lbn Rushd (Averroes) and the Egyptian Enlightenment Movement

Fully aware of the pressing need for change in the Arab-Muslim world, a group of Egyptian intellectuals have formed the Egyptian Enlightenment Society to promote the necessary reform for the challenges of the twenty-first century. They seek to restore a liberal-secularist trend by disseminating the ideas of rationality, freedom, equality, emancipation of women, and so on. They champion a civil society as against the religious society advocated by the Islamists. The advocates of enlightenment have mobilized the ideas and theories of Egyptian and Muslim liberal thinkers, in particular those of lbn Rushd (Averroes), the great commentator and interpreter of Aristotelian philosophy, regarded by many as one of the key figures in the development of the European Enlightenment. Averroes, a defender of the freedom of rational investigation, and a precursor of the modern scientific outlook, sought to reconcile philosophy and religion, and thus introduce philosophy into a Muslim society governed by the shari. The future of the Arab-Muslim world will depend on the outcome of the struggle between enlightenment and Islamic fundamentalism.