Islamic Traditions and Comparative Modernities

From 25-26 September 2009, Thomas Jefferson’s academic village inCharlottesville, the University of Virginia (UVA), hosted the Thirty-EighthAnnual Conference of theAssociation of Muslim Social Scientists of NorthAmerica (AMSS). Cosponsored by the university’s Department of ReligiousStudies and the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languagesand Cultures, presenters and participants discussed “Islamic Traditions andComparative Modernities.”In his opening remarks, Conference Chair Abdulaziz Sachedina(Frances Myers Ball Professor of Religious Studies, UVA) underlined thedeliberate choice of traditions and modernities in the title to acknowledgethe multiplicity of these experiences in current academic disciplines.AMSSpresidentAli Mazrui (Binghamton University), the second opening speaker,focused on modernity, modernization, democratization, globalization, secularization,and other related concepts, all of which were invented anddefined by the West and are part of the dilemma of Islam’s confrontationwith it. Expanding upon globalization’s various forms, he opined that itsdominant category was comprehensive globalization, which represents all ofthe forces that have brought societies together in a globalized village. Heconcluded by stating that he was proud to launch this conference with theagenda of this changing dynamic of the present century ...