المستخلص: |
Professor Rasheed Nufaynef presents in his essay titled "Islam in the Mirror of the Enlightened: Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau as Models" the image of Islam with Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau in order to reveal the influence of Western centrality in their view particularly when Montesquieu ascertains the relation between the East, Islam and despotism; besides, Voltaire allots a play to connect between the Prophet (pbuh and his kin), fanaticism, the Quran and intellectual rigidity; while Rousseau makes missionary rumors a base to offer a stupid image of the Muslims. From here we see that we have to revisit the term "Enlightenment," a promotional term basically, as the Western thought was not able to objectively know Islam; thus, it projected its own experience with the church upon any divine religion without any objective conceiving the distinction real Islam is characterized by. The age of "Enlightenment" was not enlightened in all its aspects, but the thoughts of liberty, justice, the social contract have got mixed up with darknesses compounded on top of each other.
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