The New Muslim Thinkers: The Sacred, the Secular, and the "In-betweens"

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The Muslim world is blamed for poverty, illiteracy, corruption, humiliating defeats, capricious autocracies (Lewis 2002), deep ambivalence (Patai 2000), fanaticism, extremism, Islamo-nationalism (Roy 2005), Islamo-fascism (Fallaci 2004), pervasive fear, distrust, a holier-than-thou demeanor (Jerry Klein’s 2006 Radio Experiment), hatred of the West (Buruma and Margalit 2004), religious intolerance, gender inequity, etc. (UN Human Rights Reports 2002 and 2005). While these critiques emanate from scholars, Islamophobes, and the lay public who sometimes lump all Muslims in one monolithic block, the fact is that experts from both the East and the West are aware that diversity in the Muslim World is not only cultural, ethnic, geographic, spanning all continents (cf. World Atlases), but concerns more than ever the spiritual dimension and mindset.

This study seeks to go beyond Orientalism, Occidentalism, Manichaeism, paradoxes, catch22ism, reductionism exclusionism, blame games, navel gazing, finger pointing, hubris, condescension and basic aporia, where no one can establish the truth, in order to explore the spiritual dimension and the current Muslim condition, through three categories of Muslim thinkers, namely the religious scholars or the «sacred» Ulemas, the liberal intellectuals or the « secular » analysts, and what I call the «in-between» thinkers, to describe the current media savvy «intellectual entrepreneurs". This study also seeks to open up the likelihood of whether there can be an intercultural dialogue between civilizations and whether we can tap into Islam's ecological dimension as an urgent common ground of entente for all.

Stream: Knowledge Systems and Methodologies

Paper: The New Muslim Thinkers: The Sacred, the Secular, and the “In-betweens”

Souad Halila has a PhD in History from the University of Southern California. She majored in American history & international relations, and minored in US literature. Her PhD thesis focused on the intellectual development and diplomatic career of African American Ralph J. Bunche. She taught English and Literature for eleven years at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. From 1999 to the present, she has been teaching US and GB history and culture at the University of Tunis and Sousse, Tunisia. She lectured extensively in the USA, Saudi Arabia, Spain, France, and Tunisia on contemporary issues related to the US, France, the Middle East, and North Africa. In September 2006, she spent 4 weeks at Wilson College, Pennsylvania as a senior Fulbright Visiting Specialist.

She has a broad interest in environmental issues and green philosophy but her research focuses primarily on US intellectual, political, social, cultural, and religious history, particularly social and political movements, race relations, African American history, Arab American history, and multiculturalism. She initiated several courses related to these topics at her university. Recently and since 9/11, she has focused her research on Islamic issues and the Occident.