The current crisis has grown out of a long century of renewal and closure. Lessons from the past and today’s debate
Last update: 2022-04-22 09:24:03
LEADER
The Long Century of Islam, Martino Diez
The period dating from the start of the nineteenth century until today in the Islamic world is deserving of the term "the long century": years marked by an unavoidable conflict with an intrusive West ,until the tragic epilogue of modern day. Is there a way out?
FOCUS
How ‘Abduh’s Caftan brought forth today’s Islamic Ideologies, Sherif Younis
To understand the different interpretations competing for the definition of contemporary Islam, we must go back to over a century ago, to the "revolutionary" principles proposed by Jamâl al-Dîn al-Afghânî and Muhammad 'Abduh.
The Ways of Reform in South Asia, Aminah Mohammad-Arif
Quietist, political, violent: these are the three main variations of Islamic reformism in countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. They share the same objective, i.e. transforming society, but with different and exportable methods.
The Changing Face of Wahhabism, Hamadi Redissi
The parable of a movement feared for its power that, since its origins in the eighteenth century until today, has presented itself in a changing way, from anti-colonial and anti-communist to neo-traditional, but always with a worldwide ambition.
Something New from Tehran, Forough Jahanbakhsh
How Iran has changed: from Shi'ite traditionalism to the religious ideology that inspired the Revolution; and from top-down Islamisation to the new reformist discourse that limits the role of religion in the political sphere.
A Dispute over the Good for Women. And who decides it, Hassan Rachik
The drafting of the Personal Status Code in Morocco shows how the secular and the religious have shared out space in society. An example of what the encounter between Islam and modernity can produce.
Reason Between Breastfeeding and Weaning, Wael Farouq
The paradoxical fatwas on the breastfeeding of adults as an antidote to male-female promiscuity in the workplace are the result of an attempted adaptation of modernity and tradition. With fake outcomes.
In Search of a Reformer for Islam, Michele Brignone
The Egyptian debate: al-Sisi calls for a "religious revolution," for al-Azhar it is sufficient to "correct" religious drifts, while different intellectuals point to a profound review of the Islamic tradition.
Armageddon in Islam: the Black Flags of Isis, David Cook
An array of symbols from the apocalyptic tradition has accompanied the entire history of Islam, up to the decisive leap in quality made by the Islamic State, as the magazine Dabiq documents.
An Unstoppable March towards De-Civilization?, Hamit Bozarslan
The post-World War I Middle East no longer exists. States and societies have disintegrated, the coexistence of differences has been devoured by an Islamism that, combining rationality and millenarism, ends up destroying itself.
CLASSICS
Choosing How to Travel, before Where to, Martino Diez
In Praise of Doubt, When Necessary
Al-Jâhiz and al-Ghazâlî on doubt as a useful, and sometimes necessary method, even if not sufficient, for achieving the certainty of faith, which only the light of God can guarantee.
Those Who Thirst for God Abandon Themselves to Him, Louis Gardet
For Muslims, faith is the acceptance of the intellect and the heart of the testimony of truthful witness, for the intrinsic evidence of the message itself. And it is sufficient for the salvation in virtue of the promises of God.
REPORTAGE
Free, Therefore Intolerable. Away With the Christians in Iraq!, Maria Laura Conte
The grip of the Caliph is aggravating the exodus of Christians from the Middle east: they are victims of a nihilism that is producing unsustainable numbers of displaced persons and is inexorably changing the "ecosystem" in the East and West.
BOOK REVIEWS
The Chimera of a State for the Qur’an, Martino Diez
The Islamic State on trial, an impossibility and a contradiction in terms.
Antagonism Between Islamists and Non-Secular State, Michele Brignone
The awakening of Muslim democracy, between religion, modernity and State.
The Saudi Dynasty: in the End It Has Always Won, Chiara Pellegrino
The royal house that has defied all predictions for a century.
Sparks Between the Religious and Secular Modernity, Paolo Monti
"Blasphemous" suggestions on the relationship between Islam and Western modernity,
Redemption of the Syriac Memory, Paolo Maggiolini
The genocide one hundred years later. Time to redeem it from oblivion.
Fear’s Colours, Emma Neri
Directors of different cultures between horror and the beauty that saves the world.
COLOPHON
Year 11 N.21 June 2015
Editor-in-chief
Maria Laura Conte
Scientific Editor
Martino Diez
Managing Editor
Michele Brignone
Editorial staff
Chiara Pellegrino
Editorial Consultants
Rifaat Bader
Marco Bardazzi
Bernardo Cervellera
Camille Eid
Rafic Greiche
Claudio Lurati
Graphic Design and Layout
Massimiliano Frangi
English translation
Catharine De Rienzo
and Translated Agency
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First edition: December 2015
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