CHERLY BENARD : DEMOCRATIC ISLAM NEW YORK. THE RAND. CROP AND THE FREE PRESS 2004

Abstract

The post 9/11 era has made the western thinking elite take Islam seriously. An effort is being made to understand Islamic values and ideals and to discover some similarities of icleals. This it is hoped, would pave the way for the West to put its own meanings into the epistemological heritage of Islam. Post modernism, in the last century, has already made it impossible to accept Western ideals, values and culture as universal, or rational. Why should Western civilization be considered as superior?. No answer can be given to this question except that the West has such military power that it can enforce its values and culture on the world. This exercise of hard power can clearly be observed in Afghanistan and Iraq. It would however be a grave mistake to use hard power where soft power could suffice and it makes sense to develop strategies for ‘friends among foes’. This is where Cheryl Benard comes in.