Abstract
There always exists the lived Islam, the one has been dominating the spheres of religion, politics, society and culture since its formative period; i.e., the one imagined, cut off from critical reason and history and having been used as the basis of authority. This type of Islam, which Mohammed Arkoun refuted, is nothing less than Muslim traditionalists’ Islam – i.e., the one has been developing and growing out their dogmatic readings of revelation and its deterioration into ideologies of dominion. It is the one has been making use of theological (orthodox) doctrines like ‘al-Hakimiyah li Allah’ (no authority but of Allah) not only as the basis of the religious and political elites’ power and control, but also –which is worse – of Islamists extreme ideology. Here, Arkoun notes, such expressions have been taken (still are) as the basis not only of the trueness of Islam, but also of the ideology itself. It all depends on a rigid reading of certain Qur’anic verses. Muslims radicals have always found in them the pretense, arguments; say the justification of their ideology. This research paper attempts, through a critical analytical methodology, to clarify this matter from the viewpoint of Muhammad Arkoun. It lets Arkoun’s ideas circulate through my own analysis, which varies and overlaps following the fluidity of his own methodology. While it does, the comparative mode in it has its own space in certain contexts, which, altogether, form both the theoretical and organizational bases of this paper.
Highlights
Extremism very often denotes radicalism and fanaticism, though it is a complex word to surround sometimes
Literally to say an extremist is someone who is intolerant of any difference in views, attitudes or positions; i.e., an extremist is an individual who thinks, acts and live upon their single-minded zeal –this is truer as far as the definition involves a religious or political cause
The term extremism always comes in full reference to an ideology by which one's views, expressions or actions are far outside the mainstream ideologies of the society or its conventional norms
Summary
Extremism very often denotes radicalism and fanaticism, though it is a complex word to surround sometimes. Still in his terms, “the Qur'an cannot function effectively as a text of constant reference unless its status as knowledge is properly established.” It makes sense as far as reading the Qur’an from this traditional perspective is, in its turn, reinforcing the dogmatic discourse of Muslim (extremist) ideologies; i.e., treating it as the only reference for their actions without the proper examination of its (theological) basis. This might evoke the concept ‘Karma’ as long as the actions of Muslim extremists in these and previews conditions viewed as deciding the reactions of the West and true This happens always on the psychological basis of cause and effect (stimulus and response) –a dimension which Arkoun intended to bring into the study of Jihadism. It is this idea of renewal, reconceptualization or reformation –whatever observers call it – that would help Islam retrieve its modern, liberal, tolerant or humanistic essence (form), he says
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