Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD) launches “Islam, the State and Modernity: Mohamed Abed Al-Jabri and the Future of the Arab World”, the book published by Palgrave Macmillan is written by ARDD’s chairman Dr. Zaid Eyadat in cooperation with Dr. Francesca Corrao and Dr. Francesca M.Corrao. The first part of the 320-page book discusses the Moroccan thinker Mohammed Abed al-Jabri’s contributions to re-formulation and reconstruction of the Arab-Islamic thought, while its second part discusses political and ethical issues in the Arab world.
This book is an outcome of an ARDD conference entitled “Mohammed Abed Al Jabri and the Future of the Arab World: Islam, State and Modernity” which was held on 5th May 2015 in Rome in cooperation between The Reset (Dialogue on Civilizations) in Rome, and the Moroccan embassy in Rome.
In a lecture at the Arab Thought Forum on the book, Professor Zaid Eyadat said that “the essential directive of the book’s theorem and its main idea is to discuss the urgent need to rebuild the state in the Arab world on ethical bases resultant from some of Islamic readings and readings of modernity because most clues and evidence indicate that the Arab World is suffering from a deep and intractable thought and ethical crisis, and an ” identity crisis”, which has resulted in chaos in standards and values, and confusion in awareness and volatility in the situation leading our Arab world to dwell on the “margin of history” and “outside civilization” and now is a stage for scramble and fighting, extremism and violence, poverty, backwardness, division and failure”.
Eyadat added: “Looking into and scrutinizing the preconditions of civilization, the engines of change, the laws of history and the determinants of the “emergence and demise of nations ” offers an “optimism of will “and leaves a glimmer of hope, even if little, inviting us to think, be free and work for the sake of the beautiful advancement.
He also explained that the tools of this “desired advancement” are “modern miracles” of elevated thought, science and ethics. The book offers criticism and analysis of contemporary Arab discourse on the problematic relationship between heritage and modernity on the one hand and the role of religion in public life on the other. The book also reviews general features of moral theory in politics liberating the public sphere from myth, mythology and tyranny and constituting a lever for advancement, progress and justice.
ARDD implements a series of intellectual projects that aim to contribute in renewing the cultural message and reviving the value based ethical system in Jordan and the Arab world.
For more about the book https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781349951550
