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The Politics of Conceptualizing Islam and the West [Full Text]
Ethics & International Affairs, Volume 18.3 (Winter 2004/2005)
Cemil Aydin

 
     
 

December 16, 2004

Cemil Aydin
Cemil Aydin
What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East, Bernard Lewis (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 208 pp., $23 cloth, $12.95 paper.

Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies, Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit (New York: Penguin Books, 2004), 160 pp, $21.95 cloth.

Thinking Past Terror: Islamism and Critical Theory on the Left, Susan Buck-Morss (New York: Verso, 2003), 160 pp., $22 cloth.

In the last three years, a large number of books have been published, all trying to answer the now-classic post–September 11 question: Why do they, "the Muslims," dislike or hate "us"?—with the "us" variously defined as the United States, the West, or the modern world. Scholarly and nonscholarly curiosity on this topic is not limited to the history of al-Qaeda and a small network of fundamentalist terrorists but also tries to explain why untold numbers of Muslim intellectuals have critical, and even hostile, opinions of the United States and Western civilization. Are critiques of the "West" peculiar to the Muslim world? Are they a reflection of a simple discontent with the international order or a conservative rejection of Western-originated, universal modernity? How should Western intellectuals and leaders respond to the Muslim critiques of modernity, the international order, and Western civilization?

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The Carnegie Council's flagship publication, Ethics & International Affairs is an interdisciplinary resource for scholars, students, and policy analysts concerned with the moral dimensions of global issues. The journal covers global justice, civil society, democratization, international law, intervention, sanctions, and related topics.

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The Editors welcome responses to Features and Essays published in Ethics & International Affairs. To be considered for publication, responses should be no longer than one thousand words, including endnotes (which should be kept to a minimum). Responses are not peer-reviewed, and are published at the Editors' discretion. All responses are subject to editing for length and style. In the event of any questions or substantive editing, the response will be returned to the author for final approval prior to publication. Responses are published online, alongside the article they address.

Related

Biography
Cemil Aydin
 
Keywords
Diversity, Islam, Religion, Christianity
 
Topic
Islam and the West
 
 
 

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