Islam, the West and the Challenges of Modernity

Tariq Ramadan attempts to demonstrate, using sources which draw upon Islamic thought and civilization, that Muslims can respond to contemporary challenges of modernity without betraying their identity. The book argues that Muslims, nurished by their own points of reference, can approach the modern epoch by adopting a specific social, political, and economic model that is linked to ethical values, a sense of finalities and spirituality. Rather than a modernism that tends to impose Westernization, it is a modernity that admits to the pluralism of civilizations, religions, and cultures.

Table of Contents:

Foreword

Introduction

History of a Concept

The Lessons of History

Part 1: At the shores of Transcendence: between God and Man

Part 2: The Horizons of Islam: Between Man and the Community

Part 3: Values and Finalities: The Cultural Dimension of the Civilizational Face to Face

Conclusion

Appendix

Index

Tariq Ramadan is a professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford and a visiting professor in Identity and Citizenship at Erasmus University. He was named by TIME Magazine as one of the one hundred innovators of the twenty-first century.