Sekularismus v kontextu moderní islámské civilizace : příspěvek k diskusi o sekularizačních procesech v mimokřesťanském prostředí

The article examines one of the most controversial topics concerning developments of the Islamic societies in the modern and contemporary history. The author stresses that while the secularism is, by no means, an authentical atribute of the modern history within the West European space, in the Islamic civilization, on the contrary, the same process, or at least some of its features, have been implemented, sometimes by force, from outside. The article also questions attitudes of a rather representative group of scholars of various branches, who stand behind the principle of universality of secularization, and submits some examples of "desecularization" even in a very heart of Western civilization - the American Protestant neofundamentalism and Christian revival on the whole, not spoken about similar contemporary events and phenomena in so deeply secularized regimes as that of India, Israel etc. The author further speaks about "half-way-secularized" Islamic societies returning to the beginnings of modern era in Islam from the viewpoint of the place of the religion in the state structure. He places the historical roots of Islamic mistrust in the secular worldview to the times of European colonial impact. While in Europe the secularization and laicisation had clear emancipatory effects (liberating society and man's mind from the ideological and institutional shackles of the Church, Muslims at that time were confronted with alien secular values imposed by Western powers. Nevertheless, the author realizes, the process separating a modern state and political structure from the influence of religious institutions, left, at least to some extend, traces in Muslim societies, but still labels the present situation as possibly (likely) reversible. In the third chapter he describes several concrete cases of cruel clash between two mainstreams in the Egyptian society - represented by traditionalist Islamic scholars being supported by radical fundamentalist groupings which angrily refuse all Western values (including secular law system) and adherents of more or less secularized strata of Egyptian society, whose present position seems to be now even weaker and more defensive than some sixty years ago.