Jun 07, 2010

Islam & Secularism: A Reading and Discussion Course





A discussion on the book widely regarded as one of the great books in the Muslim world by one of the most creative and original Muslim thinker in the contemporary Muslim world. The author deals with fundamental problems faced by contemporary Muslims and provides real solutions.

The discussion will elucidate many key terms and concepts in each chapter of the book beginning with al-Atttas’s analysis of ‘The Contemporary Western Christian Background’ (Chapter I), followed by his analysis of the concepts of ‘secular’, ‘secularization’, and ‘secularism’ (Chapter II), the portentous set of ideas that have changed the world. Chapter IV of the book entitled ‘Islam:

The Concept of Religion and the Foundation of Ethics and Morality’ is where he analyses the meaning of Islam as derived from selected verses of the Quran. He contends that the contemporary Muslim ‘dilemma’ can be alleviated with his proposal for “dewesternization of knowledge” or, the “islamization of contemporary knowledge”, an original concept conceived and elucidated by him but has since been adulterated as ‘Islamization of Knowledge’.

An appendix entitled, ‘On Islamization: The Case of the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago’ brings the book to a close. This book has been translated into most of the major languages of the Muslim world, such as Turkish, Arabic, Urdu, Indonesian, Bosnian, and Persian, the main ideas of which were originally contained in his Malay book Risalah untuk Kaum Muslimin.

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1) The discussion will be held on weekly basis, on every Friday night, 8-11pm.

Date/day :
11hb Jun 2010 / Friday
Time :
8.00 pm - 10.30 pm
Venue:
Shafi'e Conference Room, IRKH Building, IIUM, Gombak


2) This event is organized by Himpunan Keilmuan Muda (HAKIM) and Curiosity Institute (CI).


3) The speaker is Assoc. Prof. Dr Muhammad Zainiy Uthman. He completed his Ph.D under the supervision of Prof. Syed Muhammad Naquib al–Attas in 1997 and worked at ISTAC from 1991 – 2002.





ASSOC. PROF. DR. MUHAMAD ZAINI OTHMAN

Academic Qualifications:




● B.A - Physics-Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison (1986)
● M.A - Islamic Thought, University of Chicago (1990)
● Ph. D - Islamic Thought, ISTAC (1997)




Areas of Specialization & Interest:

● Tasawwuf, Philosophy and Theology
● Malay manuscripts and Rare Books.
● Special high level academic library curator