| This research deals with Islam and the modernization process in an attempt to prove that the teachings of Islam are not antithetical with the process of modernization in general. However, during the long period of foreign domination, Western modernization had encountered enormous difficulties in modernizing Islamic societies. This was due mainly to the impact of colonialism in alienating Islam from Moslems' lives, through the initiation of a special kind of education restricted both in quantity and quality in the colonized Islamic societies. This was furthered by the introduction of an antagonistic modernization into the Islamic world and the training of a national elite class that continued the role of the colonial authorities after the official termination of colonialism. This research traces this particular version of modernization back to Max Weber, who linked modernization exclusively to Protestantism and to Western society. Neo-Weberians adopted Weber's views relative to the supremacy of Western institutions, race and culture. Whereas they did not explicitly refer to Protestantism or religion in general, they disclaimed the positive role of Islam in modernization and further accused it of dogmatism and backwardness. Islam, on the other hand, does not share the inherent bias of Western modernization in favor of the exclusive role of industrialization in effecting modernization to societies, the separation of religion from life, the importation of Western educational systems, social issues and lifestyle patterns. Lastly, the research identifies the various aspects of the contradictions between Islam and the modernization process, since the close identification of these contradictions constitutes the first step to bridge the gap between Islam and the modernization process. |
