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Enlightened moderation is a term coined by a former Pakistani president,
Pervez Musharraf General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of the ...
; it applies to practicing a moderate Islam, as opposed to the interpretations of fundamentalist Islam. To think properly as to rationalize thoughts, to be on the positive side of life and to prefer optimism, the theory goes, is to be against extremism. The strategy of enlightened moderation was unveiled by Musharraf during the 2002 OIC Summit Conference in
Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Malay ...
. Musharraf explained his position in an opinion piece that was published in various newspapers in 2004. His plan for enlightened moderation has two sides. It calls "for the Muslim world to shun militancy and extremism and adopt the path of socioeconomic uplift" and "for the West, and the United States in particular, to seek to resolve all political disputes with justice and to aid in the socioeconomic betterment of the deprived Muslim world".A Plea for Enlightened Moderation
/ref> Musharraf pointed out that moderation and enlightenment have been the traits of the
Islamic world The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. In ...
since the times of
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mono ...
. Musharraf wrote:
I say to my brother Muslims: The time for
renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...
has come. The way forward is through enlightenment. We must concentrate on human resource development through the alleviation of poverty and through education, health care and social justice. If this is our direction, it cannot be achieved through confrontation. We must adopt a path of moderation and a conciliatory approach to fight the common belief that Islam is a religion of militancy in conflict with modernization, democracy and secularism. All this must be done with a realization that, in the world we live in, fairness does not always rule.


Criticism

Fundamentalist Islamic organizations have criticized Musharraf's vision of enlightened moderation. The
Jamaat-e-Islami Jamaat-e-Islami ( ur, ) () is an Islamic movement founded in 1941 in British India by the Islamic theologian and socio-political philosopher, Syed Abul Ala Maududi.van der Veer P. and Munshi S. (eds.''Media, War, and Terrorism: Responses fro ...
condemns it as a
neologism A neologism Ancient_Greek.html"_;"title="_from_Ancient_Greek">Greek_νέο-_''néo''(="new")_and_λόγος_/''lógos''_meaning_"speech,_utterance"is_a_relatively_recent_or_isolated_term,_word,_or_phrase_that_may_be_in_the_process_of_entering_com ...
for
Westernization Westernization (or Westernisation), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as industry, technology, science, education, politics, econom ...
and
American imperialism American imperialism refers to the expansion of American political, economic, cultural, and media influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. Depending on the commentator, it may include imperialism through outright military conquest ...
. Islam is innately a religion of enlightened moderation, they argue, and needs no Westernized amendments. Masooda Bano points out that the US is not likely to "suddenly metamorphose into a benevolent entity, which will 'resolve all political disputes with justice.'"Masooda Bano, "Unraveling 'Enlightened Moderation'", ''
Al-Ahram ''Al-Ahram'' ( ar, الأهرام; ''The Pyramids''), founded on 5 August 1875, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after '' al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya'' (''The Egyptian Events'', founded 1828). It is majori ...
'', 17–23 June 2004 ,Issue No. 695


References and notes


Further reading

* Compare and contrast to "Enlightened Underdevelopment." 1994. The Spirit and Power of Place: Human Environment and Sacrality: Essays Dedicated to Yi-Fu Tuan. In Rana P.B. Singh (ed.). Pps: 87-100. Varanasi, India: NGSI Publications No. 41. Concurrently published under same title in National Geographical Journal of India 40,1-4:87-100.


External links


Jamaat-e-Islami "“Enlightened Moderation” Or The New US ‘Religious Order’"
{{Pervez Musharraf Liberalism in Pakistan Pervez Musharraf Political terminology in Pakistan Liberal and progressive movements within Islam Pakistan studies Enlightenment philosophy Pakistan Movement