obtains
due to the misguided behaviour of Westerners and their betrayal of the Enlightenment. Arabs are no
longer able to make a distinction between the positive elements of Western culture and its negative
elements. These negative aspects have cast their shadow over everything so that, as they say, good
follows after bad. In the end this has led to the era of the Arab Renaissance being stillborn and the
halting of any creative interaction with European modernity. It has also led to a powerful blowback,
to the resurgence of movements of self-isolation that pronounce excommunication upon any
opening up to the modern, enlightened philosophy on the grounds that it is Western that is, a
Satanic abomination! That is why we say that the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the
Israeli state and of Arab-Jewish reconciliation will make a great contribution towards promoting the
issue of Arab enlightenment. But for as long as the conflict continues to bleed, and the horizons
remain blocked, fundamentalist movements will continue to enjoy their vigorous resurgence.
It is unfortunate that I am unable to speak longer on the enlightening analyses contained in this
valuable book by Abd al-Wahhb al-Muaddib. I would have liked to speak of his fourth section
entitled: On Arab Decadence its Causes and its Remedy, or the fifth section following it entitled:
Either Civilisation or Extinction. But the reader may consult the work himself if he knows French. If
he does not then he is missing a lot, in much the same way as I missed a lot before I left, one day, for
France to learn the language of Molire and Voltaire. There is of course one solution that the book
should be properly translated so that the Arab reader from the West to the East may derive benefit
from it.

Annex II Press Articles on the Rome Conference
Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari

Islamic Reform in Rome
17 December 2012 - Al-Jarida, al-Ayyam and the Qatari al-Watan

In Rome, the capital of modern Italy, the capital of the ancient Roman Empire, the cradle of Roman civilisation
with all its surviving remains, a city which harbours the Vatican State (the smallest independent state in the
world) the seat of the Papacy and centre of Catholicism, a pilgrimage centre for its adherents and the target of
five million tourists every year in this enchanting city of three million inhabitants with all its illustrious
remains, in the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross situated not far from the River Tiber that flows through
the centre of Rome, and not far from the Pantheon the greatest of all Roman remains a number of Arab
reformers met with their Western and American counterparts and engaged in fruitful discussions on rationality
and reform in Islam (7-8 December).
The convener and director of this meeting was the British scholar Stephen Ulph, one who was taken up the
project of reforming Islam through his translation into English of articles written by Arab reformers and his
publishing them on his website www.almuslih.org. His is an attempt to draw the ears of Western intellectuals
to the voices of Arab reformers with the aim of dismantling the typical image in the western mindset of Arabs
and Muslims as people recalcitrant to reform. As Director of Almuslih, Stephen Ulph believes in the possibility
of Islamic reform taking place and is gambling on the efforts of Arab reformers, aiming to lend them support
and increase their profile in the Western arena. He seeks to allay the suspicions of Westerners that the Arab
arena is dominated by extremists, Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood. He wishes to convey the message of
Arab intellectuals struggling for modernity and enlightenment in the field, and underline that it is these who
are the ones deserving of support if the West wants to witness an Arab reform. This was the message of the
conference: to bring the voices of Arab reformers to the West, repair a distorted image and demonstrate the
myth of the Clash of Civilisations or the delusions of a western enmity to Islam, so as to block the way to
those on either side who call for confrontation.
It is a matter of pride that the organisers insisted that the language of the discussion should be Arabic, and
meeting in this ancient religious university the participants on the Arab side were: Lafif Lakhdar, Shaker al-
Nabulsi, Hashem Saleh, Ashraf Abdelkader, Kamil al-Najjar, Abdulkhaliq Hussein, Raja Ben Slama and the
present writer. On the western side were Sebastyen Gorka, Katherine Gorka, Robert Reilly, Tony Assaf, Fr.
Wafik Nasry and Kashore Jayabalan, while directing the conference with consummate professionalism was
Stephen Ulph.
The conference was successful beyond all imaginings in the view of Hashim Saleh, and on a rain-swept morning
the conference opened with important questions which demanded answers: How do we perceive the process
of reform? What are the obstacles standing in its way and how may these be overcome? Is there an agreement
among Arab reformers as to the nature of reform? Do Westerners understand the obstacles confronting Arab
reformers? What is the nature of support that is required from Westerners and what are the practical ways of
lending this support?
Proceedings began with the paper given by Shaker al-Nabulsi: Muslim reform: obstacles and opportunities. He
said that those who think that what happened in the West can take place in the East are gravely mistaken
since, in his view, there is no comparison to be made between the movements of Western enlightenment and
what is happening today in the Arab arena. This is due to a number of factors:
Social, cultural and political conditions constitute major obstacles
Christianity is not Islam
Modernisation is in need of power since God listens more to power than to the Qurn, and there is no
power base for modernisation
The arena is occupied by Islamists who dominate the mosques, the pulpits, the satellite channels, all other
means are at their service, whilst political power also stands by their side
Reform requires an industrialised society not a fatalistic, agrarian society
Illiteracy is widespread
The education system simply reflects that which is prevalent
There is no social or cultural base for reform.
His paper presented a somewhat pessimistic vision, and I picked up on his statement that modernity is in
need of power of the likes of Atatrk, Bourguiba and Gamal Abd al-Nasser. I replied that gambling on power
to impose reform is hardly a guaranteed venture, since it would dissolve when the rulers authority dissolves,
as is happening today where the legacy of Atatrk is slowly dissipating, Bourguibism is in crisis and Nasserism
is at an end. Reform begins with a social base since
Allah changeth not the condition of a folk until they (first) change that which is in their hearts.
77

In this I was supported by Sebastyen Gorka who opined that reform has to extend its roots deep into society
and grow upwards. Lafif Lakhdar, however, countered this by saying that revolution is a phenomenon of the
lites not of the masses, and that those who participated in the French Revolution numbered a mere 250
persons while the movement for enlightenment was borne by 100 individuals had these been assassinated
the Enlightenment would not have taken place. What is required is the transformation of reformist thought
into legislation at the hands of what he referred to as the Kings of Enlightenment such as Bourguiba who
adopted the thought of al-Haddd
78
in his work Our Women in Shara and Society, and which became
guaranteed in the 1956 Code of Personal Status
79
.
We come now to the paper given by the Iraqi thinker Abdulkhaliq Hussein who migrated to Britain in the 70s
escaping from oppression and deteriorating conditions. He presented an important paper aiming to wake up
the West from its somnolence vis--vis the dangers of political Islam and he criticised their indulgence of
fundamentalists who exploit their freedoms to sow extremism in the minds of the youth of expatriate Muslim
communities. He cited the privileges granted to the fundamentalists and the British government's inability to
act and warned of the disastrous fate awaiting Muslims in Europe. He said: as liberals we have no problem
with Islam but our problem is with political Islam which rules in the name of God and wishes to impose its
views, we wish to save Islam and civilisation from them. I followed this up with the criticism of the indulgence
granted by Western legal systems to criminals to the point of pampering them. For the butcher of Oslo
(Breivik) perpetrated a massacre killing 76 Norwegians in cold blood boasting that he was trying to save
Europe from the Muslims yet despite this he was given a lenient sentence!
Then it was Hashem Salehs turn, and he spoke to us of his personal experience with enlightenment. Sensing
the oncoming danger following the Khomeini revolution and the intensification of religious conflict, he decided
to leave Syria in 1979 bound for Paris for the purpose of completing his studies. There he met with Mohamed
Arkoun and studied under him, later becoming a translator of his works and introducing his work to the Arab
world. Today he is a symbol of Arab enlightenment through his prodigious activities. He explains his tactics for
disseminating enlightenment as being of two levels:
the internal level by highlighting the enlightened elements in the Heritage so as to confront the
obscurantist elements
the external level the translation of Western enlightenment into the Arab world.
Answering the question posed by Sebastyen Gorka: how can the West help Arab reform? Hashem delineated
three things:

77 The author is citing Qurn XIII,11.
78 Tahir Haddad (1899-1935) was a Tunisian author, scholar and reformer. In his 1930 book Our Women in the Shara and Society he
advocated for expanded rights for women.
79 The Code of Personal Status is a series of progressive Tunisian laws aiming at the institution of equality between women and men in a
number of areas. It was promulgated on August 13,1956 and came into effect on January 1, 1957. The Code abolished polygamy, created a
judicial procedure for divorce and required marriage to be performed only in the event of the mutual consent of both parties.
1. Prevent Western extremists from provoking the Muslims by insulting their religious symbols (the
Prophets) and lend support to the issuance of a UN resolution prohibiting the defamation of religions,
since gratuitous provocations do not help the promoters of reform and instead serve those who
promote conflict. Conversely the West should demand that Muslims prohibit sermons that defame
other religions;
2. The West should support reform by encouraging petroleum states to aid non-petroleum states
through the promulgation of an Arab Marshall Plan, since the success of reform is bound up with the
improvement of economic conditions;
3. The West should support the forces of enlightenment by opening institutes for the teaching of Islam
to expatriate Muslim youth under a modern rationalist methodology as France has undertaken
recently.
A number of those present opposed the issuance of a UN resolution prohibiting the defamation of religions for
fear that this will be exploited for the purpose of narrowing freedom of expression, one of the greatest and
most important human rights. They said: the world should not have to make concessions to Muslims, rather
Muslims should act as adults and learn to be indifferent like the Westerners. Sebastyen Gorka posed the
question: is the insulting of Christ or the other Prophets a human right? Raja Ben Slama responded that
Western legal systems are designed to criminalise insults made to the living, not those made to the dead! She
said that eastern culture sometimes is tolerant of insults made against the living yet does not tolerate insults
against the dead. Yet the Prophets are living in the hearts of their followers, so does Western culture have the
right to impose its values on other cultures? What rationality or enlightenment is there in the provocation of a
billion and a half Muslims? How can Muslims be asked to become indifferent?
In her own paper Raja Ben Slama defied the Islamists to make any attempts on the achievements of Tunisian
women, gambling on the forces of secularism and globalisation and education in favour of women, and saw in
women's ability to go out to work a physical reality that is more influential than the efforts of reformers, in
that the domination of men has finally been removed. She called on the West to remain neutral and not to
support the Islamists, saying: leave us to deal with them. In her points of view I discerned a generalisation
that was contradicted by the reality of women in all our societies with the exception of Tunisia. For male
domination persists and the rights of women are curtailed.
There is no room here to discuss the important papers of Lafif Lakhdar, al-Najjar, Abdelkader and my own.
There remains only for us to say that it is not surprising that we should seek to promote Islamic reform in
Rome since in Paris in 2003 a meeting was convened of 50 Arab thinkers under the aegis of the Cairo Centre
for Human Rights which issued the Paris Declaration on the Renewal of Religious Discourse, and this is
regarded as one of the most important declarations for religious reform.

Islamic voices for rationality
Al-Ittihad, 18 December 2012
In the beautiful city of Rome with its fabulous historical monuments, I attended an intellectual colloquium
which had as its title Islamic voices for reason and reform along with the cream of Arab and Western
reformers, and which took place over the period 7 - 8 December. The organiser of this meeting was the British
scholar Stephen Ulph the director of the Almuslih project, a research project focusing on reform through the
translation into the English language of articles by Arab reformers, that is, into the Western arena for the
purpose of educating Western intellectuals on the movement for intellectual and religious renewal and reform
in the Arab world. Through its website and other means such as conferences, the project aims at conveying the
message of Arab reformers to the West and working to correct the mental image of Arabs and Muslims as
people unable to grasp the concepts of modernity, enlightenment and rationality, and whose Islam is
somehow recalcitrant to reform, or that their arena is dominated by extremists, Salafists and the Muslim
Brotherhood.
The British scholar Stephen Ulph aims to acquaint Western intellectuals and those in Europe and America who
concern themselves with reform with Arab intellectuals of liberal and enlightened Islamic tendencies, for the
purpose of supporting and underpinning their intellectual efforts in spreading the concepts of rational
modernity. It was a great opportunity for me to meet with these elite Arab and Western thinkers and to get to
know their thoughts through the academic papers they presented and the brilliant discussions that took place
amongst the participants.
A number of these papers were very important. For instance Dr Shaker al-Nabulsis paper on Muslim reform:
obstacles and opportunities, in which he dealt with the obstacles to reform in Arab societies, citing for instance
the widespread illiteracy in important countries, the occupation by Islamists of the public space and their
domination over mosques, pulpits and satellite channels and all other media for distributing their views, their
use of money to buy the voices of the lite, so that political authorities now stand alongside them. All these
things constitute obstacles to the desired intellectual reform.
The scholar went on to talk about modernity and said that it requires an industrialised society not a resigned
agricultural one, and needs an authority in that God Almighty controls more through power than through the
Qurn. But modernity does not have any power in the Arab world. He then concluded that those who think or
place their bets that what happened in the West in the past could happen in the East are gravely mistaken for
there is no comparison to be made between the movements of Western Enlightenment and what is happening
today in the Arab arena.
Opinions varied among those commenting on this scholar, and it was clear that the Arab picture was not so
gloomy, and that the concepts of modernity, rationalism and reform are indeed making headway in Arab lands
and that Arab peoples are undergoing continuous change in step with the movement of history. The paper of
the Tunisian scholar Dr Raja Ben Slama reflected an optimistic picture of the position of Arab women and their
future. She reassured the audience that the achievements of Tunisian women under the legacy of Bourguiba
have nothing to fear from the Islamists, since the forces of civic society in Tunisia are fully capable of defending
them. The scholar placed her bets on the forces of globalisation, secularisation, cultural opening up, the
freeing up of religious interpretation, and the arts as factors working in favour of the future of women's rights.
She held that material reality, represented by women going out to work, is the most powerful of these factors
which works its influence far more than any efforts of reformers, and has brought to an end once and for all
the era of male supremacy all that is remaining being to equalise rights of inheritance. But she demanded
Westerners not to support Islamists but instead to remain neutral, saying: we can take care of the Islamists
ourselves.
Yet despite this optimistic view the condition of Arab women with the exception of Tunisia does not allow
us to generalise this verdict, for male supremacy persists and the rights of women fall short even if this varies
according to the different Arab societies.
The London-based Iraqi thinker Dr. Abdulkhaliq Hussein presented an important paper calling vociferously for
the West to be on their guard against the dangers to Western society posed by political Islam. Fundamentalists
and political Islamists are exploiting Western freedoms to spread their ideas among the younger generation of
the Islamic expatriate communities and recruit them for their destructive projects. Even so Western
governments have yet to adopt a decisive position as to how to handle them, and indeed we see an indulgence
of them to the point of pampering the extremists. As evidence he cited the position taken by the British
government concerning fundamentalist leaders and the way that it stands powerless to act against them
despite the fact that these cost Western societies much of their taxpayers money.
He warned of the disastrous fate awaiting Islamic communities if Westerners continue to remain ignorant of
them and continue their absurd handling of the dangers posed by the Islamists and political Islam. The
indulgence referred to by the scholar as taking place in Western punitive legislation against criminals and
terrorists is a reality all of us have witnessed the lenient sentence given to the Oslo butcher Breivik who
killed 76 Norwegian youths in full view of everyone, on the grounds that he was attempting to save Europe
from the Muslims!
The thinker Hashem Saleh one of the symbols of Arab enlightenment delighted us with his tale of a
personal experience in the field of enlightenment, since his journey from his homeland Syria and arrival in
Paris in 1979 for the purpose of completing his studies. He told how he met with Mohamed Arkoun and was
influenced by him, becoming his student and later the translator of his books. Subsequently he became the
publiciser of his enlightenment thinking in the Arab world through his own books, articles and translations of
Western Enlightenment thought, along with his highlighting of illuminating elements of the Islamic heritage as
a means of facing down elements that are obscurantist.
Dr Kamil al-Najjar presented a paper entitled The reform value of a critical reading of Islam and early Islamic
history, while the liberal thinker Lafif Lakhdar offered up a number of proposals including: the
institutionalisation of this conference under the title The annual Almuslih conference on Islamic reform and
the Arab and Western worlds; the institution of another Almuslih site dedicated to translating Western
works on Islam; a call for representatives of minorities in the Arab world and reformers outside the Arab world
to contribute to it and so on. He also distributed amongst the other participants a paper entitled: The reform
of Islam is both necessary and possible, in which he called for Islam to be studied and taught via the method of
comparative religious studies for the aim of producing an Islamic religious rationalism and fostering a Muslim
individual who in his mindset and thoughts remains independent of those who act as directors of conscience.
Finally, my own contribution was a paper on Diagnosing the Arab-Muslim mentality as a precursor to reform,
in which I discussed four predominant delusions in this mentality:
1. The delusion of a flourishing past that makes us venerate our ancestors to such an extent that we that
we seek in them solutions to the problems of our contemporary societies
2. The delusion of male superiority that informs Arab lawmaking and induces it to diminish the rights of
women in various fields
3. The delusion of a global conspiracy against Islam and Muslims dominating the larger part of the Arab-
Muslim mindset and its various political currents: nationalist, leftist and political Islamist
4. The delusion of the possession of absolute truth the dominant intellectual feature among all Islamic
sects in their disputes as to who constitutes the Saved Sect!
This was the message of reform in Rome, and it was a message successfully delivered.

Hashem Saleh

The Rome Conference and the Reform of Islamic Concepts
Al-Sharq al-Awsat: 4 December 2012
Hashem Saleh
Your humble servant, unable to reform himself and correct his own stoop, has recently received an invitation
to attend a detailed conference on Islamic reform in the Italian capital (7-8 December). It has been organised
and supervised by the British scholar Stephen Ulph. It appears that he is one of the great specialists in affairs of
the Arab, Islamic world. I was surprised to find from our correspondence that he has complete command of
Arabic. Moreover, he translates the texts of Arab intellectuals smoothly into Shakespeares idiom. How happy
one feels when one comes across a foreign intellectual western or eastern who knows our language! You
feel as if you have been restored your historic worth after all this time. And you think of your great ancestors
from the Golden Age, when Arabic was the language of science, philosophy and the civilised world, just as
English is today. I felt that those who have had mastery over the world for four centuries have begun to sense
our importance and our value, and are taking us into account, even if this is merely a potential assumption of a
future to come. The Arabosphere from the East to the West is set to be half a billion people by the year
2050: that is, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, even if my age will reach 100 years at the most.
The Arab word is replete with huge, hidden potential, but what will happen when it opens up? The greatest
Spring in history will burst on the world when there is at the same time a Spring of ethics, love, and human
civilisation. For what meaning does a civilisation have without ethics? Clearly, this will not occur until the
cavemen awaken from their slumber and Arabs rise up again from a stumbling about that has gone on for
centuries. Wake up! Here, indeed, is where the basic task of the conference and those attending it lies. For a
true, future, political Spring must first be preceded by an intellectual enlightenment! We cannot forge an Arab
future with the mentality of bygone eras. This is where the great contradiction inherent in the current Spring
resides. But given that this mentality is still predominant and enjoys a historical legitimacy and a massive
public support, we will have to cross swords with it in one form or another. In other words, we have to criticise
it and pull it apart.
Most western intellectuals European or American imagine that the Arab arena is entirely under the sway of
the Muslim Brotherhood, and that there is no place for an Arab, Muslim, modernist liberal. But what is
happening in Egypt, a great pioneer at the moment, evidences that this perception of us put forward by the
western media is erroneous and imbalanced. Perhaps one of the aims of the conference is to pull apart this
caricature concerning the Arabs and Muslims. We shall do this in front of western intellectuals who are
participating. The discussion will take the form of a dialogue of cultures, not a clash of cultures. We are fed up
with this sterile, erroneous type of discussion. The entire history of humanity is one of interaction and
exchange between different cultures. In particular between European culture and Arab-Islamic culture.
The traditional, fundamentalist intellectual no doubt exists, and has enjoyed his respect and legitimacy over
history, but the enlightened, reformist intellectual also exists! Now the struggle over the Arab lands is one
between two extremes, a struggle which to a great extent will decide the fate of the Arabs, or what has come
to be known as the Arab Spring .
All these questions I will take with me to Rome tomorrow. Of course, I will bring back to you as soon as I return
a detailed report on the discussion and the thinking that took place there.
And one last but very important - note: all the papers and discussions will be delivered in Arabic, not the
usual English we must use in conferences around the world! Those who do not know our language will have
translators ready for them. Isnt this something marvellous, especially since it is taking place in the heart of
Rome? Just the other day Prince Khalid al-Faysal inaugurated the 11
th
Conference on Islamic Thought in Dubai.
The beautiful slogan proposed at the time was: Let us revive our language! His majesty militated against the
slackening of some Arab intellectuals of their support for their Arabic language and their tendency to prefer
English. He said: We are today in a time of great danger for our language. It is the object of unprecedented
attacks in its very heartlands. Shaykha Bint Muhammad Al Khalifa followed up his remarks by saying: Arab
ministers of culture should defend the Arabic language, just as minsters of defence defend their nations. She
was right, and it is what she is doing in fact via her strategic position as head of the Bahrayni Ministry of
Culture.
Indeed, the Arabic language is in danger and it will be the end of the Arabs and Arabism if what is feared
overtakes them!
...............

Note the comments posted to his article:
Fouad Abdel Nour, Berlin
Prof. Hashim, yours is a fine article. I look forward to your report, but I suspect that it will be an
abridged one due to the limited space that will be afforded you. If there were any way to get a full-
length copy I would be most grateful.
Yusuf al-Awad, Jordan/USA
Any language in the world derives its force from the force of its people in all fields - the military, the
economic, the social, the political and the educational. Yes, in the past we were a beacon of science
for the world, but the important question is: what is our situation now and in the future? What
example can we give to the world to convince them that we and our language have the capacity to
express human civilisation in all its aspects, if we were only able to employ it in a way that respects
pluralism, difference and a relationship to others that is not based on expelling them or marginalising
them. Many nations, irrespective of a plurality of languages, have still managed to unite, while the
Arabs are divided despite their possessing a single language. It is a very strange point of distinction.
Muhammad al-Yami, France
My dear Professor and thinker Hashim Saleh, our language is a frozen one that cannot keep up with
the modern age, it needs to be developed to keep pace with an age of inventions. The authors of the
Muallaqat poems are long gone, Prof. Saleh; the era of the Abbasids and the Umayyads were the
eras when our language flourished, these are gone and will never return. Go to Rome and tell them
that all roads will not lead to Rome. Send my greetings to all there.
The Rome Conference, and the dialogue of civilisations
Al-Sharq al-Awsat: 12 December 2012
Hashem Saleh
Well, I have finally got back from Rome delighted by this conference that surpassed all expectations.
I was fearing that it would be a superficial one where we would exchange inane smiles, hypocritical
courtesies or rhetorical speeches. But instead it got straight down to business! This was Gods
blessing, or perhaps that of the Vatican since the colloquium was held in the quiet, super-clean halls
of the Vatican University. Do not expect me to relate all the papers and discussions that took place
there, since this would require dozens of pages. I will confine myself to summarising it, focussing on
the basic themes, or some of them at least. Participating from the Arab side were Raja Ben Slama,
Lafif Lakhdar, Shaker al-Nabulsi, Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari, Abd al-Khaliq Hussein, Kamil al-Najjar and
Ashraf Abdelkader, and your humble servant the writer of these lines.
From the western side the participants were Sebastyen Gorka, professor in the National Defense
University in America, along with his beautiful blonde wife Katherine Gorka, Executive Director of
the Westminster Institute in Washington, Robert Reilly, scholar at the American Foreign Policy
Institute, and we should not forget the director of the conference Mr Stephen Ulph and his lovely
assistant who reminds one of the French actress Marlene Jobert. When I complimented her more
than once that she looked like those beautiful French ladies she replied sternly: but I am English! I
was quite awed by this all-consuming female indignation and expression of national pride. But then I
recalled that the French and the English over the course of history were enemies, and then latterly
became friends due to the European Union and intellectual enlightenment. Can we too dream of a
Sunni-Shia reconciliation after a million years? Let me dream on!
Shaker al-Nabulsi opened the conference with a lecture entitled: Muslim reform: obstacles and
opportunities. He told us that we are heirs to a heavy heritage from which we cannot easily escape.
We are the product of a century and a half of Mamluk rule followed directly by four centuries of
oppressive, arbitrary Ottoman rule. In short we are the product of centuries of decline and
oppression, let alone illiteracy, poverty and all the other factors that buttress the popularity of the
fundamentalists and grant them easy victory over us. Added to this is the fact that they have the
mosques on their side, religious festivals and fundamentalist satellite channels too, and indeed Arab
leaders who themselves have a predilection for fundamentalist thought. And all this, at a time when
we modernists constitute no more than a small, unsupported handful. How can we reverse the
balance of power in such an environment? Al-Nabulsi surprised us when he said that the Shaykh al-
Islam dismissed the Ottoman Sultan and had him executed for having attended a music concert at
the Opra in Paris. Consequently the authority of the clerics over our societies is not something to
be trifled with. By way of solution he proposed that we should therefore attain power so that the
others should fear us, saying that Modernity is in need of power! But where is the sultan of
modernity and his drawn sword?
But Dr. Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari countered this, saying that change cannot take place from above via
authority, but rather from below. Otherwise it merely remains as an adventure whose results cannot
be guaranteed, and cannot be rooted in the ground. Instead it will remain something superficial and
easily overturned, as has happened recently to the legacy of Atatrk and Bourguiba at the hands of
the Islamists. But at the same time al-Ansari told us that the efforts of enlightened Arabs over the
course of 100 years were not and will not be scattered in vain, on the simple evidence of what is
happening now in Egypt. For the Islamists themselves have begun to talk the language of modernity
and democracy when only 20 years ago these things were simply written off as kufr, as far as they
were concerned. Is this not a victory for enlightenment and liberal thinking? This was also the
opinion of Abd al-Rahman al-Rashid in one of his illuminating pieces in al-Sharq al-Awsat. In this
opinion he was supported by the American scholar Sebastyen Gorka, who has a doctorate in
philosophy and theology. He told how a short while ago I was in Turkey and noticed that the
fundamentalists are dismantling the secular legacy of Atatrk stone by stone. Consequently change
from above, as carried out by the Turkish leader when he imposed secularism on Turkish society,
may be speedy and active for a while but nevertheless remains something superficial. Change has to
come from below and work upwards, and not top-down. He said that what we need today is the
breaking open of this theological and doctrinal closure in Islam.
Abd al-Khaliq Hussein excoriated the West for its indulgence of the fundamentalist leadership
resident in England and in the West in general. He gave many examples of this. He called on Western
intelligentsia and politicians to support the friends of freedom and not their enemies.
For her part Raja Ben Slama, director of the Al-Awan website, focused her paper on the current
Tunisian experience taking place. Her talk was accompanied by practical examples, not merely
theoretical standpoints. From her we understood that change is possible despite the fact that the
forces of civic society are everyday having to defend the state of rights, law and general freedoms at
every moment. Were it not for this desperate defence the fundamentalists would have been able to
demolish the achievements of Tunisian women, achievements which all other Arab women can only
envy.
Other participants will forgive me if I pass over their valuable papers due to lack of space. But I will
just say that Lafif Lakhdar summed up the entire situation in one phrase when he quoted the famous
saying of Bertrand Russell:
intellectual enlightenment was carried out by 100 individuals; if they had been assassinated this
European cultural enlightenment would have been put back centuries!
I would like to pass over if I may my own paper and just mention a single point regarding the
theological prison or the doctrinal closure in Islam. For we are all imprisoned within our sects and
denominations whether we like it or not. Why is this so? Because we have grown up with them since
we were knee-high and have absorbed them with our mothers milk, as if they were sanctified,
infallible doctrines that admit of no discussion. Consequently it is very difficult to free ourselves from
them. Unless, at best, we follow Descartes who at one stroke (after he grew older and matured)
destroyed all of his earlier conceptions! At the same time the idea that other religions and
denominations are all utterly false is rooted in our mentality. So how is it that we can possibly love
them or respect them? For they and all the religions are nothing compared to us. Here is where the
great peril which threatens the entire Islamic world lies: for it is still living in a pre-modern phase,
that is, one that precedes intellectual and philosophical enlightenment.
But at the same time I did put this to our Western counterparts: do not expect that we can achieve
in four days what you achieved in four centuries! We will not be able to digest all the theological,
scientific and philosophical upheavals that have come over Europe over the past four centuries until
now. Go easy on us, Gentlemen, and give us some time.
In this I received the enthusiastic support of the American scholar Robert Reilly with whom I
conversed in depth on a personal basis in the hotel lounge. He showed me his recently published
book which bore the title: The Closing of the Muslim Mind How Intellectual Suicide Created the
Modern Islamist Crisis. Do any of us realise that intellectual suicide is a term taken from the famous
Pakistani reformer Fazlur Rahman? The thesis of the book is one that has the agreement of scholars
both of the East and of the West; that is, that extremist and oppressive movements are the direct
product of intellectual and philosophical suicide in the land of Islam ever since the start of its long
centuries of decline.
.....

Note the comment posted to his article:
Abdullah al-Shihri France, Dec 12 2012:
Modernity in all its dimensions will come, there is no doubt about that. However, the mechanisms of
thinkers and writers vary. The opinions of some may clash and inflict wounds psychologically, as in the
case of Kamil al-Najjar, Raja Ben Slama, Nabil Fayyad and al-Qusaymi ... This method has
repercussions which often lead only to more conflict ... while we find that there are others whose
thought pours forth free-flowing like river-water, without having to inflict injury, such as in the case of
the thinker Arkoun, or the writer of the above article, or al-Nabulsi. Theirs is the more successful
method and the more upright.

Yusuf Aba al-Khayl

The Rome colloquium and the East-West dialogue
Al-Riyadh 22 December 2012
Yusuf Aba al-Khayl
I received an invitation to participate in a colloquium on rationality and modernity in Islamic
thought, convened in the Italian capital (Rome) over the 7
th
-8
th
December last, but which I was
unfortunately unable to attend due to personal circumstances. This colloquium was planned and
directed and the speakers chosen, by the British scholar Stephen Ulph, who surprised me when he
contacted me on my mobile inviting me to attend the conference, by the fact that he spoke Arabic
well.
Participating in the conference were a number of the most prominent figures and scholars, Arab and
non-Arab, such as from the Arab side Shaker al-Nabulsi, Hashem Saleh, Ashraf Abdalkader, Kamil
al-Najjar, Raja Ben Slama, Dr. Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari and from the western side Sebastyen
Gorka, Katherine Gorka, Robert Reilly, Tony Assaf, Fr. Wafiq Nasry and Kashore Jayabalan.
I first became acquainted with Dr. Stephen Ulph when he published a number of my articles on his
website Almuslih.org, a site which he inaugurated himself and which specialises in the publication of
the thoughts of Arab thinkers and intellectuals whom he qualifies as progressive, enlightened
voices from the Arab Muslim world.
Had God granted me to participate, I was intending to enter into the pivotal question which I
consider to be the principal key to the problem around which the difficulties of the relationship
between modernity and Arab Islamic thought revolve. This is an attempt to answer the question
posed by the Arabs of the era of the nahda: Is there is a conflict existing between the Arab mentality
(by which I mean the compound mindset as categorised by the French philosopher Andre Lelande)
and the values of contemporary modernity? The compound mindset is that which Al-Jabri refers to
as
a collection of principles and regulations which the Islamic Arab culture presents to its adherents as a
basis for acquiring knowledge, and indeed imposes it upon them as an epistemological system.
Before any attempt to answer this nahda question we should remember that there is an essential
epistemological distinction to be made between religion and religious thought, and consequently
between Islam and Islamic thought. The first is a matter of essence, while the second is merely one
of the accidents of this essence. The first comprises doctrines and legal rulings which are for the
most part generic and which from the time that the Prophet laid them down at al-Mahajja al-Bayda
whose night was as the day and that none but the corruptor would alter, do not change or become
replaced. For this was after the Lord Almighty had revealed, at the time of the Prophets Farewell
Pilgrimage, His words:
This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed my favour unto you, and have chosen
for you as religion Al-Islam.
80

The second is a collection of opinions, theories, commentaries, interpretations, explanations,
marginalia, deductions, denominations and decisions which Muslims have generated as social actors,
in that none of them claim their views, interpretations or deductions correspond to the Text itself.
Despite all the documentation surrounding them and their time-honoured methodology, they
amount to no more than human opinions and do not equate to the inspiration of the holy Text that
God Almighty revealed and commanded to be maintained.
The breadth of the sacred Text, in that it is a bears several aspects (as the orthodox caliph Ali ibn Abi
Talib stated), makes it indisputably a project capable of differing interpretations. As regards those
matters which the Text permits of no dispute, all that remains as fixed and self-evident is the above
particular quote and, as the fundamentalists themselves say, such Texts are few in number.
Returning to the attempt to answer the main question we say: the values of modernity are many in
number and consequently any question as to the extent of their appropriateness all of them to
this or that mentality lie outside the scope of an article such as this, which merely attempts to sum
up their nature. All we can do is focus on one of these values, one which as a subject of question and
answer has remained the same from the beginning of the Arab nahda era to the present-day. What I
mean by this is the civilian nature of political practice. The capability of the Muslim intellect to
remain compatible with the other values of modernity depends on how this question is resolved.
There is a further question that follows on from this main one, and that is: Can Islamic political
practice be considered to be governed by detailed legal rulings decisive for all aspects of governance
rulings that the judge, or the one who stands at the head of the ruling political system, is unable to
depart from one iota? Or is it governed by a universal principle or group of principles that represent
the ends and the purpose, while leaving the means of achieving this universal principle to the people
to organise according to their specific conditions of time and place?
One has to say that this question constitutes a topic of dispute among the doctors of law.
Nevertheless, an examination of the legal texts leaves no avenue before the impartial scholar other
than to confirm that general principles such as justice and equality have been defined as the aims
and purposes underlying the establishment of governance, but that the means of attaining these
end principles has been left to the people to shape and establish according to the abilities,
mechanisms and priorities available to them. That is, that the Revelation does not contain political or
economic theories on how to achieve this general principle.
There are theoretical and practical evidences that highlight this semantic hierarchy between
legitimate political goals and the means of achieving them. The Prophet demonstrated one of these
in the account of the pollination of the palm trees. This account is recorded in many versions, the
most prominent being:
As regards your religion that is my province; however, in your mundane affairs you are the wiser.
81

Another example is what the Prophet practically demonstrated at the Battle of Badr, when he
confirmed to al-Hubab ibn al-Mundhir ibn al-Jumuh that his stationing of forces at the first well was
nought but an opinion and a strategic decision, not a revelation to him from God Almighty. War, as
we know, is the second of the two responsibilities of the state. If, according to the Prophet the

80
Qurn V,3.
81
On this see Almuslih article: On the Problem of the Prophets Infallibility by Hasan Mohsen Ramadan.
opinion and the strategic decision constitute two worldly yardsticks at the time of war, the
comprehensive investigation of the place of justice and equality in their modern conceptions at a
time of peace is also a worldly yardstick from which governance and politics are to draw their
legitimacy.

Annex III - Participants at the conference
Shaker al-Nabulsi
A Jordanian reformist well-known across the Arab world who strongly advocates for secular
democracy in the Middle East. In his movement to promote democracy, he has harshly criticized
radical Islam and the terrorism that has stemmed with it and has written over 60 books related to
these issues, the more recent being
Modernity and Liberalism, on the road together (Saudi Arabia as an example)
Saudi Liberalism: Between Fact and Fantasy
From al-Aziziya to the Arena of Change The Storms of the Arab Revolution
From Al-Zeitounia to al-Azhar The Storms of the Arab Revolution
The New Liberals
Arabs between Liberalism and Religious Fundamentalism
In response to Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradhawis 2004 fatwa proscribing U.S. citizens in Iraq, al-Nabulsi
initiated and helped create a petition addressed to the United Nations to inaugurate an international
tribunal that would indict terrorists and any institutions/persons that called for terrorism. In 2006 he
authored an open letter to letter to Saudi King Abdallah Ibn Abd Al-Aziz, demanding an
investigation into a doctorial dissertation submitted to the Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic
University that named 200 modern Arab intellectuals and authors whom the author accuses of
heresy. In 2007 he participated in drawing up the St. Petersburg Declaration that called for Islamic
societies to oppose the Shara law, fatwas and promote religious freedom and tolerance, effectively
a manifesto and affirmation of Human Rights and Freedom of thought for Muslims and non-Muslims
in the Muslim world.
Abdulkhaliq Hussein
Dr Hussein is an Iraqi British citizen. He is a prolific writer on liberal themes and is well-known for his
campaigning for democracy and modernity for the Middle-East. In the 1990s Hussein was Editor-in-
Chief of the Arabic Newspaper (Democratic Future) which was established to serve as
an opposition to Saddam Husseins regime. Through his more than 700 publications and essays, Dr
Hussein aims to promote public awareness regarding Muslim fanatics and fundamentalists and
advocates for womens rights, Western style liberal democracy, civil society and secularism. He
argues against the root cause analysis taken by most Arab and western commentators, and instead
argues that the roots to terrorism must be in Islamic teachings.
Prof. Al-Ansari is the former Dean of Islamic Law at Qatar University, and is considered to be one of
the leading defenders of enlightened and progressive thought and modernism in the Arab world. He
has written extensively on the progressive politicization of religion, on the implications of Islamists in
power, on the misuse of religious influence and the need to challenge this with liberal intellectual
currents. He has formulated a 7-fold programme for religious reform: 1) the application of the UN
Security Councils prohibition on religious incitement; 2) the revival of humanitarian discourse in the
mosque; 3) the removal of religious coercive power which acts at the expense of civic institutions; 4)
the prohibition of fatwas of takfr and those which denigrate the beliefs of others; 5) the control of
Muslim charity institutions and the obligation to transparency; 6) the criminalization of the use of
pulpits for political or ideological purposes; 7) the re-examination of education methods and the
removal of extremists from the educational sector. His latest work, (The Culture of Hate)
focuses on the damage wrought by the shortcomings of contemporary religious discourse and the
need for intellectual reform at a deeper level.
Kamil al-Najjar
A Sudani scholar and medical consultant now resident in the United Kingdom, Dr al-Najjar is a
former member in his youth of the Muslim Brotherhood, and his own curriculum vitae evidences the
emancipation process from Islamism. On graduating in medicine his travel to the United Kingdom to
complete his studies brough him into contact with the contradiction between the image and the
reality of the People of the Book and their tolerance to a minority culture. He currently researches
in comparative religion and religious mythological elements in Islam. He has authored several
influential works, including (The Islamic State between Theory and
Application); (Studies in the Qurn); (Islam:
Mysogyny and Intolerance); and (A Critical Reading of Islam) which analyses the
Qurnic text and early Islamic history, and makes a comparison with parallel developments in
fundamentalism in other faiths, in order to undermine the pretentions of Islamists to a supposed
unique, authoritative Islam.
Raja Ben Slama
Dr. Raja Ben Slama, the Tunisian university professor and writer, founding memner of the League of
Arab Intellectuals and editor of the progressive Al-Awan website, is considered one of the most
prominent, and most daring, of the Arab voices advocating modernism, enlightenment, the defence
of human rights and the rights of women in the face of religious ideology. She campaigns for respect
for individual liberty and the freedom of belief and expression. Her work calls for going beyond the
religious text, and for depending on positive law as the basic source for Personal Status laws. Dr Ben
Slama has called on intellectuals and modern scholars to devise intellectual and philosophical
solutions to the reconciliation of religious beliefs and the pressures of reality and modern
understandings, which have gone beyond traditional Muslim concepts. Among her works are
(Islam and Psychoanalysis); (A Criticism of Collective Man) and
: (A Criticism of the Fixed Truths: Violence, Discrimination and
Appropriation) in which she describes how in democratic societies the received and fixed truths
include respect for the law, the principle of separation of powers, and the principles of equality and
freedom, whereas in Arab societies the fixed truths are religious identity-based, a fact which
presents a stumbling block in the path of all who desire true change and reform.

Hashem Saleh
A writer, researcher and translator specialising in issues of religious reform, modernity and the
critique of Islamic fundamentalism, Dr Saleh received his doctorate in literary criticism from the
Sorbonne in 1982. He is a columnist for the al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper and writes analyses for the
Al-Awn website. He is the author of many books on these subjects and has also specialised in
translating into Arabic and analysing the work of the late Algerian philosopher Mohamed Arkoun. He
is one of the founder members of the League of Arab Intellectuals and is a frequent figure on the
Arab media defending the cause of reform. Through his books, articles and translations of Western
Enlightenment thought, he seeks to highlight the constructive, illuminating elements in the Islamic
heritage as a means of facing down elements that are obscurantist. His latest works include
(An Introduction to European Enlightenment), (The Dilemma of
Islamic Fundamentalism) and . (The Historic
Blockage: Why did the Enlightenment Project Fail in the Arab World?).

Lafif Lakhdar
Dubbed variously the Spinoza of the Arab world, or the Arab Thomas Paine, prophet of liberty,
Lafif Lakhdar is a Tunisian citizen residing in Paris who occupies a special place in the Middle East for
the courage of his positions taken on the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism, positions that on
several occasion have placed his own life in danger. Mr. Lakhdar openly called for secularism and on
October 24, 2004 was a signatory to a manifesto written by Arab liberals in which they petitioned
the U.N. to establish an international tribunal for the prosecution of terrorists and people and
institutions that incite to terrorism. Mr. Lakhdar is an intellectual polymath who calls openly for the
root-and-branch reform of education in the Arab world, and for the reform of Islam. He calls for a
form of positive censorship which removes the teaching of the violent Medinan verses and instead
teaches the universal verses of peace which can be found in the verses of the Mecca period. More
than that, Lakhdar openly advocates the inculcation of rationalist disciplines. At the same time he is
critical of the absurdity of much western analysis on the phenomenon of Islamism, particularly those
who see in the movement some form of progressive force with a potential for reforming Islam and
bringing it closer to western liberalism. Such an approach, he explains, is evidence of thinkers having
succumbed to the comic temptation of analogy and to the lazy facility of repetition. His latest work
is a comprehensive manifesto for reform in the Islamic world: :
(The Reform of Islam through its Study and Teaching via Comparative Religion) which he has
entrusted to Almuslih to translate into English for the benefit of non-Arab Muslims.

Contributing participants unable to attend the conference
Yusuf Aba al-Khayl
With 20 years of study in Islamic law, the Saudi columnist Aba al-Khayl specialises in issues of Islamic
law and liberalism, arguing for a radical reconfiguration of Islamic discourse that will incorporate
tolerance and pluralism as an undisputed necessity. He campaigns against the attempted pigeon-
holing of liberalism as a competing doctrine inimical to Islam, on the grounds that historical
precedent demonstrates the de facto existence of religious tolerance and pluralism during the
periods of Islamic strength, as being the intellectual infrastructure that underpinned it. He argues
that tolerance and pluralism is commanded by the Qurn itself and remains today as the only
guarantor of the ability of contemporary Muslim societies to absorb the implications of a pluralist
world. Described as heralding the dawn of liberalism
82
in the heartland of Salafism, his consistent
positions in defence of liberal values in the daily al-Riyad newspaper, and on the need for tolerance
of religious dissent, have been penned in the face of a series of fatwas calling for his death.
Dr Aba al-Khayl regretted his being unable to attend, but nevertheless went on to pen an article for
the al-Riyadh newspaper (see his article in Annex II: Articles on the Rome Conference, p.92) on the
conference and the theme that he would have presented in Rome: that is, on whether
there is a conflict existing between the Arab mentality (by which I mean the compound mindset as
categorised by the French philosopher Andre Lelande) and the values of contemporary modernity.

82
See Shaker al-Nabulsi, (Saudi Liberalism: Between Fact and Fantasy) Siyasa, Beirut 2010, p.101 ff. He
compares Aba al-Khayls position on tolerance in Islam to Voltaires in defence of religious pluralism.
Muhammad al-Sanduk
An Iraqi physicist, thinker, and academician with a doctorate in Physics from Manchester Universitys
Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST), Dr Sanduk is at present visiting professor at the
University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. He specializes in Plasma Physics and the foundation of
Quantum Mechanics with a number of studies and scientific research papers published in his
specialist journals. He is a Chartered Physicist, a member of the Institute of Physics (IoP), and a
member of American Physical Society (APS). In addition to his specialty he is interested in the
philosophy of science and technology and was a member of the academic staff of the Pontifical
Babel College for Philosophy and Theology, and a member of Philosophy of Science group in Iraqs
Bayt al-Hikma House of Wisdom. He has presented models such as the employment of a statistical
technique to trace the development of science in Arabic-Islamic and western civilization, showing
explicitly the rise and decline of Arabic-Islamic science. Sanduks researches serve to throw light on
the historical origins of the present problems of the Arab-Muslim societies.

Annex IV - Feedback from the participants
Abdulkhaliq Hussein
We, the Arabs and Muslims ... are in debt to you ... and your colleagues who dedicated their time,
efforts and money in doing such a wonderful job to save the Arabs and the Muslims from their
ignorance. In fact we cannot find sufficient words to thank you and your team for your hard work.
What we need is to disseminate good Ideas to raise the awareness of Arabs and the Western people
about the danger of politicization of Islam. The Islamists are brainwashing the ignorant Muslim youth
and changing them into time bombs to become terrorists, to kill and get killed. That is why we need to
use every avenue to disseminate our ideas as wide as possible.

Hashem Saleh
Dr Salehs feedback is best illustrated by his two articles, but his second article opens thus:
I have finally got back from Rome delighted by this conference that surpassed all expectations. I was
fearing that it would be a superficial one where we would exchange inane smiles, hypocritical
courtesies or rhetorical speeches. But instead it got straight down to business!
(For the full texts see Annex II Articles on the Rome Conference)

Thank you for the generous invitation, the conference was very successful, and the participants were
all pleased to be there. The discussions were rich, useful and objective. We look forward to the next
meeting to continue what we have begun.
(From his article for al-Ittihad newspaper):
It was a great opportunity for me to meet with these elite Arab and Western thinkers and to get to
know their thoughts through the academic papers they presented and the brilliant discussions that
took place amongst the participants.
Dr al-Ansari subsequently penned two extended reports on the conference for a number of
newspapers (for the full texts see Annex II Articles on the Rome Conference, p.84).

Raja Ben Slama
Thank you for the warmth of your invitation and the exchange of ideas. It was a beautiful meeting,
and a very fruitful one.

The 2012 Rome Conference Report

Transféré par

Informations du document

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

The 2012 Rome Conference Report

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

The Rome Colloquium

Amplifying Muslim Voices for Reason & Reform

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi