FIGAROVOX/TRIBUNE – The essay by Ferghane Azihari Islam against modernity was the target of strong criticism in the left-wing press. Robert Martin Kerr, research director at Inrah, read it. For him, this book is “a structured and solidly supported contribution to the contemporary debate”.
Robert Martin Kerr is Research Director at Inârah – Institute for Research on the History of Early Islam and the Qur’an at Saarland University. Holder of a doctorate in Semitic languages and literatures from the University of Leiden, his current research focuses mainly on the origins of Islam in the context of late antiquity Greco-Roman and on the textual criticism of the Koran.
Recent production devoted to Islam readily oscillates between erudition, apologetics and polemic. M. Azihari’s workIslam against modernity (Presses de la Cité), despite certain appearances, falls into the first of these categories: it proceeds from an extensive, solidly documented investigation, and intends to propose a diagnosis of a historical nature rather than an indictment; one could consider it as the “black book” of Islam. The abundance of references, in several languages, attests to the seriousness of the approach, without harming the readability of the whole.
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From the introduction, the thesis is clearly formulated: “Worse, not content with having ruined the Orient and transformed the cradle of civilization into its tomb, Islam exports obscurantism to societies which took centuries to free themselves from it. In Europe, diasporas are reintroducing the customs that their ancestors fled and are degrading, through their faith, the edifice built after so many sacrifices and for which so many exiles lose their lives. »
This position, deliberately decided, sets the tone for an analysis which aims to be based on the facts.
The first chapter places the emergence of Islam in the context of the Greco-Roman Middle East, inviting us to go beyond legendary reconstructions. The author insists on the continuity of civilizations and on the transformation of a formerly plural space, which, with Islamic expansion, tends towards standardization. “Islam was born with a silver spoon in its mouth. It developed in the Greco-Roman, Jewish and Christian worlds.”
Mr. Azihari sets out to challenge a commonly accepted idea. He highlights a “systematic memoricide” as well as a phenomenon of cultural appropriation, aggravated by the erasure of non-Muslim contributions to the “Islamic golden age”. Responding to Emmanuel Macron’s comments – “Islam is a religion that is experiencing a crisis today, all over the world.” —, il écrit : “A crisis following a period of enlightenment, this fiction discourages the Muslim world from subjecting its roots to critical examination and tracking down the regressions that occurred with its expansion.”
The “golden age” therefore appears imaginary – … it is to applaud flawed systems in the name of benefits which could have been increased tenfold by more liberal institutions that the time allowed.â€
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The chapter “The Wretched of the Earth†examines the “myth of happy expansion— … Islamist tragicomedy has given itself the mission of concealing the fact that Islam has encroached more on its neighbors than the other way around.â€. It highlights an asymmetry in the appreciation of colonial phenomena.
The work will undoubtedly spark discussion; it nonetheless constitutes a structured and solidly supported contribution to the contemporary debate.
The study of Islamic slavery, its long duration and the resistance to its abolition – after all, an institution authorized by Allah and put into practice by Mohammed – constitutes one of the most significant contributions of the work.
Ferghane Azihari analyzes the sources of a certain Western guilt, inclined to minimize the violence of Islam: “Islam has not only decivilized the Orient and the rest of humanity with it. He tried to disguise his crime, with the depreciation of the ancient Orient, so that darkness would put on the clothes of light. »
The chapter “Archaisms and despotisms” addresses the question of the relationship to modernity. The author underlines the persistence of an attachment to Sharia law and the impossibility of integrating the principles of “liberty, equality and fraternity”, while noting this paradox: “The height of the error of Muslim societies, of all the foreign doctrines which influence modern politics, only the most harmful escape their sectarianism.”
Finally, the author examines contemporary dynamics, particularly in Europe: “In countries where they are a minority, Muslims are obsessed with minority rights. In countries where they are the majority, minorities no longer have any rights.”. Ferghane Azihari rejects strictly socio-economic explanations and cites a study according to which “In a study of 1,200 Muslims in France, Germany and England, two researchers observed that adherence to fundamentalism increased with the level of affluence of the respondents’ families.”
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The proposed synthesis — “The enemies of our civilization may claim the same books, prophet and god whose laws sow desolation wherever they are in force, but cowardice makes it more convenient to blame the imperfections of the West than the scourges of Muslim societies, even if everyone sees at a glance that the latter have no lesson in tolerance to give to the former.” — constitutes the outcome.
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The epilogue outlines perspectives: development of a historical-critical approach to the Koran (and it should be noted that there is still no critical edition of this “holy book”) as well as secondary traditional texts canonized de facto, such as the hadiths, and extension to Islam of the principles of the law of 1905. Quoting Karl Popper, the author notes that “the fight against Islamization must regain the vigor of the republicanism of yesteryear”. No one is obliged to live in a liberal democracy; those who reject its principles are free to leave.
Overall, the work offers a reading of Islam as a global system (that day), conceiving itself as both original and universal, and whose structures appear incompatible with the values of Western modernity. This observation is presented as a diagnosis rather than a judgment.
Mr. Azihari will be recognized for the coherence and vigor of his remarks. In this regard, we think of Maxime Rodinson, whose critical demands led him to reconsider his political commitments in the light of communist crimes. The work will undoubtedly spark discussion; it nonetheless constitutes a structured and solidly supported contribution to the contemporary debate.
His presumed detractors, whether Muslims or Islamophile useful idiots, will have to present solid evidence, and not indulge in quibbles, for example by claiming that Islam cannot be essentialized, to knock this monument of scholarship from its pedestal.
