Ridwan as-Sayyid
Ridwan as-Sayyid (also: Radwan as-Sayyid ; Arabic رضوان السيد, DMG Riḍwān as-Sayyid ; * 1949 in Tarshish) is a Lebanese journalist, writer and professor of Islamic studies .
Life
After his first university education at the theological faculty of al-Azhar University in Cairo, he received his doctorate in 1977 at the University of Tübingen in Islamic Studies. Since 1978 he has held a professorship at the Lebanese University in Beirut . In 1988 he began to publish the magazine al-Iğtihād al-Fasliyya together with Fadl Shalaq . In addition to his work as a writer, he works as a columnist on topics of politics and religious life in the Middle East in various Arab newspapers.
In 2017 he received the King Faisal Prize in Islam Studies.
Writing activity
As-Sayyid's publications deal with Muslim societies in the Middle East and the developments in political Islam since the middle of the 20th century. He sees the latter as a product of the failure of Arab nationalism and the crises of the 1970s and 1980s. Due to the polarizing ideology, the insistence on the conflict with the state and the increasing importance of the Sharia , he accuses the conservative and revisionist Islamists of neglecting the needs of the Ummah . He also attributes to them the growing intolerance towards Christians .
Islam and Western World
According to Ridwan's understanding, the ruling class, unlike the Western separation of church and state , cannot be separated from religion. He sees Islam in a dilemma based on three currents. He characterizes the first current by a tendency towards self-justification. In this the Muslims would look for the causes of the current tensions between the Muslim world and the West in the crusades, through colonialism to globalization. The western civilizations would be characterized by their pronounced aggressiveness, whose actions are characterized solely by the pursuit of material things. Freemasonry , Marxism and Freudianism are partly responsible for this . In response, the Muslim world would have reacted against Western influence with the spiritual jihad movement, which has been directed against spiritual and material colonialism since 1800 .
The second of the currents sees the Western and Muslim world in a unipolar system that emerged during the Cold War . Unlike the Islamists, they do not see religion as the cause of the conflict, but the struggle for resources and influence. Accordingly, the unipolar system and globalization are responsible for the tensions. A rapprochement would be hindered by the despotic regime and undemocratic system.
For the third group, however, political and economic reasons are the reason for the ongoing hostility. They see problems like civil wars, the Palestine conflict and unrest on the part of Muslim minorities as a result of the growing hatred of Islam in the West.
Based on these reasons, al-Sayyid sees no panacea for the growing hatred of Islam in America and Europe. In essence, Islam is not compatible with Western values and their culture, which makes the integration of Muslims an insurmountable obstacle. The Muslim world must therefore introduce comprehensive reforms and open up to modernity. Only in this way could the monopoly of western interests within the globalization process be broken and the opportunity to contribute one's own values would arise.
Fonts
- The revolt of Ibn al-Ašʿaṯ and the Koran readers: a contribution to the religious and social history of the early Umayyad period; 1977, ISBN 3-87997-058-0
- Al-Umma wa-l-Ğamāʿa wa as-Sulţa (The Umma, the Community and the Authorities; 1984)
- Mafāhīm al-Ğamāʿāt fī-l-Islām (Concepts of community in Islam; 1985)
- Al-Islām al-Muʿāṣir - Naẓariyāt fī-l-Ḥāḍir wa-l-Mustaqbal (Contemporary Islam - Theories in the Present and Future; 1986)
- Al-Ğamāʿa wa-l-muğtamʿa wa ad-dawla (The community, society and the state; 1997)
- Siyāsāt al-Islām al-Muʿaṣir (The Politics of Contemporary Islam; 1997)
- Azmat al-Fikr as-Siyāsī al-ʿArabī (The Crisis of Arab Political Thought; 2000)
- Maqāla al-Aṣlaḥ as-Siyāsa al-ʿArabiyya (A Treatise on Arab Political Reformism; 2004)
- Aṣ-Ṣirāʿa ʿala al-Islām - Al-Uṣuliyya wa-l-Iṣlaḥ wa as-Siyāsāt ad-Dawla (The Conflict Over Islam - Fundamentalism, Reformism and the Politics of the State; 2004)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sayyid, Ridwan as- |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Sayyid, Radwan as |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Lebanese journalist, writer and professor of Islamic studies |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1949 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tarshish |