Can pure Islamic thinking only exist in underdeveloped or repressive environments?

[picoico]

Re: Can pure Islamic thinking only exist in underdeveloped or repressive environments

@ravage

This is not a thread on extremism, but modernity and its relation to how we think about religion.

There is a strong correlation between development and modernization. In the rare exceptions to the rule, tradition is enforced through harsh repressive means (one could argue that Saudi Arabia has developed by some measures without becoming modern).

Emerging societies have aimed to synthesize the dominant form of modernization i.e. westernization, with traditional culture. But religion might have a harder time coping.

Whether you adopt an aspect of modern thought into your religion, or you actively rationalize religious reasons to reject it, today’s Muslims, particularly on this site, are fundamentally trying to reconcile two very different systems of though. The resolution of these conflicts may produce interesting results, but they wont really be pure Islamic thought, they will always be coloured by a modern, western context, they will be frequently in english, use tools of thinking and systems of reasoning that have developed recently. And even if the writers themselves somehow escape their social context, the audience will interpret what they read in terms of a modern social outlook.

So, do traditional, pre-modern societies such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, underdeveloped parts of Pakistan hold the vestiges of ‘pure’ Islamic thought (regardless of whether we view such purity as desirable or not).

Yes, only in the sense that the vistages of Islamic traditions untainted by colonial experiences exist within these places, to a certain degree. There is a continuity of tradition, and an interest in maintaining it. Purity in this sense is that the intellectual tradition was (presumably) internalized and reconciled by a Muslim society without major conflict.

I will not say originated within Muslim society, as the number of external influnces, (Greece/Syrian/Egyptian, Persian, Chinese, Turkic/Mongol empires, etc) on Islamic thought on secular matters dating right back to the time of Sahaba makes me question the relevancy of “purity”, never mind the desirability .

Note that this is entirely independent of how one defines modernity…