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Meddeb, Abdelwahab
5 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
For Abdelwahab Meddeb, the Koran is the product of man
In an interview conducted by Gilles Anquetil, Abdelwahab Meddeb, the Frano-Tunisian poet and writer believes that "the return to the Mutazilites, these 9th Century rationalist theologians, is priceless. Didn't they defend the idea of a 'created Koran' against those literalists who took the Koran as 'received'? What is the 'created Koran' if not the belief in writings inspired by God and translated into the language of man? This human mediation implies the necessity to situate the text in the context of its proliferation and to go back to the time of its relevation, which is anthropologically outdated. Its meaning is thus relative. What happened with the Bible at the end of the 17th Century is happening with the Koran today. There are many Muslim researchers who are participating. Our role is to bring the results of this research to the largest number of people possible."
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More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Global
All available articles from » Gilles Anquetil
Abdelwahab Meddeb on the Greek age of Islam
In an interview with Beat Stauffer, the Tunisian intellectual Abdelwahab Meddeb reveals the sources of his criticism of Islamists: "I want to criticise my religion, Islam, in the same way Nietzsche criticised Christianity. Many people are no longer aware that in the 9th and 10th century there were already critics within Islam who were much more radical than today's critics. There have always been thinkers within the Islamic faith who criticised the prophets - Ibn al-Rawindi, for example. Both his contemporaries and theologians two hundred years later were of the opinion that it was legitimate for him to go so far with his criticism. These thinkers of the early Middle Ages were 'esprits athéniens' who were strongly influenced by Greek philosophy. I think it's important to point out that Islam had its 'Greek age'."
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More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » History, » Weltanschauung, » Europe, » Global
All available articles from » Beat Stauffer
Abdelwahab Meddeb on the regrets of Benedict XVI
In an interview with Chiara Penzo, the Franco-Tunisian Abdelwahab Meddeb considers that the Pope should have "refrained from regretting" the controversy provoked by his comments. "The Muslim world has missed a good opportunity to reconsider itself. In his Regensburg talk, the Pope put his finger on the origins of what I call in my work 'Islam's illness', which is also the basis of Islamism. The question of violence in Islam is a reality. When the Pope evoked the close relationship between this religion and violence, he spoke the truth, even if Islam should not be separated from reason. I would have liked an open-minded and enlightened imam to take a hold of his speech and open up the debate, recognising that Benedict had a point, to a degree. Because there is no single Islamic doctrine, but texts that deserve debate and analysis. The Muslim world could use some intellectual effervescence."
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More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Weltanschauung, » Global
Abdelwahab Meddeb on the "malady" of Islam
Abdelwahab Meddeb, Franco-Tunisian writer and essayist, in an interview with Gilles Anquetil and François Armanet, ponders the causes of Islamism. "The failure of post-colonial states has exhausted all hope. Their iniquity, their carelessness, and their despotism have contributed to the onset of such a malady. Dictatorships have prospered by desolating the political field. Reference to religion constitutes a last resort. (...) I deeply believe that the cure will notably come from Europe. It is in a position to use its exemplary profile: Having cleared-up its litigations, it can finally play an historical role in accordance with the principals it invented. Only Europe can master the double tension that structures our world: that between the old and the new and between East and West."
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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Religion, » Weltanschauung, » Europe
Abdelwahab Meddeb and the laicity of Islam
"Islam is in fact a laicity-based faith [one rooted in the separation of religion and government affairs]," the Franco-Tunisian writer and essayist Abdelwahab Meddeb explains in an interview led by Patricia Briel. "It has no Church, nor a supreme moral authority. During his final crusade, the Emperor Frederick II, had observed that Muslims made a distinction between the temporal and the spiritual. ... We can trace the origins of the reflection on laicity to Averroès [1126-1198]. He was the first to plant the seeds of the idea that there existed two truths, one philosophic, the other theologic. He saw them as twin sisters. But it is his philosophical successors who end up forging the theory of a dual truth and bringing about the split between philosophy and theology. ... Let us not forget that the non-separation of religion and politics is part of the phantasmagoria surrounding the origins of Islam that is all the rage among fundamentalists."
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More from the press review on the subject » Philosophy, » Global
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