Was Hegel an Islamophobe? And Why Does it Matter?

Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni, 2021

Studying the understanding of Islam from figures like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1 (1749-1832) or Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel2 (1770-1831) carries a twofold interest: on a historical aspect, it can provide valuable in- sights on the origin of Western theories – or prejudices – on the Muslim world, while on a philosophical aspect, it can provide cues for re-elaborating their thought in order to open new roads. Goethe and Hegel are not only relevant for discussing the development of German culture in the 19th century and be- yond, but are also key figures in the identity of Western modernity at large3. When discussing how the West shaped its view of Islam, especially in the 18th-19th century, the classical critical work is Said’s Orientalism4. He- gel is completely absent in it, while Goethe is only briefly mentioned – and dismissed – as one of the many Western writers who used the Orient as an inspiration for their art, producing a «protective Orientalized Orient»5, which instead of a real place is «a form of release, a place of original opportunity»6.

Hegel and Islam

Chapter taken from my book HISTORY OF ISLAM IN GERMAN THOUGHT (Routledge 2010).

Global Intellectual History, 2021

Following the presence of Hegel’s philosophy in Iran from the nineteenth century to the present, this study discusses various interpretations and appropriations of Hegelian philosophy by Iranian activists, intellectuals, and academics in their quest for understanding and realizing modernity in Iran. The controversies around modernity, democratization, Islam, nationalism, and the role of Hegel’s ideas and philosophy in the writings of liberal modernists, communist activists, religious intellectuals, academic scholars, and secular nationalist theoreticians will be discussed. The objective is to provide a general, as well as a detailed, perspective on the prominent, original, as well as understudied role Hegel has played in the intellectual history of Iran in its specific Islamic theologico-political predicament.

Reviews in Religion & Theology, 2020

approaches to religion within the USSR coalesced. There followed a period of 'law-based stability' where religion was tolerated but also repressed and controlled. CARC as replaced by the Council for Religious Affairs (CRA) from 1967, bureaucracy increased but real power waned. Unregistered and unofficial expressions of Islam increased in number and reach. The Epilogue to Soviet and Muslim documents the final three years of Soviet relations with Islam. The details of exactly what happened and why are not entirely clear, but what is clear is that there was rapid change as Soviet-era institutions unraveled, losing political power and control. Tasar reiterates his main argument that Muslim institutions and ideas were both shaped by, but also shaped, the political and social context of Soviet Central Asia during the period 1948 to 1989. Islam was then, and remains to this day, a central part of the identity and political reality of these countries. Soviet and Muslim is an interesting and absorbing read. Students of global Islam, as well as those interested in the history of Central Asia, will benefit from reading this book. Tasar acknowledges the limitations of his study; his necessary reliance primarily on official documentation means the picture he presents, while fascinating, is not as full as it could be. One can only hope that complementary studies will emerge in due time.

Colloquium, 2007

The author tries to show in this paper the sense in which history can be considered ideological, using the framework of Georg Hegel. The ideological sense of history is neither factual in the descriptive sense nor panoramic as in tracing the chronological flow of events from the past to the present, but goes beyond these into a rational, metaphysical interpretation of history. For Hegel, the Absolute Spirit is the substance of the universe which manifests Itself through historical men who serve as agents for the accomplishment of Its ultimate aim.

Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

It is not clear what the intellectual history of the last 200 years would have looked like without the philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel, but it is clear that it would have looked different. His vast intellectual system was taken up by thinkers from left to right, and from very different philosophical schools. This volume brings together accessible, concise essays from leading scholars that present important currents of Hegelian thought in different European countries, including pre-revolutionary Russia, from the 19th to the 21st century. It unites a range of very different forms of (Non-Marxian) Hegelianisms and Anti-Hegelianisms, showing similarities as well as differences. Embedding them in their cultural and intellectual contexts, it demonstrates the various encounters between philosophy, politics and personal lives that Hegel's philosophy inspired.

The general question to be addressed is how Hegelian, dialectical logic can help us analyze certain contemporary religious and political tensions. More specifically, the conflict between religion in general and specific instances of religious terrorism and the political reactions thereto. Sam Harris and others have argued that religious liberalism and tolerance proffers religious conservativism and extremism, since religion in general is said to rely more on faith than reason, and this inclination toward faith, while it’s not devastating for every religious person, does provide the framework for a collapse of the intellect, an abandonment of reason. Due to the recent terroristic acts of religiously associated groups, we have begun to see the necessity of speaking about religion politically. So, it is now the time to examine the bases of this relation, between religion and politics. Inherent in the aforementioned task is that one must first analyze the central concepts in play, namely “religion,” “politics,” and “terrorism”. Once we have examined each of these concepts internally, we will press-on to a syllogistic treatment of their relationships, accordingly. This should make possible a different reading of the conflict at hand from those such as Harris’s. Throughout this work, Hegel will aid us not only with his logical apparatus, but simultaneously with his own treatment of like concepts and issues. Working from his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, the Proofs of the Existence of God, Lectures on the Philosophy of Right, and the corresponding major works such as his Science of Logic, and Philosophy of Right we should be able to gain insight not only into Hegel’s thought, but also how it can benefit us today. Is terrorism going to kill religious thinking, as the New Atheists suggest, or might there be a way to politicize religion while avoiding its all-out collapse?

A book chapter from a Turkish book - Klasik yeniden düsünmek - on Hegel's view of Islam and Persian Muslim poetry, with a special focus on Rumi, and a discussion on why Hegel had to see Rumi as pantheists because of the place of Persian poetry in his historical schema, rather than because of his acutal and more appreciative reading of their poetry