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PARTICULARIST UNIVERSALISM: A Response to Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im

PARTICULARIST UNIVERSALISM: A Response to Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im Adam B. Rather than respond to Professor An-Na’im’s article, with whose general direction I fully agree, I would like to tease out some problematic aspects of the project he is advocating. An-Na’im joined the Islamic reform movement of Mahmoud Muhammad Taha in 1968 and continued to work in that context until fundamentalists came to power in Sudan and suppressed the movement in December 1984. An-Na’im went into self-exile in April 1985, and has since labored for what he terms an “Islamic Reformation.”1 His main concern is thus naturally for results, for what can be done to bring Islam into harmony with global standards of human rights. The method that An-Na’im recommends to achieve this aim is one that d demands that local sources be found for whatever standards are proposed globally—an approach that might be termed “particularist universalism.” The article following mine, by Tova Hartman, takes a similar approach to An-Na’im’s. And it is perhaps a hopeful sign that a variety of scholars and organizations are now working experimentally and quietly in this vein. Perhaps too quietly: the scholarly public seems mostly unaware of these recent attempts to negotiate, with all due reticence and care, between the universal http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Common Knowledge Duke University Press

PARTICULARIST UNIVERSALISM: A Response to Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im

Seligman, Adam B.
Common Knowledge , Volume 11 (1) – Jan 1, 2005
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2005 by Duke University Press
ISSN
0961-754X
eISSN
1538-4578
DOI
10.1215/0961754X-11-1-81
Publisher site
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Abstract

Adam B. Rather than respond to Professor An-Na’im’s article, with whose general direction I fully agree, I would like to tease out some problematic aspects of the project he is advocating. An-Na’im joined the Islamic reform movement of Mahmoud Muhammad Taha in 1968 and continued to work in that context until fundamentalists came to power in Sudan and suppressed the movement in December 1984. An-Na’im went into self-exile in April 1985, and has since labored for what he terms an “Islamic Reformation.”1 His main concern is thus naturally for results, for what can be done to bring Islam into harmony with global standards of human rights. The method that An-Na’im recommends to achieve this aim is one that d demands that local sources be found for whatever standards are proposed globally—an approach that might be termed “particularist universalism.” The article following mine, by Tova Hartman, takes a similar approach to An-Na’im’s. And it is perhaps a hopeful sign that a variety of scholars and organizations are now working experimentally and quietly in this vein. Perhaps too quietly: the scholarly public seems mostly unaware of these recent attempts to negotiate, with all due reticence and care, between the universal

Journal

Common Knowledge – Duke University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2005

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