European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

260 EUROPEAN IDENTITY. INDIVIDUAL, GROUP AND SOCIETYThus, to limit the despotism of the rulers, al-Afgani espoused the needto endow the people with a constitution that limited the powers of thesovereign.On proposing a new form of Islamic identity that was not strictly areligious one, one of al-Afgani’s innovative ideas was presenting Islamas a civilization more than a religion, therefore encouraging the peoplenot to limit themselves to passively serving Islam, but rather to activelycollaborating in building a flourishing civilization in all aspects.Some of the ideas set forth by al-Afgani were expanded by hisdisciple Muhammad ‘Abdu (1849-1905): that European superioritycompared to the decline of the Islamic Empire was due to theimmorality of the Muslim leaders and their moving away from trueIslam, the knowledge of which required the application of humanreason to definitively open the doors to the iytihad. In his desire to savethe cultural tradition of the Islamic civilization, recurring to theadaptation of Islam to contemporary times, one of the most innovativenotions ‘Abdu raised was that the gap between Europe and theMuslim world was derived from the former’s mastery of the sciences.Therefore, the question resided in endowing oneself with knowledgeand learning. From that moment on, the call for education and trainingto develop the potential of Islam and the perfect reconciliationbetween the religious and the modern and technological scienceswould be two of the recurring elements in all subsequent reformistproposals 12 . This would materialize into the establishment of mixededucational centres dedicated to religious and scientific teachings.Many of these innovations 13 were incorporated into the sociopoliticalideology of posterior Islamic reformist movements, such as that of theMuslim Brotherhood, especially explaining their political and economicsuccess or failure in terms of the Islamic rulers’ moral conduct andblaming them for moving away from “true Islam”. To this connection, therulers’ adhesion to this so-called “true Islam” would become the formulato legitimate political order, the effect of which has reached our days.For the Arab-Islamic world, the al-Nahda movement meant thedefinitive crisis of traditionalist Islam, for the development of newinstitutions and the phase of introspection and adoption of Europeanmodels facilitated the emergence of intellectuals who began tosupplant the “ulemas” in their traditional function as political advisors.12Mantran, R., et al. (1977) L’Egypte d’aujourd’ hui. Permanences et changements,1808-1976. Paris, CNRS.13Kerr, M.H. (1966) Islamic Reform: the Political and Legal Theories of MuhammadAbduh and Rashid Rida. Cambridge, University Press, p. 220 and following pages.