Rethinking Islam and the West

Ahmed Paul Keeler

Paperback

9781916173804

This book is one of the titles selected for the Wardah Books Islamic Civilisation Book Club 2024.

A New Narrative for the Age of Crises

Islam and the West have been neighbours for 1400 years. The West grew up under the shadow of Islam, and then after the Renaissance, in a dramatic reversal of roles, the West became world conquerors and subdued all other cultures and civilisations, including Islam. This transformation ushered in the modern world, a world unlike any that had existed before.

All nations are now judged according to their scientific progress, technological development and economic growth. And yet, humanity is now experiencing multiple crises that are threatening our very existence. Population explosion, financial, social and political instability, the alarming growth of mental illness, the threat of nuclear annihilation and climate change all loom over humanity like a dark cloud. Simultaneously, the world is witnessing a dangerous escalation in the polarisation between Islam and the West.

In this thought-provoking book, we are invited to view the crises we are facing and the tangled relationship between Islam and the West through a different lens. Keeler proposes that the true yardstick for measuring success should be the balance achieved between the spiritual, social and material needs of humanity, a balance which makes it possible to live in harmony with nature. When the world is viewed from this perspective, a completely different picture of Islam and the West emerges.

Ahmad Keeler is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge, and was a  Distinguished Fellow at The Faculty of Leadership and Management, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia in 2016. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Bolton in 2016.

Contents:

1. Sovereignty

2. Civilisation

3. Knowledge

4. Commerce

5. Art and the Environment

6. Conquest and Expansion

7. The Age of Crises