Fiona’s Reviews > The Crisis of Islamic Civilization > Status Update

"The Islamic Umma, therefore, does not quite correspond to the modern state, since it combines territoriality with non-territoriality, transcendence with temporality."

"My heart has become capable of all forms; for gazelles a meadow, for monks, a monastery."
Ibn 'Arabi

There were several reasons as to why the Muslim world "missed the danger signals" emanating from the West and its threat to Islamic civilisation. 1) For centuries, in the confrontation between Islam and Christendom, the former was the one that usually flourished, and now could not accept the idea of learning from a "lesser form". 2) The very speed and intensity at which the post-enlightenment imperial West developed.

Countless movements & attempts at renewing Islamic civilisation, from historicising to radicalising to reforming to modernising, have failed. This can mean either of two things:
1) That we are at a point of no return, & Islamic civilisation can't be renewed or
2) That another approach is needed, one that focuses on the distinguishing core of Islam, that of the sacred, which has been lost from personal & public life.

Fundamentalism (no matter which ideology or religion it concerns itself with) is inherently nostalgic, as it convinces its followers that it has recaptured the lost kernel & truth of something, promising righteous fulfilment through politically implementing said kernel. Once in power, however, fundamentalists fail at their promised revolution & disintegrate into the commonplace greed & corruption of political elites.