Discourse in Political Islam: Failures and (now) Challenges of Islamists.
The last time I decided to call myself an ‘Islamist Democrat’ (for some good reason), i was ‘ostracised’ and almost ‘crucified’, regrettably, by none other than my own Islamist brethren from my own Islamist party. I am not as courageous but will continue to write without fear or favour regardless.
Dr. Dzulkefly Ahmad
It would be preposterous for me to ever say that Tariq Ramadan is right again (who are we and who am I..hehe) and to write anything on this subject matter along the line of Tariq’s, would expose me to be accused of intellectual plagiarism. Regardless, I am glad that my writings on the subject matter are not far off from Tariq’s pieces as he shall continue to be our source of intellectual inspiration of sort. (Defining Moment for Political Islam – The Edge Malaysia and Arab Spring and Post-Islamism?).
Tariq is in Oxford and a visiting professor in many renowned universities. His intellectual audacity is his greatest strength and very admirable. The last time I decided to call myself an ‘Islamist Democrat’ (for some good reason), i was ‘ostracised’ and almost ‘crucified’, regrettably, by none other than my own Islamist brethren from my own Islamist party. I am not as courageous but will continue to write without fear or favour regardless.
Tariq’s current piece would surely shed more light of the typology of Islamists – from ‘Jihadist to Democrat’ and more importantly, this very unfortunate term of ‘Islamism’ that we “Islamists” have to live with.
Tariq has what it takes to extricate this ummah out of the intellectual rut we found ourselves in. His thesis is both compelling and insightful much as it ‘unconventional’ of the usual ‘Islamists’ narrative’. Tariq’s Beyond Islamism (part 2) is asserting that perhaps it’s time to review priorities, to shift the paradigm; perhaps it is time for political Islam to cease being intrinsically ‘political’…is surely ‘revolutionary’ and ahead of many an Islamist thinker.
If only Islamists leaders throughout the Muslim world (apart from the pro-Western Monarchs of the Gulf) care to read and understand the many imperatives of his many theses, the perennial predicaments of this ummah, perchance stand a good chance of being correctly addressed and be eventually remedied…God willing..BiiznilLah!
Read more at: http://drdzul.com/2013/10/01/discourse-in-political-islam-failures-and-now-challenges-of-islamists/
