Enemy in the mirror : Islamic fundamentalism and the limits of modern rationalism : a work of comparative political theory

Drawing on postmodernism, critical theory, comparative politics, Islamic thought, and anthropology, Euben situates Islamic fundamentalist thought within a transcultural theoretical context. Her main objective is to explain how the rationalist discourse explains the appeal of fundamentalist ideas by reference to their function as conduits for processes and tensions in the material and structural realm thus deriving meaning from function. Because of this tendency to derive meaning from function, our understanding of Islamic fundamentalism has taken certain shapes. In other words, there are epistemological issues at stake. How do we know what we know? The rationalist paradigm sets the epistemological framework, within which Islamic fundamentalism is explained as something people turn to because it can fulfill material needs. According to Euben, Islamic fundamentalism should be analyzed not only for its function, but also for the value of its ideas. Her treatment of Sayyed Qutb is excellent and a must-read for any expert on political Islam. Euben suggests that Qutb's preoccupations with questions about the moral foundations of political communities challenges narrower, ethnocentric definitions of political theory, and a reading of political theory as a distinctively secular enterprise. Euben lays out her opposition to the imposition of a Western rationalist analytical paradigm to explain and categorize Islamic Fundamentalism. She critiques the assumptions and worldview of Western rationalism and the types of analyses it therefore undertakes and attributions to essentialism, socioeconomic causes, etc. because it takes IF as epiphenomenal. She says we should instead discover IF's own categories through dialogic analysis, which takes Habermas' framework of intersubjective meaning creation (Gadamer) and distance from the subject through critical deconstruction of language and power (á la Foucault). Her critiques of rational actor and rational analysis is that it presupposes a one-to-one correspondence with an objective, outside reality/truth as opposed to seeing how it is constructed through language. For anyone seeking to understand postmodernism, Islamic thought and the application of a postmodernist analysis to a real-world, contemporary issue this is a must read. If you want more postmodernism and Islam check out Cultural Revolutions: Reason Versus Culture in Philosophy, Politics, And Jihad

A firm grasp of Islamic fundamentalism has often eluded Western political observers, many of whom view it in relation to social and economic upheaval or explain it away as an irrational reaction to modernity. Here Roxanne Euben makes new sense of this belief system by revealing it as a critique of and rebuttal to rationalist discourse and post-Enlightenment political theories. Euben draws on political, postmodernist, and critical theory, as well as Middle Eastern studies, Islamic thought, comparative politics, and anthropology, to situate Islamic fundamentalist thought within a transcultural theoretical context. In so doing, she illuminates an unexplored dimension of the Islamist movement and holds a mirror up to anxieties within contemporary Western political thought about the nature and limits of modern rationalism-anxieties common to Christian fundamentalists, postmodernists, conservatives, and communitarians.

A comparison between Islamic fundamentalism and various Western critiques of rationalism yields formerly uncharted connections between Western and Islamic political thought, allowing the author to reclaim an understanding of political theory as inherently comparative. Her arguments bear on broad questions about the methods Westerners employ to understand movements and ideas that presuppose nonrational, transcendent truths. Euben finds that first, political theory can play a crucial role in understanding concrete political phenomena often considered beyond its jurisdiction; second, the study of such phenomena tests the scope of Western rationalist categories; and finally, that Western political theory can be enriched by exploring non-Western perspectives on fundamental debates about coexistence.

A firm grasp of Islamic fundamentalism has often eluded Western political observers, many of whom view it in relation to social and economic upheaval or explain it away as an irrational reaction to modernity. Here Roxanne Euben makes new sense of this belief system by revealing it as a critique of and rebuttal to rationalist discourse and post-Enlightenment political theories. Euben draws on political, postmodernist, and critical theory, as well as Middle Eastern studies, Islamic thought, comparative politics, and anthropology, to situate Islamic fundamentalist thought within a transcultural theoretical context. In so doing, she illuminates an unexplored dimension of the Islamist movement and holds a mirror up to anxieties within contemporary Western political thought about the nature and limits of modern rationalism--anxieties common to Christian fundamentalists, postmodernists, conservatives, and communitarians.

A comparison between Islamic fundamentalism and various Western critiques of rationalism yields formerly uncharted connections between Western and Islamic political thought, allowing the author to reclaim an understanding of political theory as inherently comparative. Her arguments bear on broad questions about the methods Westerners employ to understand movements and ideas that presuppose nonrational, transcendent truths. Euben finds that first, political theory can play a crucial role in understanding concrete political phenomena often considered beyond its jurisdiction; second, the study of such phenomena tests the scope of Western rationalist categories; and finally, that Western political theory can be enriched by exploring non-Western perspectives on fundamental debates about coexistence.

A firm grasp of Islamic fundamentalism has often eluded Western political observers, many of whom view it in relation to social and economic upheaval or explain it away as an irrational reaction to modernity. Here Roxanne Euben makes new sense of this belief system by revealing it as a critique of and rebuttal to rationalist discourse and post-Enlightenment political theories. Euben draws on political, postmodernist, and critical theory, as well as Middle Eastern studies, Islamic thought, comparative politics, and anthropology, to situate Islamic fundamentalist thought within a transcultural theoretical context. In so doing, she illuminates an unexplored dimension of the Islamist movement and holds a mirror up to anxieties within contemporary Western political thought about the nature and limits of modern rationalism -- anxieties common to Christian fundamentalists, postmodernists, conservatives, and communitarians.A comparison between Islamic fundamentalism and various Western critiques of rationalism yields formerly uncharted connections between Western and Islamic political thought, allowing the author to reclaim an understanding of political theory as inherently comparative. Her arguments bear on broad questions about the methods Westerners employ to understand movements and ideas that presuppose nonrational, transcendent truths. Euben finds that first, political theory can play a crucial role in understanding concrete political phenomena often considered beyond its jurisdiction; second, the study of such phenomena tests the scope of Western rationalist categories; and finally, that Western political theory can be enriched by exploring non-Western perspectives on fundamentaldebates about coexistence. DESPITE a diversity of political sensibilities and theoretical concerns, political theory in the late twentieth century can in many ways be concerned to show that the basis of the well-ordered society need not presume a metaphysical conception of the good. 000_FrontMatter......Page 1 001_Chapter1......Page 17 002_Chapter2......Page 36 003_Chapter3......Page 65 004_Chapter4......Page 109 005_Chapter5......Page 139 006_Chapter6......Page 170 007_BackMatter......Page 185 This text draws on different diciplines, including postmodernist and critical theory, comparative politics, and anthropology, to examine Islamic fundamentalisim