Islam between culture and politics /

With a goal of "preventing the clash of civilizations," Tibi (Univ. of Gottingen) sees himself as a "Euro-Muslim"--neither European orientalist nor Islamic fundamentalist--both of which emphasize sacred texts rather than the study of social realities. He follows instead the "rational-Islamic tradition" that has been suppressed by a "fiqh orthodoxy" unable to educate for social adaptation. In post-Westernizing Muslim societies, Tibi explains, Islam has become the only effective system of meaning, a mobilizing ideology seen as authentic when the outside world is perceived to threaten the Muslim's own identity. Yet "Islamic Order" is a modern invention selectively using the past, a "repoliticization of the sacred" in societies whose premodern identity was religious rather than political. Tibi denies a single world culture, believing instead in "a variety of civilizations composed of a great number of local cultures." He reminds us that "international law" is a thoroughly European legal philosophy and that US promotion of human rights and free markets is a missionary posture, although not religious. "Islam matters to the West!" he asserts; but his important plea for "cultural pluralism" rather than the cultural imperialism of "communitarian multiculturalism" merits easier prose and more reference to modern Muslim thinkers. Graduate students; faculty/researchers; professionals. S. Ward University of Denver