Variety of Islamic project on system transformation of society

Sociology

Abstract

We Consider the Variety of Islamic Project in the Conditions of Global Transformation of the Islamic World. Article shows the relationship between the social practice of the subjects transforming the Islamic world and two most widespread varieties of the Islamic project, which form the discourse of fundamentalism and modernism in Islam. The basis of signification (the allocation of a certain set of values as the dominant Muslim consciousness) is Islam as a religion and ideology that shapes political discourse and political action. Concepts of Islamic fundamentalism and Islamic modernism are conceptualized for the first time in the present article.Islamic Fundamentalists understand the Reconstruction of an Islamic State Based on Shari’a not only as a Spiritual Practice, but as a Social and Political Activities. The Basis of Signification are the Ontological Opposition of the World of Islam and the Rest of the World (the Territory of War), the Idea of Religion and the Values of «infidels» as a deeply Hostile, Threatening the Loss of Identity of Muslims, and the idea of necessity to fight the evil of Atheism and Liberalism of Western Culture. The demand for active social action in the name of protecting «pure Islam» and creating a truly Islamic state on the basis of the Shariah predetermined the highest degree of social mobilization of the followers of Salafism. The main feature of the fundamentalist version of the Islamic project in relation to the process of signification is the specific form of expression of syncretism of religion and politics. The specific features of the modernist project in Islam are: the Idea of the Unity of the World’s Muslims and Infidels, the Distinction Between the Spiritual and Political Practices on the Basis of Islam, the Idea of the Need to Integrate Western and Eastern Cultures on the Basis of the Islamic Tradition, the Liberalization of the Individual, the use of Western Models of Nation-building, the Use of Ijtihad Practice to Reach a Consensus among Islamic Modernists. Author Concludes That the Islamic Project as a Whole is Deprived of Internal Unity in Muslim Societies, because it has not a Common Development Model. Variants of Islamic Globalization Project are Extremely Controversial. Author considers that the Islamic World Will Continue its Development according to the «Reciprocal» Model of a Secular State to Sharia and Back, and from the Globalizing Society to the Localization of the Islamic World and back.