Rethinking Islam & the West: A New Narrative for the Age of Crises
Author: Ahmed Paul Keeler
Publisher: Equilibra Press
Year of Publication: 2019
Print Length: 188 pages
Genre: Islamic Studies / Theology, Ethics and Philosophy, Non-Fiction / Religious Studies
Topic: Civilization, History, History & Origin, Human Nature & Character, Islam, Islamic Psyche, Scholarship & Knowledge, Secularism, Sovereignty, System, Western Philosophy; Modernity, Modernism, Modern; Postmodernity, Postmodernism, Postmodern
ISLAM AND THE WEST have been neighbours for 1400 years. The West grew up under the shadow of Islam, and then after the Renaissance, in a dramatic reversal of roles, the West became world conquerors and subdued all other cultures and civilisations, including Islam. This transformation ushered in the modern world, a world unlike any that had existed before.
All nations are now judged according to their scientific progress, technological development and economic growth. And yet, humanity is now experiencing multiple crises that are threatening our very existence. Population explosion, financial, social and political instability, the alarming growth of mental illness, the threat of nuclear annihilation and climate change all loom over humanity like a dark cloud. Simultaneously, the world is witnessing a dangerous escalation in the polarisation between Islam and the West.
In this thought-provoking book, we are invited to view the crises we are facing and the tangled relationship between Islam and the West through a different lens. Keeler proposes that the true yardstick for measuring success should be the balance achieved between the spiritual, social and material needs of humanity; a balance which makes it possible to live in harmony with nature. When the world is viewed from this perspective, a completely different picture of Islam and the West emerges.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
1. Sovereignty
2. Civilisation
3. Knowledge
4. Commerce
5. Art & the Environment
6. Conquest & Expansion
7. The Age of Crises
Conclusion
Glossary
Ahmed Paul Keeler is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge, and was a Distinguished Fellow at The Faculty of Leadership and Management, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia in 2016. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Bolton in 2016. He was brought up during the 1940s and 50s in a conservative, upper middle-class, Anglo-Catholic family. He belonged to the last generation that was educated to serve an empire which, however, was in the final stages of dissolution. On leaving school he became deeply involved in the cultural movements of the 1960s that were in open revolt against the society that had nurtured him. A chance meeting with a master musician from India introduced him to a wonderful new cultural realm; in response, he formulated and organized The World of Islam Festival that took place in London in 1976, was opened by Her Majesty the Queen, and was the most comprehensive exposition of Islamic culture ever to have taken place in the West. Six months before the festival opened he embraced Islam.
Source: https://equilibrapress.com/short-bio/
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