Chapter 2

First Study

In Radical
Islam, Sivan proposes following two notions: First, to better understand
the thinking of modern Islamic resurgence, especially that of the Egyptian
Sayyid Qutb, [6] one has to study the influence both of Ibn Taymiyyah of the
14th century and the Pakistani Abu al‑Ala' Mawdudi of the 20th century
on Qutb's language and thought. Second, Islamic revival is basically defensive
and anti‑modern. In addition, the modernity/jahiliyyah polarity (read as
modernity/tradition polarity) provides the most adequate approach to study the
dynamics of modern Islam. [7]

Sivan's takes a political‑theological approach
to discuss the history of Arab societies in the past three decades. In other
words, his objective is to analyze the connection between "political
Islam" and society in selected Arab countries, especially Egypt, Lebanon,
Syria and Jordan. To my mind, the book is highly reductionist and selective and
does not adequately portray the historical dynamics between religious
institutions, ideas, and personalities, on the one hand, and Arab society, on
the other. Sivan uses a multitude of terms to refer to the phenomenon of
Islamism, such as radical Islam (p. 1); Islamic revival (p. 3); Islamic
militancy (p. 11), and fundamentalism (p. 67).

Sivan asserts in the first chapter, "The Mood:
Doom and Gloom," that Muslim "fundamentalists" are a pessimistic
group of people because they abhor current social and political realities. This
aversion to reality has translated itself into a radical political movement
which aims at restructuring the status
quo. Thus Sivan reduces Islamism to mere politics: "Islamic revival‑while
activist and militant‑is thus essentially defensive; a sort of holding
operation against modernity. And though it has no doubt a sharp political edge,
it is primarily a cultural phenomenon. Its very strength proceeds from this
alliance of political and cultural protest." [8]

As is common in a lot of Western writings on Islam,
the term modernity is used often. Sivan contends that Western modernity, [9] in
its economic and intellectual dimensions, presents a special challenge to
Muslims: "Western investment means the integration of the Islamic world
into the system of the multinationals, which is totally alien to Muslim
concepts of interests, insurance, taxation, and so on." [10] Then he
reaches the following major conclusion without providing enough historical
evidence and introduction: "Islam thus comes out badly bruised from the
encounter with modernity." [11] To my mind, the author fails to provide an
adequate historical analysis that takes into account the problematic nature of
colonization in the Muslim world and its different manifestations, military,
economic, cultural, political, religious, and conceptual. [12] Sivan does not
consider colonization to be problematic at all; rather, he considers the Muslim
rejection of modernity to be the crux of the matter: "The picture that
emerges is not one which scholars studying Islamic society would tend to
refute. Modernity has indeed made important gains, especially in recent decades.
Islam, although more resilient than other traditional cultures, has seen its
position greatly eroded." [13]

Notes:

[6]. See the author's recent article on Sayyid Qutb,
Ibrahim M. Abu‑Rabi, "Discourse, Power, and Ideology in Modern
Islamic Revivalism," The Muslim
World, Vol. LXXXI (3‑4), July‑October 1991, pp. 283‑298.

[7]. Many scholars follow this approach in the
course of their investigation of Islamic resurgence. See the following: Issa
Boullata, Trends and Issues in Modern
Arab Thought (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990); Gilles
Kepel, The Revenge of God: The Resurgence
of Islam, Christianity and Judaism in the Modern World (Cambridge: Polity
Press, 1994), and Abdallah Labdaoui, Les
nouveaus intellectuals arabes (Paris: L'Harmattan,1993).

[8]. Sivan, p. 3.

[9]. On modernity, consult the following: Marshall
Berman, All That Solid Melts Into Air:
The Experience of Modernity (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982), and
Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of
Modernity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990).

[10]. Sivan, p.10.

[11]. Ibid., p.14.

[12]. Khurshid Ahmad, a contemporary Islamic
thinker, insists that colonialism has been the most single important factor in
the metamorphosis of modern Muslim societies. See Ibrahim M. Abu‑Rabi,
ed., Islamic Resurgence: Challenges,
Directions and Future Perspectives, a Round Table with Khurshid Ahmad (Tampa:
The World and Islam Studies Enterprise, 1994), especially chapter three.

[13]. Sivan, p.15.