American Muslim Social Scientists

REGIONAL CONFERENCE ON
Muslim Contribution to Human Civilization

Midway Hills Christian Church,
11001, Midway Road, Dallas, TX – 75229. Phone: (214) 352-4841

Saturday, June 23, 2001 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Advertised by the Khwarzimic Science Society, Pakistan.

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BACKGROUND

Despite attempts by the academia, religious groups and politicians in the West to prove otherwise, the continual interactions throughout history,  between the northern shores of the Mediterranean and its near-eastern and  Southern shores have served more as a unifier than a divider of various  civilizations. Phoenicians’ origins in Mesopotamia and their impact on Greece's intellectual history also prove this point. Islam's civilizing  influence on Europe through its presence in Andulus, the peninsular Spain, leading to European Renaissance in 16th century is well documented as well.

Unmindful, however, of West's contribution to humankind in the last half  Millennium, Muslims have responded to 'modernity' and European colonialism in three distinct ways: rejection, accommodation, and presenting  Islam as an alternative. The rejectionists, represented mostly by religious movements, which unsuccessfully confronted the occupiers, and then isolated themselves from the Western influences, considering them as hostile to Islam. The accommodationists like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Taha Husain and Said Noorsi advocated re-interpreting Islam to adopt West’s learning in the corpus of Islamic thought in toto. In the middle, intellectual movements  like Jamaat-e-Islami and Ikhwanil Muslimeen illustrate the third reaction. This last phase was contemporaneous with the Post-modernist movements within Europe itself that were critical of modernity and western cultural hegemony as a panacea for the world.

The post-modernists have opened up and broadened the intellectual debate beyond the Muslim world and exposed the hollowness of modernity as a meta-narrative, They have, however, failed to offer any alternative. Their contribution in terms of the felt need for cultural diversity and  multi-culturalism cannot be denied. Nevertheless, their over-relativism and semiological constructivism have created more confusion than clarification of values. On the other hand, apologists like Fukuyama have proclaimed, in the wake of collapse of Soviet Union,  triumph of Capitalism. The two dominant trends of globalization and  communication revolution have set afoot world-wide cross-cultural contacts and interactions. While these forces have shaken the very foundations of traditional beliefs in secularism, scientism, and consumerism, they have also aroused a quest for the truth and a revival of spiritualism worldwide. 

While the Capitalism and its resultant offshoot-materialism and consumerism propelled by the global media are challenging illiterate Muslim societies, the prevailing chaos and widespread confusion have frustrated the secular  intellectual world of the West itself. Consequently, at the start of the new Millennium, the academia, politicians,   economists and public educators find themselves lost at the cross-road of   contending theories. This offers Muslim social scientists in USA an unprecedented and unique opportunity to present Islamic thought, not only as  a viable alternative, but also as a stable and lasting meta-theoretical paradigm, capable of providing solutions to the ills afflicting mankind in philosophical, political, economic and social domains.

As part of a long-term plan, the Muslim social scientists need to engage themselves in developing viable social, economic, and political models, based on continual ‘ ijtehad’ (Reconstruction of Thought) aimed at providing theoretical and functional  foundations for a comprehensive media, and educational reform movement from  elementary to tertiary levels, throughout the world. Given the political situation in the  Muslim nations, this reform ought to be attempted in the West first with the  potential impact on the rest of the world, including the Muslim world.

In view of the foregoing, this regional conference has been arranged,  in the Dallas Metroplex area on June 23, 2001, under the aegis of the Association  of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) leading to a series of national and international conferences.  

The conference will, InshaAllah, (God willing) result in following benefits to various constituencies:

1. The Muslim Community in the area, especially the Muslim students will become aware of the contributions their forbears made to mankind.

2. To project through this event to the teachers, media personnel, and the political and social elite; the Islamic knowledge and learning in philosophical, political, economic, social and scientific fields.

3. The papers presented will lead to the publication of proceedings in a volume to serve as a valuable research and educational resource.

4. This conference may lead to establishing a regional chapter of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) in the South and South Central Region with a journal on the internet and in print.