Friday's Read: Islam and the Cultural Accommodation of Social Change

Tibi, Bassam. Islam and the Cultural Accommodation of Social Change. (Westview Press, 1991)





Syrian political and social scientist Bassam Tibi’s (born 1944) Islam and the Cultural Accommodation of Social Change (1990) explores the linkages of socio-cultural change and religious change in Islamic societies. Utilizing Clifford Geertz’ concept of religion as a cultural system of symbols that both influences and is influenced by surrounding sociocultural forces, Tibi argues that within Islam, language, education, and shariah law have served as major impediments to cultural development. Though primarily focused on Islam in the Arabic speaking world, Tibi also includes a chapter on Iran as a variant of his overall argument. Tibi describes recent European intellectual, political, and economic dominance as a “yardstick for global development.” Despite Muslim belief in Islam as the pinnacle of ultimate good, nevertheless most Muslims live in socioeconomic and political situations that are decidedly not on par with those of the Europeans. The gap between the believed ideal of Islam and the lived reality of life in the Middle East, Tibi argues, is what has led to the rise and persuasiveness of Islamism. Like Zakariyya, Tibi is deeply concerned at the anti-intellectualism and idealization of the past pervasive in Islamist discourses. Also like Zakariyya, he calls for a depoliticization of Islamism, and for an expansion in education and technology in order to usher in modernization.