A report in Lebanon's Al-Mustaqbal newspaper this week presented the comments of an Islamic scholar, Radwan A-Sayid, on the similarity between "secular leftist intellectuals" and "fundamentalist Islamist intellectuals". Both have added nothing but defeat and degeneration to Arab societies, the newspaper quoted A-Sayid as saying.
Secular radicals "insist on polarizing the debate and drawing a line between themselves and Islamic fundamentalists..." the scholar told Al-Mustaqbal, "[Yet] these radicals are no less harsh than the Islamic extremists of our day; they use the same techniques of denunciation and condemnation against their adversaries."
The Islamic scholar went on to point out what he saw as the flaws of the Left: "Those Arab secular intellectuals... have turned 'modernity' into an elitist concept dwelling only in ivory towers." Yet, those same intellectuals, A-Sayid continued, are behind the current "miserable and desperate" Arab situation, because they supported secular Arab militaristic regimes; whereas, "reactionary right-wing thought" had no influence before the 1980s, he claimed.
The Lebanese newspaper quotes A-Sayid as concluding his thoughts with these words: "Our gravest calamity, as Arabs, is to continue to limit our choices between two faulty alternatives: old Arab secular intellectuals masquerading as reformists and Islamic extremists."
Secular radicals "insist on polarizing the debate and drawing a line between themselves and Islamic fundamentalists..." the scholar told Al-Mustaqbal, "[Yet] these radicals are no less harsh than the Islamic extremists of our day; they use the same techniques of denunciation and condemnation against their adversaries."
The Islamic scholar went on to point out what he saw as the flaws of the Left: "Those Arab secular intellectuals... have turned 'modernity' into an elitist concept dwelling only in ivory towers." Yet, those same intellectuals, A-Sayid continued, are behind the current "miserable and desperate" Arab situation, because they supported secular Arab militaristic regimes; whereas, "reactionary right-wing thought" had no influence before the 1980s, he claimed.
The Lebanese newspaper quotes A-Sayid as concluding his thoughts with these words: "Our gravest calamity, as Arabs, is to continue to limit our choices between two faulty alternatives: old Arab secular intellectuals masquerading as reformists and Islamic extremists."