Enlightenment

Check out this interview with German scholar Angelika Neuwirth on enlightenment in Arabic and Islamic cultures !

Some highlights:

• On Enlightenment: “The claim that Islam lacks an Enlightenment is an age-old cliché. Pride in the Enlightenment–even though this pride has died down somewhat–continues to lead people to believe that Western Culture is way ahead of Islam.”
• On the status of women: “…the Koran is not a reference work for social behaviour…The Koran was a proclamation to people who were familiar with other norms and were willing to call these norms into question…the Koran takes a revolutionary step forward: it puts woman on the same level as man before God.”
• On language in the Qur’an: “While it might be possible to sum up the mere information in the Koran in a short newspaper article, the effect would not have been the same. It really is about enchantment through language. Language itself is also praised in the Koran as the highest gift that humankind received from God…Language is the medium of knowledge…The entire Koran is basically a paean to knowledge…”

There’s also a lecture by Angelika Neuwirth available online: