firstprinciplesjournal/articles.aspx?article=473 Islam on the Move Thomas Molnar (from IR 21:1, Fall 1985) when we take a new phenomenon into account: the Moslem intelligentsia, which is Western-educated and city-dwelling, increasingly desperate and turning to militant formulas. It is a fact that they too are torn between the Western, mostly American slogans and gadgets, and a revolution á la Khomeiny. Yet, we should not misjudge this apparent confusion. The new Arab countries which have started out as secular, or even half-Christian States (Senegal, Nigeria, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon), are changing their legislation toward more conformity with the sharya, even when this means a drastic restriction of secular modes and freedoms. The chador may be resented by women of sophisticated background who used to make their purchases in Paris and New York. Mrs. Sadat, now isolated, used to play a feminist role. But they are a minority, and the “revolution,” under whatever flag, will blow them away as a class, as it did under Marxist regimes. While the days of the individual speculators and baksheesh-takers—in a word, the days of large scale corruption—are by no means over, the bourgeoisie, a small class considerably westernized, is on the way out. The new generation now in schools and universities may wear blue-jeans, but by and large it accepts the chador (used here as a symbol) as a restored contact with traditional ways. Its militancy is rather purely Islamic, as it witnesses the failure of the Western panaceas, secularism, liberalism, and socialism...
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 22:46:05 +0000