Islam and the West: A Conversation With Jacques Derrida book cover

Islam and the West: A Conversation With Jacques Derrida

Author(s): Mustapha Cherif (Author), Giovanna Borradori (Foreword), Teresa Lavender Fagan (Translator)

Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication Date: 1 Nov. 2008
Edition: Illustrated
Language: English
Print length: 128 pages
ISBN-10: 0226102866
ISBN-13: 9780226102863

Book Description

In the spring of 2003, Jacques Derrida sat down for a public debate in Paris with Algerian intellectual Mustapha Chérif. The eminent philosopher arrived at the event directly from the hospital where he had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the illness that would take his life just over a year later. That he still participated in the exchange testifies to the magnitude of the subject at hand: the increasingly distressed relationship between Islam and the West, and the questions of freedom, justice, and democracy that surround it. As Chérif relates in this account of their dialogue, the topic of Islam held special resonance for Derrida—perhaps it is to be expected that near the end of his life his thoughts would return to Algeria, the country where he was born in 1930. Indeed, these roots served as the impetus for their conversation, which first centers on the ways in which Derrida’s Algerian-Jewish identity has shaped his thinking. From there, the two men move to broader questions of secularism and democracy; to politics and religion and how the former manipulates the latter; and to the parallels between xenophobia in the West and fanaticism among Islamists. Ultimately, the discussion is an attempt to tear down the notion that Islam and the West are two civilizations locked in a bitter struggle for supremacy and to reconsider them as the two shores of the Mediterranean—two halves of the same geographical, religious, and cultural sphere. Islam and the West is a crucial opportunity to further our understanding of Derrida’s views on the key political and religious divisions of our time and an often moving testament to the power of friendship and solidarity to surmount them.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Focusing on the crucial but largely underestimated role that Algeria, his country of birth, has played in Derrida's philosophical itinerary, Islam and the West presents Derrida's interpretation of the interdependence of politics, religion, and faith in a new light, shows that his ideal of 'democracy to come' has a strong universalist component, and, finally, adds to his fascinating understanding not only of Islam but of the Arab as the ultimate figure of exclusion and dissidence in the post-9/11 era." - Giovanna Borradori, from the Foreword"

About the Author

Mustapha Chérif is professor of philosophy and Islamic studies at the University of Algiers, a visiting professor at the Collège de France, and the author of L’Islam, tolérant ou intolérant?Teresa Lavender Fagan has translated numerous books for the University of Chicago Press.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Islam and the West

Name: Islam and the West: A Conversation With Jacques Derrida
Author: Mustapha Cherif (Author), Giovanna Borradori (Foreword), Teresa Lavender Fagan (Translator)
ISBN: 9780226102863

A Conversation with Jacques DerridaBy MUSTAPHA CHRIF

The University of Chicago Press

Foreword: Pure Faith in Peace.....................................................ixIntroduction: Friendship, Above All...............................................1The Future of Civilizations.......................................................19The Discussion....................................................................27To Have Lived, and to Remember, as an Algerian....................................29East-West: Unity and Differences..................................................37Injustice and Decline.............................................................47Separation or Connection?.........................................................55Progress Is Absolute, or There Is No Progress.....................................77Conclusion: The Different Other Is Indispensable to Our Lives.....................87Afterword: From the Southern Shores, Adieu to Derrida.............................95Biography: Derrida and the Southern Shores........................................107

Chapter One

The Future of Civilizations

My conversation with Jacques Derrida, as I am relating it in this book, took place during the final gathering of the Algerian-French colloquium I led on the theme "The Future of Civilizations." As a tribute to the eminent figures in the dialogue among civilizations during the twentieth century, the goal of the event was to question the great philosopher on the difficulties of our time, to hear him sketch, in front of a large audience, a few elements of his answers to the essential questions of our somber era. A related objective was to remind everyone of the necessity of turning toward a common future, made of sharing and mutual knowledge, rather than inequality and incomprehension.

Why was the colloquium held? The disturbing world context more than ever forces people of good will to communicate in order to reject the theory of the "clash of civilizations"; even more important, we must attempt to discover a new horizon for living together. Three goals were set forth: first, to keep alive the common memory among peoples; second, to carry out a severe criticism, a "deconstruction," of our downfalls; and third, to clarify what should be done for the future.

The colloquium "Algeria-France: Tribute to the Great Figures of the Dialogue between Civilizations" that was held at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, May 26 and 27, 2003, was a perfect opportunity to attempt to clarify the problematics of dialogue and to help people everywhere turn toward a future of sharing and of mutual understanding. Orientalism, despite its contradictions, its limitations, and its connections with colonization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, has nevertheless enabled a certain knowledge of, approach to, and curiosity about the Orient, in particular about the cultures and societies of the Southern shores of the Mediterranean. Today, following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and even more after September 11, 2001, everyone senses there is a serious threat, primarily due to a retreat from knowledge and a misunderstanding of the other: the thoughtless, arbitrary, and unjust designation of a "new enemy," that is, Islam. Furthermore, reciprocal ignorance foreshadows the risks of a supposed "clash of cultures." Within certain decision-making circles in the West, centralism and power in all their forms produce policies that harm peace, the good working of international relations, and a balance between nations. In addition, modernity, under the pretext that it is presented in the form of external aggression, is rejected by small, but vocal, groups in the South.

And yet there is no inevitable confrontation nor intrinsic clash of civilizations in the history of the relations between the two worlds. On the contrary, Islam has participated in the emergence of the modern Western world; through its cultural and spiritual values, it is close to Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman ethics, norms, and principles, regardless of the very real differences, divergences, and uniqueness of each. Today, humanity is confronted with multiple challenges; will the generations to come be the complete authors of the life they will lead, and will they be able to live on the basis of their own ability to assume a multicultural existence? Within the framework of the very negative globalization in its current forms, the shrinking of rights and the difficulty of being a responsible citizen, will the quest for happiness and freedom, dignity and humanity in life still be possible tomorrow?

No culture, or religion, can face these challenges and respond fully alone, for in the face of the complexity of the situation it is the universal that leads. The need for dialogue becomes all the more obvious since in the North as well as the South the vast majority of human beings prefer peace to war, exchange to ostracism, mutual respect to arrogance and exclusion.

It is not just a matter of simple dialogue; we must rediscover a common memory and heal the various forms of amnesia that feed hatred. Beyond the pains of the wars of colonization and their aftermaths, Islam and the West, Algeria and France, share common values. There are entire aspects of the culture of the Southern shores that have never been understood, integrated, or accepted by Western culture. In addition to revealing the common patrimony that has been hidden, it is everyone's duty to think about and reconsider the connections between the worlds and their cultures. To achieve a true dialogue, the common intellectual universe, the cultural horizon, and all historical references deserve new readings; they need to be reconsidered and criticized, in a new way. The hypothesis is not insignificant at a time when the new and unjust world order as well as the retrograde fundamentalist ideology, each in their own way, completely hide and demonize the other. To rethink globality, the future of the Mediterranean region, the West, and Islam, means leaving one's deep-seated beliefs and prejudices, sources of exclusion for some and of defense for others. We must return to more self-control, objectivity, wisdom, for it is a matter of the future of our being together, of humanity in its unity as well as its plurality.

The seriousness of the situation requires responding with reason and measure to questions such as, What should I do with the time I have to live with others? Coming together, in these somber times, is the beginning of a response and means that one cannot postpone asking the question. For Muslims it is urgent and imperative to undertake a deep and constructive self-criticism; a work of ijtihad, interpretation, and of tajdid, renewal, which should recall that the Koran and the words (hadiths) of the Prophet prescribe an opening up, democracy, and the universal. For the West, assuming there clearly exists a mastered problematic of the question of the political City, of the modern being, and of responsibility, which is not obvious, it must rethink the theme of its relationship with the other, in particular with the Muslim. Dialogue with the third monotheism that resists, even badly, is a major issue, especially since modern life itself seems increasingly built on the foundation of an exclusion of monotheism from the realm of the possible, on the rejection of religion, on the generalization of atheism, or of a reductive, false...

View on Amazon

Islam and the West: A Conversation With Jacques Derrida