A Sceptical Islamist

The Islamic movement needs institutional platforms for intellectual discourse

"The global Islamic movement is not organizationally or institutionally a single entity; instead it consists of countless scholars, intellectuals, activists, groups and movements, operating separately and independently, and following different strategies, methods and priorities according to their perceptions of the circumstances in their own parts of the world. Despite their theoretical understanding of the unity of the Ummah, most of these activists and movements have trouble relating their own struggles with those of other movements and of the fragmented Ummah as a whole...

"The movement is full of writers, commentators, analysts and scholars producing information, insights and ideas, and putting them out for public consideration as articles and papers; but most unfortunately are reaching only limited audiences, and few are effectively engaging in any meaningful exchange of ideas with others in similar positions. The main reason for this is that the platforms on which such writings are published tend to be of limited perspective and reach; and the few that aspire to be something more usually fail because of the limitations of their resources, quality and management. What the Islamic movement lacks is a larger institutional infrastructure for the circulation and exchange of ideas"

Book Review: The Islamic projects of Muhammad Asad and Alija Izetbegovic

"Discussing these early analytical works by Asad and Izetbegovic, Sherif points out that, without any influence from political Islamic movements in the Middle East, both men conclude from their reflections on Islam that it contains public and political elements as much as personal, spiritual ones, and that it is impossible to be a Muslim individually without striving also to build a community based on Islamic values...

"Fortunately for Sherif’s argument, and unlike so many Islamic activists whose lives have been cut short in one way or another, Asad and Izetbegovic both lived beyond their periods of activism to be able to look back and reflect on their lives and experiences in maturity. And in doing so, Sherif emphasises, both re-affirmed their commitment to the ideals they had expressed in their youths, despite the hardships and difficulties they had faced."

The importance of history for resisting the "imperialism of the mind"

"The decades of colonialism and postcolonial neo-imperialism have established another kind of hegemony over the Muslim world, which intellectuals such as Malek Bennabi and Ali Shari‘ati recognised long ago (and which was also discussed by non-Muslims such as Franz Fanon), but which is still un-noticed by most Muslims. This is a cultural and intellectual hegemony that takes different forms but has a single net effect: that of encouraging (if not forcing) people to think in terms defined by Western discourses, whatever subject they are thinking about...

"Winston Churchill, a proud imperialist himself, famously said that “the empires of the future are the empires of the mind”; that unfortunately is where we are today."