Islam Between Culture and Politics

BASSAM TIBI is Professor of International Relations at the University of Gottingen and, since 1988, a Research Associate at Harvard University. He is the author of Crisis of Modern Islam, Arab Nationalism: A Critical Enquiry and Islam and the Cultural Accommodation of Social Change. He has written six monographs in German and co-authored books in English, German and Arabic including Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East, Human Rights in Africa: Cross-Cultural Perspectives and The Study of the Middle East: International Perspectives. He is a member of the Fundamentalism Project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and co-author of the second volume of this international project.

• Introduction: Islam Between Culture and Politics: The Scope and the Implications PART I: RELIGION, CULTURE AND DEVELOPMENT: ISLAM BETWEEN PAST AND PRESENT Religion, Culture and Social Reality: Islam as a Cultural System and its Diversity Cultural Patterns and the Perception of Change in Islam: A Religious Model for Reality: The Islamic Worldview Culture and Social Change: Tradition and Innovation in Cultural Analysis PART TWO: THE CONTEXT: THE POLITICIZATION OF ISLAM IN THE GLOBAL AGE The Dichotomy of Structural Globalization and Fragmenting Cultural Self-Assertion: The Case of Islamic Civilization The Politicization of Religion: Political Islam as a Defence-Cultural Response to Global Challenges From Religious Belief to Political Commitment: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against the Secular Order PART III: THE FRAMEWORK: THE MEANS OF POLITICIZATION: THE REVIVAL OF THE SHARI'S AND THE ISLAMIZATION OF EDUCATION Social Change and the Potential for Flexibility in Islamic Law: The Shari's Between Ethics and Politicisation Institutions of Learning and Education in Islam: Between the Cultural Accommodation of Change, Religious Orthodoxy and the Politics of Cultural IslamiZation PART IV: ISLAM AND THE WEST BETWEEN INTER-CIVILIZATIONAL DIALOGUE AND POLITICAL ANTAGONISM Islam Matters to the West! Islam and Europe, Islam in Europe: Islamic Migration between Cultural Assimilation, Political Integration and Communitarian Ghettoization Islam and the West in the Age of Conflict among Civilizations: The Alternative in Inter-Cultural Dialogue as a Means of Conflict Resolution