Islam and Politics: Modernity Betrayed by Burhan Ghalioun

Rampant state fascism, decadent populism, recurrent Islamist violence, even civil wars: many Muslim societies today are experiencing serious disorder. For some analysts, these can be explained fundamentally by the particularisms of Islam, which is essentially incapable of dissociating the religious from the political, and therefore prohibits access to modernity.

Burhan Ghalioun , in this book, radically refutes this analysis. It shows that, despite appearances, religion is no longer the main source of political reference points in these societies: it is indeed the modern values of freedom, equality and " individuality " that today inspire the model of citizenship, in the land of Islam as elsewhere. The current disorder is therefore not the inevitable heir of Islam, but rather the fruit of this “ lumpen modernity” which has perverted the essential ethical and political foundations of these societies.

Neither modernism, contrary to what the Islamists think, nor traditionalism, contrary to what the secularists believe, are at the origin of the current disorder. The cause is on the contrary the absence of a coherent critical thought. This uncompromising analysis leads the author to emphasize that no outcome is possible outside of a substantive debate – which this book helps to arouse – opening the way to a real change in democratic ethics, that of freedom and dignity.

Table of content

 Introduction