Authenticity, faith and politics

: the problem of modern Muslim experience

Abstract

Foreign powers’ interests in the so-called “Middle East” since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1922 coupled with the reactionary prominence of Islamist ideology, and thus Islamrelated acts of aggression, have transformed the world. Islam and West frictions have led to adverse portrayals of Islamic religion and the Muslim people, and a dichotomy between the two worlds. This has led to the politicisation of modern Muslims who find themselves caught between categorisations of “Modern” and “Traditional”—these categorisations indirectly (or directly) determine the authenticity of Muslim identity in the collective mindset. What is overlooked is the fact that Muslims in all their forms are modern actors influenced by the concepts of “authenticity, contingency and social actorhood” that mark the intellectual trajectory of the nineteenth century (Jung “Islamism,” 4). Grappling with the “inverted teleology of Islamic modernism” (Jung “Islamism,” 6), contemporary concerns are commonly met with reformist projects on one end, and the return to fundamental ‘true’ Islam on the other. Islamism has taken centre stage as the embodiment of Islam in the modern context and the legitimacy of its ideology is in its relevance to the Muslim mistrust of the so-called “West” and in its justification of “Islamic governance with reference to an ideal past” (Jung “Islamism," 8). All of this is background to the problem facing Muslims today—the question of authenticity and the pervasive politicisation of Islam. Seeking to make sense of this new conundrum of Islam and Muslims in the twenty-first century, this thesis offers a framework of discourse that accurately reflects the complexity of the current situation that Muslims globally face. Through a reading of Mahmoud Mohamed Taha’s The Second Message of Islam and Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue, this thesis offers a unique insight into the internal intricacies influencing Muslim thought in connection to the global discourse on Islam. Taha’s radical hermeneutics for modern Muslim life and MacIntyre’s explication of Western moral bankruptcy may just be one significant way to provide Muslims with a helpful foundation to navigate the highly volatile political and spiritual terrains of Muslim existentialism.

Date of Award	2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	Milad Milani (Supervisor)