Mohammed Arkoun, Islamic scholar who explored Enlightenment ideals, 1928-2010

10/21/2010 Mohammed Arkoun, Islamic scholar who explored Enlightenment ideals, 1928-2010

Mohammed Arkoun, one of the most prominent and original scholars in the field of Islamic Studies, died last month at the age of 82.

An aspect of modern Muslim countries that Arkoun constantly drew attention to was the crisis of education. Instead of becoming a means of learning and liberation from superstition, education has become, in most Muslim countries, a means of spreading what he described as "institutionalised ignorance". The spread of such education went hand in hand with the rise of Islamist discourse, even in countries where Islamists are not in power.

Arkoun saw his project as one that goes beyond the confines of the field of Islamic studies. He believed in a critical approach that was also self-critical and hence aware of its own limits. As such, the critical approach becomes a process. Such work is also of a comparative nature – one cannot study Islam outside its monotheistic context and in isolation from Judaism and Christianity. He believed that if scholars in Muslim countries adopted such an approach in practising Islamic studies, they would not only liberate their discipline, but also themselves and, in the process, help liberate their societies. - from the Guardian obituary.

As he began to consider how one might rethink Islam in the contemporary world, his sophisticated questioning provided a welcome counterpoint to the highly ideological interpretations that dominated debate in both the Muslim world and the non-Muslim West. - from the Institute of Ismaili Studies obituary.

In the final years of his career, Arkoun repeatedly expressed regret that his methodological suggestions often fell on deaf ears among scholars of Islam. But that did not deter him the least. In fact, in the last ten years or so, he actually expanded his horizons from the study of Islamic thought to a critique of all forms of reason and rational thinking, proposing an almost Kantian philosophical recalibration, which he called the 'Emerging Reason Project' and continued to advocate and propagate until the very end. - from Mohammed Arkoun (1928-2010): Trailblazer for new approaches to the study of Islam by Carool Kersten.

Rethinking Islam: Common Questions, Uncommon Answers
Mohammed Arkoun, Robert D. Lee
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Islam: To Reform or to Subvert?
Mohammed Arkoun
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The Unthought In Contemporary Islamic Thought
Mohammed Arkoun
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