EDITORIAL 

The present issue of the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 
represents a ground-breaking effort of sorts in that it is the first to be 
organized around a single theme. Thus, all papers presented here revolve 
around the issue of modernity and the response of Muslims to its chal- 
lenges. Although this clearly is not a novel subject for the pages of the 
joumal, this thematic issue brings to its readership a number of informed 
perspectives that contribute sisnificantly to a deeper understanding of the 
phenomenon as it relates to the contempomy Islamic experience. 

In “The Dance of the Pen, the Play of the Sign: A Study in the Rela- 
tionship between Modernity, Immanence, and Deconstruction,” Abdel 
Wabab Elmessiri delves into the Western philosophical tdition and its 
discourse regarding modernity, recalling some of his earlier contributions 
in the pages of this joumal. Elmessiri takes a hard look at the underlying 
assumptions of modernity, including its view of humanity, and explains 
how the natm+maaer paradigm has insinuated itself as the underlying 
paradigm of Western modernity. Of particular interest to readers will be 
his exploration of the idea of comprehensive secularism as opposed to 
partial secularism and his study of the metaphysics of immanence. 

The second study, M. Mum= Ali’s “The Concept of Moderniza- 
tion: An Analysis of Contempomy Islamic Thought,” may be viewed 
as an attempt to construct a working definition of Islamic modernization 
through a critical analysis of the Western concept’s epistemological 
foundations. The author discusses the responses of such contemporary 
thinkers as Iqbal, Qqjb, Mawdudi, al-Fai, al-Attas, al-‘Alw&ii, and 
A b i i S u l a m  on the subject of modernization and concludes by sug- 
gesting a four-phase project for the modernization of Islamic thought. 

While the next contribution to the joumal‘s theme takes the Indian 
subcontinent as its venue, its discussion of modernization, like the work 
of the poet Iqbal himself, is directed towad the entire ummah. Through 
Athar Farqui‘s translation, readers of English may now have a look at the 
work of Justice Javaid Iqbal. In his “Modern Indian Muslims and Iqbal,” 
Iqbal’s son, who is a scholar in his own right, analyzes the substance and 
significance of his father‘s thought as expressed in the controversial 
Madras lectures and The Reconstruction @Religious Thought in Islam. 



vi The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 1 4 1  

On perhaps a deeper microlevel than that of the preceding papers, 
Omar H. Khaleefa chalI"errges, in his "The Imperialism of EmAmerican 
Psychology in non-Western Cultures: An Attempt toward an Urnmatic 
Psychology," the notion that psychology, defined as the scientific study 
of human behavior, is based on theories and methods that are universal or 
objective and therefore valid for all peoples and under all circumstances. 
Beginning with a study of the effects of Westem education on non- 
Western cultures (and concluding that these have been disruptive rather 
than integrative), the author explores how various sciences, not least of all 
psychology, were Considered a highly relevant controlling tool of a s u p  
posedly more rational colonial politics. He then discusses how a great 
deal of d e d  psychological data is only relatively--not universally- 
true and valid only within certain cultural contexts. "he author concludes 
his reseafch with an exemination of a select number of blind spots in 
E m b r i c a n  psychology. 

In this issue's Reflections section, we present the thoughts of 
Muhammad Abdou Yamani, a former minister in the Saudi Arabian gov- 
ernment, on selected aspects of the relationship between the Muslim and 
the Western worlds. These are based on a paper he presented at a con- 
ference on the subject held in London not too long ago. 

The issue also includes an analytical report by Sophie Gilliat on 
"Muslim Youth Organizations in Britain; A Descriptive Analysis." 
Gilliat's article is an engaging study of the activities, rationale, and 
appeal of three major Muslim youth groups functioning in the United 
Kingdom today (where 60 percent of Muslims are under the age of 25, 
as opposed to 32 percent among the majority community). Her paper 
examines the nature of these groups and the needs they appear to be ful- 
filling, as well as the issues of identity, ideology, generational conflict, 
and the significance of such groups in the wider Islamic community in 
the United Kingdom.