The Position of Islamic Intellectual Currents on Policies of Westernizing the Contemporary Muslim Family: A Comparative Analytical Study

Abstract

The significance of this topic lies in the fact that targeting the family by Westernizing currents constitutes, in essence, an attack on Islamic Sharia itself, given that the family serves as the link between the individual and society. Moreover, the absence of a unified position among Islamic intellectual currents weakens the resilience of the individual, family, society, and the Muslim Ummah in confronting these Westernizing policies.

The research aims to highlight the positions of the most prominent Islamic intellectual currents that have undertaken the task of exposing policies aimed at Westernizing the contemporary Muslim family, as well as the Islamic currents that have adopted Westernizing policies.

The research is divided into an introduction, a preliminary section, and three main sections. The introduction addresses the significance of the research, the rationale for selecting the topic, its objectives, research problem, methodology, scope and limitations, previous studies, and the structure of the research. The first section is entitled: “The Position of the Fundamentalist Islamic Current on Policies of Westernizing the Contemporary Muslim Family.” The second section is entitled: “The Position of the Modernist Islamic Current on Policies of Westernizing the Contemporary Muslim Family.” The third section is entitled: “The Position of the Islamic Renewalist Current on Policies of Westernizing the Contemporary Muslim Family.”

The research reached a number of conclusions, the most important of which are as follows: The fundamentalist Islamic current takes a rejecting stance toward the concept of “women’s liberation,” as it considers it to call for removing the hijab, gender mixing in education, and other practices. It also rejects calls for methodological renewal when they entail undermining Islamic education, given that Islamic education constitutes a fundamental basis for preserving Islamic identity and culture. The modernist current adopts the discourse advocating women’s liberation and absolute equality between women and men, and calls for the renewal of educational curricula on the grounds that traditional educational curricula are a cause of backwardness and intellectual closure. The Islamic Renewalist Current advocates the implementation of women’s rights and freedoms established by Islamic Sharia, rather than on the basis of positive law. It also calls for renewing educational curricula rather than replacing them, linking Islamic Sharia sciences to contemporary realities and developments while preserving established principles, and rejecting concepts and terminology that contradict Islamic Sharia.

Therefore, the research recommends strengthening a culture of dialogue among Islamic intellectual currents in order to identify common ground and develop a consensual vision for reforming the family, away from exclusion or Westernization.