Islam Between East And West

Islam Between East and West - Islamic and Western philosophies examined, by the first president of Bosnia. In comparing the offerings of secular civilization with the truths and justice of Islam, the author analyzes the West’s denial of Islam and the lack of progress among Muslims. An inspiring and astonishingly integrated analysis of the human condition. The seep of its power gives an invigorating sense of the beauty and universality of Islam. Referrals for Islam Between East and West An inspiring and astonishingly integrated analysis of the human condition. The sweep of its power gives an invigorating sense of the beauty and universality of Islam. Robin Woodsworth Carlsen For centuries Europe has benefitted from Islam, often without acknowledging it and without giving anything in return. Now with the publication of Islam Between East and West, Europe has begun to pay its debt to Islam. Rational and yet not insulting to the emotions, it exalts the spirit without denigrating the body. But what stands it apart as a landmark is its transcendental wisdom expressed in a style inherent to all noble ideas. Doubtless, its appeal will go beyond its time because it embraces life - and there is no theme greater than life. M . Tariq

Examining the historical conflicts between “faith” and “materialism”, the author presents the “bipolarity” of Islam, bringing us close to the only three possible worldviews: religious, materialistic and Islamic. He presents Islam as a method, not as a ready-made solution. In his nearly existential view, Islam is not something given, but a “Third Way” that has to be discovered for oneself; as it integrates both the religious and the materialistic and thus being the target of attack from “religion” as well as materialistic ideologies. Destoyvsky, Herman Hesse, Van Gogh, St Augestine, Kant, Nietszhe, Dante et al… All titans of Continental literature, art and thought join Izetbegovic in his take on two dominant aspects of human life: culture and civilisation.

Despite the West's growing involvement in Muslim societies, conflicts, and cultures, its inability to understand or analyze the Islamic world threatens any prospect for East–West rapprochement. Impelled by one thousand years of anti-Muslim ideas and images, the West has failed to engage in any meaningful or productive way with the world of Islam. Formulated in the medieval halls of the Roman Curia and courts of the European Crusaders and perfected in the newsrooms of Fox News and CNN, this anti-Islamic discourse determines what can and cannot be said about Muslims and their religion, trapping the West in a dangerous, dead-end politics that it cannot afford. In Islam Through Western Eyes, Jonathan Lyons unpacks Western habits of thinking and writing about Islam, conducting a careful analysis of the West's grand totalizing narrative across one thousand years of history. He observes the discourse’s corrosive effects on the social sciences, including sociology, politics, philosophy, theology, international relations, security studies, and human rights scholarship. He follows its influence on research, speeches, political strategy, and government policy, preventing the West from responding effectively to its most significant twenty-first-century challenges: the rise of Islamic power, the emergence of religious violence, and the growing tension between established social values and multicultural rights among Muslim immigrant populations. Through the intellectual "archaeology" of Michel Foucault, Lyons reveals the workings of this discourse and its underlying impact on our social, intellectual, and political lives. He then addresses issues of deep concern to Western readers—Islam and modernity, Islam and violence, and Islam and women—and proposes new ways of thinking about the Western relationship to the Islamic world.

In the spring of 2003, Jacques Derrida sat down for a public debate in Paris with Algerian intellectual Mustapha Chérif. The eminent philosopher arrived at the event directly from the hospital where he had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the illness that would take his life just over a year later. That he still participated in the exchange testifies to the magnitude of the subject at hand: the increasingly distressed relationship between Islam and the West, and the questions of freedom, justice, and democracy that surround it. As Chérif relates in this account of their dialogue, the topic of Islam held special resonance for Derrida—perhaps it is to be expected that near the end of his life his thoughts would return to Algeria, the country where he was born in 1930. Indeed, these roots served as the impetus for their conversation, which first centers on the ways in which Derrida’s Algerian-Jewish identity has shaped his thinking. From there, the two men move to broader questions of secularism and democracy; to politics and religion and how the former manipulates the latter; and to the parallels between xenophobia in the West and fanaticism among Islamists. Ultimately, the discussion is an attempt to tear down the notion that Islam and the West are two civilizations locked in a bitter struggle for supremacy and to reconsider them as the two shores of the Mediterranean—two halves of the same geographical, religious, and cultural sphere. Islam and the West is a crucial opportunity to further our understanding of Derrida’s views on the key political and religious divisions of our time and an often moving testament to the power of friendship and solidarity to surmount them.

Sufism East and West, edited by Jamal Malik and Saeed Zarrabi-Zadeh, investigates the redirection and dynamics of Sufism in the modern era, specifically from the perspective of cross-cultural exchange in the resonance spaces of “East” and “West.”

This volume provides the first survey of the unexplored connections between Machiavelli’s work and the Islamic world, running from the Arabic roots of The Prince to its first translations into Ottoman Turkish and Arabic. It investigates comparative descriptions of non-European peoples, Renaissance representations of Muḥammad and the Ottoman military discipline, a Jesuit treatise in Persian for a Mughal emperor, peculiar readers from Brazil to India, and the parallel lives of Machiavelli and the bureaucrat Celālzāde Muṣṭafá. Ten distinguished scholars analyse the backgrounds, circulation and reception of Machiavelli’s writings, focusing on many aspects of the mutual exchange of political theories and grammars between East and West. A significant contribution to attempts by current scholarship to challenge any rigid separation within Eurasia, this volume restores a sense of the global spreading of books, ideas and men in the past.

A Critical Assessment of Islam in the Modern World In his seminal work, "Islam at the Crossroads," Muhammad Asad offers a profound and insightful examination of the challenges and opportunities facing Islam in the modern world. Asad, a convert to Islam himself, provides a unique perspective on the religion, drawing from his deep understanding of both Western and Islamic thought. Asad argues that Islam is at a crossroads, facing a choice between embracing its core values of justice, equality, and compassion or succumbing to the allure of materialism and individualism. He contends that the future of Islam depends on its ability to adapt to the changing world without compromising its fundamental principles. Asad's critique of the modern Islamic world is both incisive and respectful. He identifies a number of shortcomings, including the rise of sectarianism, the stifling of intellectual inquiry, and the misinterpretation of Islamic teachings to justify violence and oppression. However, Asad also maintains a deep faith in the potential of Islam to provide a positive and transformative vision for the future. "Islam at the Crossroads" is a challenging and thought-provoking work that is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the future of Islam. Asad's insights are as relevant today as they were when the book was first published in 1934. Asad's work has been praised by scholars and laypeople alike for its honesty, insight, and profound understanding of Islam. "Islam at the Crossroads" is a landmark work that continues to inspire and challenge readers today.

Christianity, Islam, and atheism argues that Islam is a religion of conquest and subjugation and that in spite of 9/11 and thousands of other terrorist attacks thoughout the world, many in the West still do not know or admit this because it conflicts with their multiculturalism and their belief in the equivalence of all cultures and religions