European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

IMAGES OF EUROPE: THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE ISLAMIC PEOPLE. FROM ... 267The first processes is what some call “the crisis of the West”. Foralthough the Western model is widespread, it is seen as a model incrisis, incapable of resolving problems like poverty, unemploymentdelinquency or drugs even in its own cities 26 . The second process is thespectacular evolution that has occurred in the atmosphere ofaccelerated “worldization” the reaction to which has strengthened theneed for identity. It would be erroneous, therefore, to believe thatthere is a structural incompatibility between modernity and the core ofthe Muslim doctrine; another thing is knowing and recognizing whatthe circumstances have been surrounding the upsurge of modernity inIslamic countries which have impeded it from easily taking root amongthe majority of the population. The fact that modernity was imposedby the coercion of foreign colonization produced a defensive reactionby some sectors out of a fear of being uprooted and a desire topreserve their beliefs and origins. Today, the Islamist movement is notso much about rejecting Western modernity altogether as it is aboutreclaiming the attributes of their otherness and all or part of theirheritage.In reality modern values have been drug into the whirlwind of therewriting of the categories and terminology of the Muslim symbolicsystem 27 . It is about a complex process of reconciliation which helps tospread the reach of modernization and not to hinder its advancement.Starting in the late 90s, several Islamist proposals have arisenfavouring a dialogue among civilizations. Of these, the one that hasreceived the greatest audience has been that advocated by IranianPresident Jatami, precisely the president of the only country where anIslamic revolution has triumphed.The crisis stage now overcome (accompanied by the Muslim world’swithdrawal of itself as a defence mechanism) there has been anevolution in the attitude of many Muslim Intellectuals towards the West,in spite of the existence of radical tendencies. Some want to reverse theprevious antagonistic perception of the West for a new rationalknowledge of it, no longer considering it a monolith and insisting onthe diversity and complexity of the two cultures. This is what we canlabel Occidentology: the scientific understanding of the West.Along these lines is the thinking of the Islamist philosopherSoroush, who as a critical sceptic accepts the beneficial and rationalrelations with the West while simultaneously preserving one’s own26Maalouf, A. (1999) Killer Identities. Madrid, Alianza.27Burgat, F. (1996) Islamism Face to Face. Barcelona, Bellaterra, p. 250.