Blindspot!
From Issue: 674 [Read full issue]
Honest Discourse
The Muslim world is still lacking intellectual exactness. Very limited in number are those voices that go to the limits of honest analysis, that refuse to say something and then keep quite when they see its contrary being applied, that denounce events, governmental policies and silent conspiracies.
One does not protect oneself from one's enemy by concealing from him, and by hiding from oneself, one's defects. On the contrary, it is appropriate to be completely aware and clear about one's own shortcomings. Those who consider the West as an enemy feel that any criticism directed at Muslims is a kind of dishonest compromise especially if it is enunciated in the presence of Westerners. Keen to appear "unwavering", they forget themselves. Yet, to elaborate a critical denunciation in no way means making an "alliance" with the West. It is before anything else remaining faithful to the Message of Islam which, above all, imposes justice and equity. We are opposed to the economic and strategic policies of the West, and this does not mean that the West, in itself, is the enemy. There exist a great number of intellectuals, journalists and researchers who have a genuine concern for understanding and who need to hear, read and refer to an honest and well-thought-out discourse and bring to the fore, without complacency, the gaps and betrayals in the Muslim universe. This, unless we want to persevere in a confinement that neither the Quran nor the Sunna have prescribed.
Compiled From:
"Islam, the West and the Challenges of Modernity" - Tariq Ramadan, pp. 288-290