Social and Societal Conflicts

Abstract

It would appear that the emergence of Islam into the consciousness of liberal democracies has largely been assimilated with notions of a displaced people and somewhat displaced beliefs, and it is not necessarily reconcilable with notions of freedom, tolerance and peaceful co-existence. There are, of course, a litany of atrocities, injustices and tragedies that perpetuate the schism between conceptions of a civilised world, as embodied in liberal societies, on the one hand, and what is considered to be a monolithic construction of a Muslim world, on the other. The focal point of this chapter—social and societal conflicts—is in many ways the climax of this book. The argument for an ethical enunciation of Muslim education only comes to bear, really, when juxtaposed against the realities of what some Muslims do, and, in turn, how Islam is being actualised, and, consequently, perceived and represented. Like the practices of Muslims and conceptions of Islam, social and societal conflicts are diverse, broad, limiting and yet all-encompassing. The list of dystopic declines and complexions are endless and so intricately intertwined that it becomes nearly impossible to dissect social and political calamities from economic or environmental ones. This chapter, therefore, will consider a range of dystopias currently afflicting modern understandings of ways of being and doing. It will also recognise the place of Muslims in a complex world of counter-poised discourses—both from those who are not Muslim and those who are, as well as liberal democracies and modern-day Muslim nation-states—it is our argument that since dystopias are local and global, and therefore affect all forms of civilisations, an ethical enunciation of Muslim education ought to be relevant and responsive to such dystopias.