Abdel-wahab Elmessiri (1938 – 2008), professor of English and comparative literature, an Egyptian thinker, one of the critics of western modernity, and a pro of founding an 'Islamic' version of modernism, author of the Encyclopedia "Jews, Judaism and Zionism".
His Life
Professor Abdel-Wahab Mohammad Ahmad Elmessiri, born in the city of Damanhour, in a province in the Nile delta, around 150 km north of Cairo, on the 8th of October 1938, died on 3rd of June 2008.
Childhood and early
life
Professor
Elmessiri has been
raised
in a countryside wealthy family, and has been educated in the elementary and
secondary schools in his town Damanhour. His father was a
businessman, but he was keen to raise his children on self-dependence.
Dr. Elmessiri remembers this time and mentions that this way of raising up has made me a stubborn and dedicated researcher.
(Islam
online, Elmessiri speaks for his life).
Education
He has been educated during the
elementary and secondary periods in Damanhour, and on 1955 joined
Professional
Career
After his return to
Besides
his work as a university professor, he was appointed as a member of the council
of experts, and chief of the unit of Zionist thought, in the center of political
and strategic studies, Al-Ahram newspaper (1970-1975);
and as a cultural chancellor in the permanent delegate of the Arab league at the
UN, New York (1975-1979); and as an Academic chancellor for the International
Institute of Islamic Thought (from 1992 till the end of his life); and as a
member of the board of trustees of the University of Social and Islamic
Sciences, Virginia State USA (1993 till the end of his life); and as a member of
the board of trustees of the University of Social and Islamic Sciences,
Washington, USA (1997 till the end of his life).
In addition, he participated as an editorial chancellor for several magazines in
Political
Activities
Since his youth, Elmessiri was active
politically. He participated, during the period of British occupation of
He resumed his political activities in mid
nineties when he participated and played a central role in establishing and
formulating the political agenda of the new 'Wasat
Party' (meaning the middle or midway party). The Wasat
is a party that acknowledges the democratic live of
Intellectual Journey
Elmessiri's intellectual journey goes back to
the secondary school period at which he embraced the communist thought and
joined an Egyptian communist party for some time. At this early stage, he
believed in the western modernist thought, in general, and the communist thought
in particular. This conviction continued with him until the time of his studies
at the states in the early sixties of the twentieth century.
Elmessiri during the sixties, in the States,
both realistically and intellectually, has witnessed the essential
transformations through which western modernity have been passing. This
situation represents the starting point of the turn away from his modernist
convictions, in general, and the communist convection in particular. He mentions that the beginnings of his
conversion toward the Islamic thought go back to 1963. He adds that the essence
of his view is that human being is a unique creature and is not a material one,
and consequently, equality and justice between humans is an essential
requirement, he says,
This essential vision is
the common thread of all my writings, and in the evolution of my intellectual
life. My philosophical position has been changed from
one time to another, but the required vision is the same, despite the change in
the methods and means to realize this vision. Gradually, through a journey that
consumed thirty years I came back to Islam, not only as beliefs and rituals,
but as a vision to the universe, the life and as an
Ideology. (Islam online, Love is the start of my conversion to
belief)
As a response to the Egyptian defeat by
From this starting point he wrote the first of
his books, "The end of history: an introduction to studying the structure of
Zionist thought" (1972), afterward, his "Encyclopedia of Zionist concepts and
terms: a critical vision" was published on 1975, which was followed by a series
of studies about Judaism and Zionism.
Within his efforts to expand his project,
he decided to update and expand his 'Encyclopedia of Zionism'; he thought that
such a process would take one or two years. Nevertheless, in practice he found
that his earlier version of the encyclopedia was analytical, concentrating on
the particulars and missing the wider collective and cultural view of the
Zionist project. Hence, he realized that he should seek a synthetically oriented
methodology to form a foundational collective view. The result was his 8 volumes well known major and seminal publication "Jews,
Judaism and Zionism: a new interpretive model", 1999.
During working on expanding and widening his
view of the Zionist project he realized that a prerequisite of constructing a
collective view of the subject studying the social, political and intellectual
as well as the philosophical background of such a project. This meant studying
the modernist western thought with its philosophical and cultural basis.
Consequently, the intellectual project of Elmessiri has surpassed studying
Zionist thought and its social realization and turned out to be a critical study
of Western civilization, in general. Moreover, in the later period his project
has been expanded to present general thought concerning the construction of a
contemporary 'Islamic" modernism that is capable of offering the remedy for the
problems aroused by western modernity, especially after entering the post-modern
state.
In this period he published several studies in
modernity critique, such as "The problematic of partiality: a cognitive vision
and a call for new views" (1992), "The world from a western view" (2001),
"Materialistic philosophy and the dismantling of human being" (2002), "Modernism
and Postmodernism" (2003), and numerous other publications.
Despite his wide philosophical project, the
literal subject, which is his specialization, continued to be amongst his basic
interests and 'his first love' as he says. Hence, he published "Selections of
the English romantic poetry: some historical and critical studies" (1979),
"Language, allegory between monotheism and Unity of Being" (2002), and several books
in Arabic and English in the literature of the Palestinian resistance. Dr. Elmessiri has published a poetry work "the
songs of experience and innocence" (2003), as well as several short stories for
children. On 2007 he published in literature, Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, the poem 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', with a critical
study.
Children
Fictions and his intellectual project
Elmessiri realized during his journey that the
major problem of western modernity is its failure to assert human dignity and
values. He also realized that this trait is transmitted
to the subconscious of the modern human being through media, especially during
the period of childhood. Therefore, he purported to plant humanist and Islamic
values in the subconscious of children through a collection of short fictions,
titled "Stories of this era". In his stories, the same cognitive view of
Elmessiri's project was impeded.
Gamal Hemdan's Effect on Elmessiri
Professor Elmessiri mentions that he has been
under the influence of the methodology of Dr. Gamal
hemdan, an Egyptian geography specialist and the
writer of "The character of
I read his book "Jews
anthropologically" during my work on the encyclopedia of Zionism, I have always
felt a great admire of his method of writing as well as his life which was
devoted to his project. After finishing the encyclopedia, I discovered that I
was affected, to a great extent, by his way of
thinking. Most importantly, it is clear that I have learned from Gamal Hemdan refusal of the
one-dimensional materialist analytic method, as well as depending on
mathematical models in Human sciences; and learned to reserve the value of
intuition and imagination in the scientific thinking. The most important, which
I have learnt from him, is to get out with the Judaic and Zionist phenomena from
the circle of the Torah and Talmud and put it in several historical contexts, to
become multi-dimensional phenomena. I learned from him how to uncover the
general model from the collection of ever-changing particulars, and how to
abstract reality from 'realities'.
(Jews anthropologically, P
50-51).
His
Philosophy
The central concept in the philosophy of Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri is that of 'Worldview', albeit he uses
several terms to express it, such as 'human vision of the universe', 'the
cognitive system', and the 'philosophical system'. Based on this central
concept, the rest of the elements of Elmessiri's thought are formulated. One of
the essential elements, which is based on his use of
the concept of 'Worldview', is his distinction between the Western modernist
view and the Islamic modernist view.
The second essential concept, in his thought,
is the 'Cognitive model', which is the cognitive representation of the
worldview. Hence, the function of the cognitive model is to guarantee
consistency between the different elements of our worldview as well as
consistency with real facts under study. The cognitive model, in Elmessiri's
thought, represents a conceptual framework that is
composed of a net of particular concepts and a family of terms, which
enables the thinker to use his model to grasp the collective nature of the
phenomenon.
Elmessiri's thought has a theoretical side as
well as an applied side. The theoretical one presents the basic concepts on
which his critique of modernism, and its results, is constructed. Whereas, the
applied side is represented by his treatment of the
socio-political phenomenon of Zionism as a part of modernity thought. Hence,
Emessiri's thought is
basically an epistemological one not Ideological. For the epistemological
thought founds its concepts on theoretical basis that possess an epistemological
value, then constructs its overall view on it in an analytic/synthetic way. This
form of thought is usually referred to as
'foundational'. On the other hand, the Ideological thought starts from fixed
theoretical framework and deduces from it its principles, hence, moves from up
downwards.
Within this general framework, Elmessiri founds
his work on the wide spread thought of modernity critique, postmodernism,
postcolonial, and sociology of knowledge. Therefore, his theoretical basis is
composed of different lines of thought that already exist in Western
philosophical literature itself, and, hence, has its legitimacy and strength as
a theoretical basis. Over such a
strong base, Elmessiri founds his conceptual framework that deals with the
inherent problems of modernism, from on side, and the structural problems of
Zionism, from the other.
Consequently, through these cognitive tools,
Elmessiri's thought can be characterized by its denial and rejection of the
Western modernist worldview, from one side, and by its advocacy of some form of
modernism that is constructed from an Islamic worldview, from the other. His
refusal of modernism in the way it presented itself in the past few centuries is
not radical. For, he does not refuse modernism as such, as an abstract concept,
but his refusal is to the non-humanistic nature that plagued modernism in real
practice. He supports his view, strongly, by the wide writings of modernist
critics, postmodernists and postcolonialists as well as, figures such as Max
Weber, and members of the
This general position entails two basic
results. First, Zionism is not a mere simple sociological movement; rather, it
represents one of the manifestations of western modernity, with all its
anti-human inclination. Moreover, if Zionism is in conflict with Arabs and
denies basic human wrights of the Palestinians in living free on their own land,
then, this does not represent a political struggle, but a struggle between
Western modernist view and the Islamic worldview. The second is the necessity to
construct the counter Islamic view of modernism, not on the
basis of the traditional Islamic thought, but on the basis of our
contemporary Islamic 'modern thought'.
In his words, Elmessiri explains how he relates
his general view of Western modernism to Zionism, as a realistic manifestation
of this view, as follows,
I came back to the topic
on 1980 when I wrote my book "The Zionist Ideology: a case study in sociology of
knowledge", in two parts. In this book, I deepened the cognitive and civilizational dimension of my study of Zionism and I
stressed on the importance to study the Nazi's phenomenon in the same way, such
that it should be looked at both Zionism and Nazism as part of the western
thought and the western civilization. Hence, it is not possible to study any of
them in isolation from the different currents of thought of Western
civilization. In addition, I pointed out in the second part in a section titled
"Zionism and Nazism" that Western studies in the subject rarely exceed the
political and apologetic dimension. These studies have failed to realize that
Nazism was not an aberration from the essence of Western civilization, rather, it was an essential current in it, as
much as Zionism was. (Zionism
and Nazism and the end of history: 13).
The
Philosophical Project
On this basis, it can be
said that Elmessiri's project has four basic sides. The first is his
methodology which is based upon the concepts of 'the view of the universe' (or
Worldview), and the 'cognitive model' and on his view of using philosophical
terms.
The second is his critique of western
modernity, which is based on contemporary literature of
modernity critique and postmodernism. However, Elmessiri did not follow the same
rout of such a literature; rather he developed a different rout. He introduced
new dimensions of criticism based on his own interpretation of enlightenment
thought and the meaning of 'Secularism' as well as his explanation of the
evolutionary side of modernism.
The third side of his project is his
treatment of the Zionist thought and movement on an epistemological and
cognitive basis as an application of his critical view of modern thought.
Elmessiri analyses Zionism both on the level of its theoretical categories as
well as on the social and political levels of real life. The fourth and final
side of his project is his introduction of a specific view for constructing a
contemporary Islamic version of modernism that, in his view, corrects the insane
problematic of western modernism.
1- His methodology
Elmessiri's methodology is composed of four
elements. These elements integrate together in his writings in an aim to grasp a
deep, most general and collective view of the studied phenomena. Following is a
brief description of these four elements delineated from his own
writings:
The concept
of Worldview
According to Elmessiri the essential aspect of
any worldview, or cognitive model, is the absolute reference, or the absolute
source of knowledge. This absolute may be either separate and independent from
the universe, or latent and inherent in it.
"Every cognitive system
revolves around an absolute, meaning 'a final pivot' or 'an end base'. It is
also possible to define the absolute as the center that exceeds all the parts
and nothing exceeds it, and that it is which its existence leads to the
integration of the parts of the system, it is the source of unity and
coordination of the system, and the final metaphysical reference of it. In
addition, this absolute center is accepted by the followers of this system
without questioning or argument. (Zionism, Nazism and the end of history:232)
In addition, the 'worldview'
has specific aspects that designate it, and can be
formulated philosophically. However, because we cannot express in a
complete way such a Worldview, this formulation becomes a 'model' of the it. And because its function is
to be used to 'know' the world, then it becomes a 'cognitive model'. He
expresses this as follows;
We belief
that there is a cognitive model stands behind every verbal or human phenomenon.
This model is the source of unity behind diversity, it is what binds together
all the details to acquire a meaning and become a part of whole, not mere new
information. The model is the specific delineation in a specified context of the
human view of universe, which revolves around three pivots: God – Human being –
Nature, which in turn are in deep conjunction, for they
are mere three faces of the same phenomenon. Our comprehension of this
conjunction is what makes us see that the move from the linguistic (the
allegoric pictures and the relation of denotation to meaning) to the religious
( the view of God) to the psychic (the content of
comprehension) is coherent with our methodology, which is analyzing the
cognitive models. (Language and allegory
between monotheism and unity of existence: 5)
The Use of
Allegoric Models in Worldview
Elmessiri in his analysis of
the different phenomena makes use of a methodological tool termed 'the analytic
model'. The 'analytic model' is a concept, which is to be formulated from the
phenomena itself in an 'Inductive-intuitive' fashion in order to be used to
study the subject. The concept of the 'analytic model', in this meaning is a
concept that purports to deal with cases, which belong to human sciences. For,
phenomena of human sciences are not material and differ in its treatment from
natural science. This methodological tool appears almost in all of his writings
when analyzing different subjects, for example he says,
The
nature of the method, which is used in this study, is to try to achieve a
definition of the 'general secularism' by surpassing the partial definitions and
concepts and the discrete isolated phenomena of the term in order to capture the
hidden model that lies behind them all. And to uncover
the unity that lies behind the diversity, and to show that the different
discrete phenomena and the different partial definitions are no more than
different manifestations of the same model. Then we use the model (or the
general definition) to read other sides of reality. This means that the
methodology of analyzing through models does not take the form of a strait line,
but takes a spiral form: from the phenomena to the model, and from the model to
the phenomena and other terms.
(partial secularism and general secularism:
8-9)
In the same vein says Elmessiri,
I used in
this study what is called 'the analytic models'. A
model is a conceptual structure, which is to be
abstracted by the human mind from a huge quantity of relations, details,
facts and incidents. Then, the mind discredits some of them for being irrelevant
(from the point of view of the researcher) and keeps some others, and arranges
it in a special way in order to be (from his point of view) coherent in a
similar way to real relations that exist between members of reality. In other
words, when we abstract a model, we consider that it is inherent in members of
reality, arranges it together, and gives it its form and identity. (Zionism,
Nazism and the end of history: 229)
Hence, the 'analytic model'
depends essentially on allegoric expressions, which bear the duty of connecting
different parts of human comprehension of abstract human phenomena. This
conception of the methodology of analyzing human phenomena is close to the
Hermeneutic school in German romanticism, such as in the works of Dilthey and the centrality of the concepts of
'Understanding' and the 'hermeneutic circle'. As well as, the works of Marten Heidegger
and his stress on the ' hermeneutics of factical
life'; and Gadamer's view of the hermeneutic explanation of
phenomena and his stress on the ontological nature of events and truths, and
that the interpreter is part of the subject of interpretation.
However, in Elmessiri's
methodology objective observation of reality and objective overall vision of the
partial definitions of the constituents of the subject, are
never based on a hermeneutic interpretation. Rather, the process of
'Understanding' and 'Comprehension' is mediating between such an overall
observation and the formation of the cognitive model. Hence, facts and
linguistic terms are not 'interpreted' as in the case of the 'hermeneutic'
interpretation, but collected, as it is (from the point of view of the
researcher), and reformulated within a more general structure. This new general
structure represents the 'new' context within which the 'old' discrete and
partial parts 'gain' its new meaning. Hence, it appears that, his view is closer
to the 'Contexualist' view in philosophy of language
than to that of the hermeneutic one.
Holism in
Scientific Method
It is also important to note
that his methodology rests essentially on his adamant rejection of the reductive
analytic methods, which he sees as plaguing the whole
Western modernist thought. In his words,
The view
of 'analyzing' and 'dividing'
human phenomena, in order to study it, is wide spread in some of the academic
areas which pretend to be
scientific and objective, and in its name supports the strict divisions between
the different areas of human activities. We belief that such
view is anti-human and, even, anti-scientific. For, the duty of science
is not to generate values or impose restrictions on us; rather it is to help
explaining the world for us. This analytic, reductive vision is totally incapable to explain human phenomena, it does not see
a difference between human beings and nature/matter, rather it views humans as
part of nature, subject to its deterministic natural laws. (Language and allegory between
monotheism and unity of existence:7)
This anti-reductive holistic
view of the scientific method leads him to differentiate between the creative
researcher, who has a holistic view, and the mechanistic one who has a reductive
view. The first has developed an overall systematic view, which is composed of
coherent parts within his general view of the universe. Whereas, the second
collects many partial facts that are not necessarily related within one
independent general view. (Jews anthropologically:
10)
Coining New
Terms
An essential methodological
tool in Elmessiri's thought is his view in formulating new terms and concepts
that are needed to express the general concepts, or the
cognitive models, which have been developed in an 'Inductive-intuitive' way.
For, naturally, some of this 'cognitive models', due to the nature of his method
itself, turns out to be new and does not have a linguistic equivalent. Hence,
the solution is to 'coin' a new term to refer to the newly formed concept. Consequently, terms such as, 'dwelled materialism'( which expresses
the model "that the absolute becomes the material itself, hence, it dwelled in
it'), and 'concrete materialism' in contrast of 'liquid materialism' (as
expressions of the model that differentiate between 'modernism' and
'postmodernism'), and the 'functional groups', 'partial secularism', 'general
secularism', etc, are all coined in order to bear the meanings he gives to the
models he creates. See for example his explanation to this view and his
detailed description of the way of coining a new term in Arabic 'حوسلة'
(pronounced hawsalah), by which he means the sentence
'to turn something into a mere material for use', (Zionism, Nazism and the
end of history: 252).
2-
Modernity
Critique
We may divide Elmessiri's modernity critique
into two levels. The first represents the starting point for his thought in the
subject, and depends mainly on several sources of western modernity critique.
Hence, he depends on the writings of Max Weber, and we see terms and concepts
such as 'Western capitalist Rationality', 'disenchantment', 'the social
dimension of knowledge', etc. He also, depends on the well
known
The second level of his critique is developed by his own thought through his own constructed
'cognitive model'. Here appears his constructed terms
such as the 'dwelling materialism', hard and liquid materialism, as well as his
own interpretation of the concept of secularism as a continuous process which
moves forward from the partial to the general secularism. These two levels of
his criticism of modernity appears in the following
dialogue,
There is no contradiction in the
beginnings, but there are essential differences between the results, which I
come up with, and those of the humanist and critical current in the west. The
starting point is the same, which is that the critical current acknowledged the
danger of the materialistic modernism and the consumptive trends and the
inherent danger in some of the components of modernism, such as symbolization,
alienation and the use of human beings as a commodity or an element in a
machine, etc. There is a whole dictionary of the negative concepts, which led to
the deviation from the essence of the human being. I have been
affected by all these things, and opened my eyes on the problems that
arouse because of modernity and through it. But when I
define the human essence I find it different from the material nature; he is
composed of matter but he also possess a divine bestowal. (Dialogue: Elmessiri
tries to found an Islamic modernism)
Therefore, we will present here his critical
position of modernism in accordance to the development of his thought. We will
start by his concept of modernity, then his view of its internal contradictions,
and finally, his developed concept of secularism, which expresses his deviation
from classical modernity critics in the west.
His Concept
of Modernism
Modernism is a social concept, for it expresses
specific transformations that western societies have passed through during the
'modern' period. For Elmessiri the process of transformation continues until
today, but in addition, it expresses a specific view to the world. What is important, in his view, is not the different
manifestations of modernity in the society, but the modernist view to the
universe. Hence, He defines modernity as a social process based on the
theoretical thought of Enlightenment.
However, the banners of enlightenment, which
have been raised by the modern European thought, such as freedom of human mind,
responsibility of the human being of his future, the use of science to the
benefit of man, etc, are all, Elmessiri's thought, accepted as such.
Nevertheless, the problem, as he sees it, arises when reality shows the contrary
of such banners. Hence, he concludes that the problem lies in the wide
propagation of these banners, which gives the impression that it has been
applied in reality, which is, in his view, not true. He adds that no one refuses
the rights of freethinking and the use of human mind, but the problem lies in
the kind of mind to be used, an instrumental mind, or a human mind which is capable of surpassing the matter. (The thought of
enlightenment and its contradictions: 4)
Therefore, Elmessiri studies enlightenment
thought in an effort to explain its negative results in realty. H defines it as
a materialist view of the universe that revolves around a specific view of the
relation between mind and nature, upon which is built its view to history,
ethics, beauty, etc. And if every view to the universe
is composed of three centers, nature, Human beings, and God, then in
enlightenment, Mind replaces God in this trinity. (The thought of
enlightenment and its contradictions:12-13).
Accordingly, 'Rationality', in the Western
modernist view, is the belief that mind alone without the support of revelation
is capable of attaining reality. And reality is the
mere material reality, which is grasped by mind through senses alone. Hence,
mind itself is no more than the material reality, and limited by it, and because
of this, is capable of founding cognitive, ethical and atheistic meaningful
systems upon which it can understand the past and the future and interprets
them. (Zionism, Nazism, and the end of history: 238).
Contradictions
of Modernity
Elmessiri cites several problems that faced western modernity and
resulted in inherent self-contradictions. The first is the process of continuous
decomposition of its thought. A process that is
expressed in the fact that it started by asserting the centrality of the
human mind (enlightenment banners) and ended up by the centrality of matter (its
final reality). This is manifested in the continuous
degradation of the roof of the social values, from higher human values to
materialistic body values centered around sexual satisfaction. This problematic,
in Elemssiri's view, has been reflected in the contest
between two types of natural modernist models, both are classified as rational,
the humanist model which assumes the superiority of humans over matter and the
materialist model which assures its superiority over humans. (The thought of
enlightenment and its contradictions: 28).
In this degradation and decomposition process,
the human mind becomes a material object that receives negatively input from
senses. This is translated on the social level in that
humans lose their particularity and singularity and becomes a part of a huge
machine, and lose control over their own destiny for the materialistic natural
laws. (The
thought of enlightenment and its contradictions: 35).
The second problem, which Elmessiri
cites, is the problem of skepticism and absolute relativism, which he sees as an
inherent problematic in Western modernism. Here, he makes use of one of his
'analytic models', namely his created concept of 'the surpassing meaning', which
is developed within his view of the problem of meaning. He addresses this
problem as follows'
Every thing has a center,
without such a center we will not be able to define for that thing a beginning
or and end, and chaos and relativism will prevail. Language, which is not
different from any other human phenomena, must have a center, otherwise the words (the denotations) will be in a
complete chaos. For example, any linguistic expression assumes the existence of
a present, past, and a future, a human volition, and a cause and result.
However, what guarantees for us the truth of such assumptions? The only
guarantee is the existence of something surpassing those assumptions ensures its
continuity in existence. This thing is the 'Surpassing meaning', the essential
basis (the unique principal, the Logos) for all the denotations, which stands
outside (or surpassing) it, for, it already exists before it, and is not plagued
by this playing with it. It is not part of the language, which cannot become a
tool for communication unless this dentations' playing stops at some point. The
existence of a surpassing denotation is the only way to get out of the world of
senses, evolution, and self-dwelled absolute and to stop dentations' playing and
achieve stability, and hence, be able to form philosophical, cognitive and
ethical systems. (language and Allegory between
monotheism and unity of being: 131).
These basic contradictions, in his view, can be
traced in may areas such as theory of knowledge, the relation of the individual
to the state, the economic system, the role of technology in the society, the
concept of history, the concept of advancement, and the theory of ethics.
(The thought
of enlightenment and its contradictions: 27-60).
The Concept of
Secularism
Secularism is an essential social value in
modern societies. However, social values can be defined
on two levels, the procedural level and the conceptual level. For example,
democracy is an essential social value in any modern society. Such a value can
be defined on the procedural level by the process of 'the neutral electoral
system', and on the conceptual level by the concept of 'freedom of people to
rule themselves', i.e., the equal participation in decision-making. Secularism
is no different, on the procedural level, it can be
defined by 'separation between religion and state', and on the conceptual
level by 'excluding the role of religion, including the religious values, from
the society and the state'. It is true that secularism experiences a variety of
opinions; nevertheless, this differentiation between these two levels keeps its
validity.
This basic differentiation between the
procedural and conceptual levels of secularism is what Elmessiri's expresses as
the 'partial secularism' (the procedural level) and 'general secularism' (the
conceptual level). This division, on the basis of these
two levels, is manifest in his writings, for example,
The term 'Secularism' is, for
several reasons, a controversial term, it has been commonly
defined as the 'separation between religion and state', and hence has
been conceptualized, commonly, on the exercise level. (Partial Secularism and
General Secularism: 15)
For Elmessiri, the procedural level does not
cause any problem for any society, or any religion, this includes the Islamic
religion,
Hence, separation between
religious and state organizations is a process that is not limited to secular
societies in any way, rather it is a process that
exists in most of the complex societies, in one way or another. The state here,
in reality, means some political and economic procedures, which have, basically,
a technical nature. (Partial Secularism and General Secularism:
18)
Within this basic differentiation, Elmessiri do
not purport to reject secularism on its procedural level, rather, he rejects
only its all inclusive conceptual level, in which religious belief systems are
excluded practically, not only from the technical dimension of the society, but
from all other 'dimensions' including higher values, education, family system,
etc. Consequently, he places efforts to study the deep structural
transformations through which Western secular societies have been passing in the
last century, in order to uncover the conceptual and intellectual side of the
concept of secularism, he explains,
The appearance of secularism is not due
to corruption of some clerics, or the tight relations between Catholic Church
and Western feudal system, or the rejection of the scientific revolution by the
church, the problem is much more deeper. It is related to a deep structural transformation of the western
societies in the world of politics and economy, and the rest of the human life.
Those who participated in the appearance of such transformations did not know to
what extent it will affect the view of human being to
himself, to God, and to nature. (Partial Secularism and General Secularism:
22-23)
From his study he
concludes that 'secularism' in reality has passed through what he calls 'a
sequential of models',
Partial
secularism has been
related only to the early stages
of development of Western secularism. But with time, through the realization of
the secular sequential of models, it has been marginalized, for, the rate of
secularization has been increased, and exceeded the areas of economics, politics
and Ideology, and became an overwhelming phenomenon, so that there became no
more space for general life that is not independent from private live. (Partial
Secularism and General Secularism: 19-20).
This escalation of the rate of secularization
is, basically, a product of one of the contradictions of enlightenment thought,
which is the gradual and continuous degradation of higher human values to the
lower material values. In this context, Elmessiri visions that this overall and
all-inclusive analysis of the different aspects of Western secularism has been
missing in Western thought. He notices that most of the Western studies deal
with such a phenomenon on a reductive basis, in which the different
manifestations of the phenomenon are studied separately
in isolation form its holistic view. However, he excludes Max Weber from this
accusation, as follows,
Perhaps, Max Weber is the Western
social scientist who have been close to the process of
establishing the relation between all the terms and phenomena of the concept, in
a way that was nearly holistic through the concept of 'Rationalization'.
(Partial Secularism and General Secularism: 43).
These structural transformations are epitomized
by Elmessiri through one of his tools, the 'consequential of models' mentioned
above, which means a series of models that developed consequentially through the
course of transformations of modernity. These sequential models can be listed, according to Elmessiri, as
follows:
1.
The center of the universe is to be transmitted from humans to
nature.
2.
The duality of human and nature is eliminated, and material monism prevails, i.e., human
being is to be dismantled, and his dignity is to be stripped. Hence, Every thing, including humans, is to be subjected to the
logic of natural laws.
3.
Humans become one dimensional, a functional
one, stereotyped, programmed, and alienated from their human
essence.
4.
Nature becomes disenchanted and the world turns
out to be a space for relentless struggle.
5.
The world (i.e. humans and nature) becomes with
no purpose, goal, or meaning, and can be controlled
totally through knowledge. And the one who possess
power becomes capable of conquering and exploiting it for his own
interests.
6.
All societies meet together, at the end, to be
subject to the model of nature/matter, and technical rationality prevails, and
history ends.
Elmessiri comments at the end that despite all
this sequence of transformation, man does not give up totally, and realize the
crisis of meaning, and may fall into nihilism if he does not formulate an
alternative to the materialist monist model. (Partial Secularism and
General Secularism: 194-196).
3-
Zionism
Zionism, in Emessiri's thought, is no more than a sociological movement
that constitutes an inseparable part of Western modernism. Consequently,
Zionism's thought is essentially a manifestation of Western enlightenment's
thought. Therefore, study of Zionism, in his view, is, as much as every other
sociological topic, subject to objective methodology. Elmessiri, on this basis,
studies Zionism within the framework of his general view of Western modern
civilization. As mentioned above, due to this method, his position from Zionism
is epistemological, not ideological, one; its place is study room not political
conventions. In his words,
The analytic Arabic discourse has
classified Zionism as a Jewish movement or phenomenon, and started to study it
in light of Torah and Talmud, and even
Consequently, Elmessiri asserts the faultiness
of the conspiracy view about Jews, which gives them supernatural
powers,
The other book is called 'The hidden
hand', it will be printed within one month or two, a study of the Jewish secrete
movements, an endeavor to explain some of these sides in order for the Arabs not
to fall in the idea of conspiracy and relate supernatural powers to the
Jews. What I am trying to do in
this book is to proof that Jews are humans, and that all the phenomena
surrounding them are human phenomena. (dialogue:
Consciousness of the other is a necessity)
His study of Zionism, from his general view of
Western modernism, has been extremely wide, covering up all the factors related
to Zionism as a Socio-political phenomenon. It is not possible, naturally, in
this limited space to present a comprehensive picture about this wide study,
which is composed of eight volumes, but we can illuminate some of the basic
principles upon which the study rests.
We will present here, in brief, his view that
Zionism represents a part of Western modernity, and his 'analytic model' termed
'the functional groups', then his view about the problem of 'genocide' as a part
of Western civilization.
Zionism and
Western Civilization
In his study of Zionism as a part of Western
Civilization and based on its modernist thought, Elmessiri goes from the general
to the particular. For, in order to proof the general picture he had to, first,
study Western civilization in its overall view and abstract its basic tenets,
and, second, extract some examples that present clearly such basic tenets.
Hence, after presenting his detailed study of Western civilization, Elmessiri
picks up some of its most telling models.
The basic tenet of Western civilization, in
Elmessiri's view is its relentless inclination for domination and exploitation
of the world. Hence, as Elmessiri stresses, the most telling models of such a
basic tenet, is the creation of the United States and the extermination of its
indigenous inhabitants, the dictatorship of Stalin in the ex Soviet Union, and
the Nazi rule in Germany. These models, in Elmessiri's thought, are no more than
examples of other similar activities such as in Vietnam, Algeria, South Africa,
Australia, and lately in Bosnia and Iraq, etc, in addition to mass slavery in
the colonies, which constitute a continuous pattern and ideology of the 'White
Man'.
He then establishes a relation between the
general case, i.e., Western civilization in general, and the specific case,
i.e., Zionism. Elmessiri concentrates on Nazism, as a representing model of the
general case, and on Zionism as a particular case. Here, the central theme in
both cases is the expulsion of the original
inhabitants (or part of them) on the basis of some irrational banner, the ethnic
origin in the first, and the religious origin in the second. He expresses his
view as follows,
This is what we tried to do in
this work, we study the deep structure of Nazism and put it in its Western
civilization context, and uncover its relation to Zionism on the level of its
deep cognitive discourse and regain Imperialism as an essential 'analytic model'
in all the modern Western phenomena. We say that it is not possible to separate
the modern Western civilization with its general secularism and its materialist
rationalism from its Imperial disposition. (Zionism, Nazism and the end of
history: 16)
In the context of describing the common factors
of all the Imperial phenomena of Western civilization, including Zionism, he
writes,
There is a common phenomenon between
Nazism, Zionism, and Western civilization, in general,
that is the rationality of the procedures and the irrationality of the
purpose. This phenomenon has been cited by Max Weber in
his writings. Apprehension camps in
both Nazi Germany and Zionist Israel is a good example of this side of
Western civilization. These camps are organized in a
rational and 'methodological' way in which gain and loss is accounted
correctly.
May be the strongest
evidence on the close relation between Nazism and Western civilization is that
the Western response on the apprehension and concentration camps of the Jews was
not, in essence, different from the Nazi's crime. The West tried to solve the
Jewish problem by creating a Zionist state on the bodies of the Palestinians, as
if the crime of Auschwitz can be erased by the crime of
'deer yaseen' or the slaughter of
The Functional
Groups
The concept of the 'functional groups' in
Elmessiri's thought is a central concept and takes a big space of analysis. It
is in fact one of his methodological tools, a 'cognitive model' he uses to
analyze the Jewish and Zionist role in a totally rational and cognitive way.
Here we cite part of his detailed description of the concept, then a brief
analysis for the relation between the 'functional groups' and Judaism and
Zionism. In defining this concept he wrote,
The functional groups are small human
groups to which the classical society assigns different functions, which members
of the society see that, for one reason or another, they cannot do it
themselves. These functions may be degrading from the point of view of the
society and is not viewed with reverence in its value system (such as astrology,
prostitution, and Usury), it may also be important and
prominent (such as medicine, especially for the ruling family, and fighting).
These functions may require a great deal of neutrality and keeping with
agreements due to the need of the society to stick to its holiness and higher
values. The society might use the human functional member to fill a gap that
might come up between his needs and his ability to fulfill these needs (such as
the need for new settlers in rural areas, rare experiences, and the need for a
capital). (Partial Secularism and General Secularism: 269), and,
Members of the functional groups
bequeath the functional experiences in their specialization across generations
and monopolize it, and even unite with it. After importing the functional
member, the following happens: a) a contractual relation. B) isolation, alienation and the feeling of impotence. C) isolation from time and space, and a false feeling of
identity. D) ambivalence and relativism in ethics. E)
migration. And, f) centrism
around the self and centrism around the object. Within this circumstance,
members of functional groups become isolated alienated characters ready for
being used, with no roots nor loyalty. Nevertheless, at
the same time they look to themselves and to their relation to the society as a
material to be used. The view of the universe of these
groups, in most cases, is a dwelling monistic one. For, the dwelling vision
makes the member of the functional group a point of dwelling by god (and hence
becomes self sufficient), and a member of a chosen
people. This makes it easier to bear his painful position and get into a
relentless contractual relation with the society. (Partial Secularism and
General Secularism: 270-272)
Elmessiri then expounds the relation between
the concept of the functional groups and Judaism and the appearance of
Secularism as follows,
Members of the Jewish groups have
participated in bearing the secular thought and its propagation. It is important
to assert here that they did not do that due to their hidden purpose to hurt
people, as it is a common idea, but they have moved as a group in the framework
of a Western social system, which exceeds their volitions and inclinations.
However, this does not immune the human being from his responsibility about his
deeds. For, he stays responsible on the personal level on what he does. There are many Jewish groups who tried to confront secularism
and stop it. However, it is well known that members of
the Jewish groups have undertaken the role of the mediating functional groups in
the Western society, which built in them a dwelling inclination and a
disposition for secularism. We may add here that undertaking this role made them
one of the most important elements of the direct secularization of the Western
societies. They widened the space of commutative economy, and they represented a
very much moving member in a society that was essentially
characterized by being a stable one. (Partial Secularism and General
Secularism: 309)
Genocide
Through his concept of functional groups
and its relation to his extensive analysis of the Western civilization Elmessiri studies the different aspects of
Zionism and its relation to Judaism. Here we will present his view of the
incidents of genocide which have happened during the
last European world war.
Monopoly
of the
Genocide
In Elmessiri's view the problem is not to admit
or deny the Jewish genocide on the hands of the Nazis, rather, the problem is
that this incident have happened to several minorities and functional groups in
the same time and circumstances. However, Zionism through the wide spread media
have monopolized this incident giving the impression that it was only the Jews
who have passed through it, in his words,
This study will try to accomplish its
aims without reducing in any way the size of the Nazi's crime against the Jews
(and the Slavs and Gypsies and others). For, reducing the size of the Nazi's
crime constitutes a cognitive as well as ethical failure. On
the cognitive side, failing to recognize it means failing to recognize one of
the most important features of modern Western civilization, its disposition for
committing genocide. On the ethical side, it represents the failure of a
person who is responsible ethically who saw a crime committed against a group of
people and chose to keep silent. ( Zionism, Nazism and
the end of history: 16)
After admitting the cognitive and ethical
responsibility in confronting such an insane incident, Elmessiri then describes
his idea of monopolizing the genocide as follows,
Zionists try to monopolize the role of
the victim for themselves alone without other minorities and ethnic groups, so
that they picture the genocide as a crime directed against Jews alone. For this
reason, Zionists and their allies refuse any view of the Nazi's genocide as an
historical model that exceeds the case of the Nazis and the Jews. They also
refuse to compare what happened to the Jews by the Nazis to what happened to the
Gypsies and the Polishes, for example, or to what happened to the indigenous
inhabitants of America by the White Man or to what happened to the Palestinians
on their hands. (
Zionism, Nazism and the end of history: 94)
Elmessiri also discusses the question of the scientific research in the
incident of Nazi genocide, and sees that it is not acceptable to impose a global
ban on studying such an important historical incident,
Western and Zionist media
attack strongly books that questions the number of the
Jewish victims, scientific or non-scientific, and accuses any one declares his
doubt around such number, even if he was a specialist scientist in the subject.
This happens despite that there are studies written by some Israeli scientists
in which they expressed their doubt of the number of six millions. May be it was
more fruitful to distinguish between the scientific and non-scientific studies,
and to open all the secret documents and archives in the West and the East, to
explore the accuracy of these results. (Zionism, Nazism and the end of history:
98)
Elmessiri, then, discusses
the way Zionist media has manipulated the incident so that it becomes iconized as an incident that defies rational
understanding,
The west defined the meaning of the
Nazi's genocide of the Jews in a way that manipulates the general and particular
levels and separating it from its modern civilization's and political Western
context. (Zionism, Nazism and the end of history: 98)
The procedure of manipulation goes as
follows:
1.
With respect to responsibility of the
crime; the crime becomes too limited for the Germans
alone, and at the same time becomes too wide as a crime of the whole non-Jews as
such.
2.
With respect to the victim; the crime becomes too limited so that it
becomes against Jews alone, ignoring other victims, and at the same time becomes
too wide as a crime against every Jew in the world, not against Western Jews
alone.
3.
After that genocide becomes an icon, which
refers to itself and defies any rational scrutiny, it becomes the source of the
end meaning. At the end, it becomes a metaphysical point that surpasses time and
space. (Zionism, Nazism and the
end of history: 94)
4- The Future:
Islamic Modernity
The futuristic vision of Elmessiri can be
epitomized in the necessity of constructing what he calls the 'Islamic
Modernity'. This means essentially to maintain the fruitful side of modernity,
especially partial secularism' while presenting the remedy for the insane and
non-human exercises of Western modernity, especially its general secularism.
This means that the concept of 'Islamic modernity' does not entail isolation
from contemporary human civilization, nor, reestablishing the same 'classic'
societies of the old Islamic civilization, rather, it is a concept that
expresses participation in contemporary civilization on the basis of preserving
the culture of the self. Hence, the adjective 'Islamic' refers to participate in
contemporary human civilization and thought through a creative thinking that
reflect the 'Islamic' self as a unique major culture. He expresses this view as
follows,
This study hopes to be a part of a
new current of thought in the modern Arab/Islamic civilization that started to
appear by the end of the forties [of the twentieth century] and started to be crystallized lately. This current aims at participating in
the human civilization through getting started from the Arab/Islamic civil and
cognitive particularity. And we belief that the
Arab/Islamic civilization project, in its modern era, has been into a close
ended tunnel when it has defined its aim as to 'reach the west'. For, this
banner meant that the other is the purpose and that we become a means. Hence, we
become humans of the third class, in most cases, and at best of the second
class. In our endeavor to fulfill our aim we had to
silence our creativity and drop our values. (Zionism, Nazism and the end of
history: 17)
Elmessiri clarifies his concept in another way in a dialogue about the
problem of modernization,
With this meaning, some of the
Arab/Islamic thinkers try to make use of Western modernity critique to try to
found a new Arab/Islamic modernism that makes use of the previous experiences of
the others, their views, and their mistakes, as well. We have seen the Western
human being, moving within modernist systems, accomplished what he accomplished
and destroyed what he destroyed. Now the question confronts us: are we going to
make use from the accomplishments, and avoid some of the problems arising from
modernism, such as the ascending rates of divorce, the fall of the institution
of family, the huge anti-human cities. Can we establish a modernism that does
not lead necessarily to pollution as a result of
industrialization. Can we establish a modernism that is not non-normative? A
modernism that is based on reason but do not exclude the heart? (dialogue: consciousness of the other is a
necessity)
The cost of
modernism
The motive for Elmissiri to present his view to 'create' a new 'Islamic'
modernism is not only to preserve the Arab/Islamic particularity but also what
he calls the high price of modernism, in a dialogue with Albagh newspaper says,
Modernity has, no doubt, a
very high price, the modernist system has succeeded in presenting itself and
hide, till today, the price; pornography, no doubt, brings enjoyment to the
person on some level, but on the other side it disintegrates the family and the
society, at the end every body must reassess his calculations. Consequently, I
see that we have to open the file of the cost of modernist advancement; we have
to accumulate the cost of the disintegration of the family, the cost of
pollution, the cost of the recess of ethics, the cost of the speeding up of the
rate of live, which affects human health in different ways. People must know
that the great Western advancement is strongly related
to four centuries of depredation of the resources of earth through colonialism.
In my age, when I graduated things were clear, either you become socialist or
capitalist, but at the end modernity is Western. Now you search for the
socialist reference you do not find it, you search for capitalist reference you
find it in a crisis, in such a case you become forced
to think. It was not a mere chance that many like me have started their journey
to come back to Islam at the end of the sixties, which is the time of the
beginning of congestion of Western modernity and the appearance of
postmodernism. Coming back to Islam is a worldwide phenomenon and one of its
most prominent manifestations is that we started to acknowledge the importance
and the need for creative thinking and the correct arrangement of priorities.
(Dialogue: prerequisites of the contemporary Islamic activity)
His Concept
of 'Islamic Modernity'
From some of his texts, we can extract
Elmessiri's theoretical concept of 'Islamic Modernity'. First, it depends on a
specific conception of 'rationality' in which 'rationality' is
not taken in the Western modernist view which means that humans are
capable of possessing unlimited knowledge of the world. Rather, reason has its
limits; in addition, rationality does not exclude human feelings and beliefs.
Second, his view rests on the 'separation-connection' relation between the
material world and God. This is in contradiction to 'dwelling materialism' (i.e.
eliminative materialism) and 'absolute idealism', where, in both cases, from his
point of view, distance is eliminated between the
absolute and the relative. Hence, both views are two faces of the same coin.
Third, His view depends on the differentiation between the procedural side of
secularism (partial secularism) and its philosophical side (general secularism).
If this separation is acknowledged then we can apply
the procedural side of secularism while depending, in the same time, on the
Islamic humanistic thought. Moreover, Elmessiri expresses his optimism about the
prospects of realizing such a view.
With respect to his view of 'Islamic'
rationalism, he says,
Rationalism is the belief that mind is
capable of comprehending reality through the different comprehension channels,
among which the strict material calculations, but without excluding feelings,
intuition and revelation. Truth according to this view might be simple material
truth, or complex human one, or truths that cut with
the natural system. Hence, it is possible for this mind to comprehend the known
and does not refuse the unknown. This mind understands completely that it does
not found cognitive or ethical systems, it receives
some of the primary ideas and formulates it on the basis of a pre-existing
cognitive and ethical system. (Zionism, Nazism and the end of history:
238)
With respect to the
'separation-connection' relation between the world and God, says,
We may say that the
essence of the Islamic monistic system is its concept of the 'distance', which
asserts the separation and connection between the creator and the creature. God
is like no other, a complete empirical absence, can not
be comprehended through our senses, but at the same time, he is closer to us
from our own veins without being part of us and hence part of the world of
change. (language and Allegory between monotheism and
unity of being: 131).
With respect to the
foundation of a modern society on the basis of an Islamic ethics,
says,
Western
material modernism dismantles the
human being and transforms it into something that is not human, that is what I
do not agree with. Rather my discourse is optimistic and finds the solution in
surpassing the material surface and to start looking to the world as inclusive
of ethical and humanistic systems, which exists in general in Islam, and in
other humanistic philosophies even if it were atheistic. Therefore, I always say
that I am ready to cooperate with an atheistic humanist thinker who believes in
absolute ethical values, believes in equality between humans. Naturally, I do
not see that he has a strong philosophical basis, but we can discuss that in
specialized conventions. But when we found a social contract I am very much
ready to establish a relation with him as long as he is ready to found a society
on ethical basis, I see it Islamic and he sees it humanistic as such. (dialogue: Elmessiri tries to found an Islamic
modernism)
In another dialogue, he explains how secularism
can be applied in the Arab/Islamic societies on the basis
of his distinction between partial and general
secularism,
I
differentiate between partial and
general secularism; most of those who call themselves the Arabic secularists
believe in the partial secularism, i.e., secularism of only, the political
domain, and some of them believe in the ethical values,
and the religious values as well. This is on the contrary of the general secularism which secularizes all the domains: the relation
between man and woman, between him and his body, food,
etc.
I think if we put this into
consideration the discourse between secularists and religious people would take
a different form. For, there is a wide common area,
there is secularism of politics, which means official religious symbols should
not sit in the ministry of foreign affairs, or defense, for example. Most of the
religious people would accept that; they would see that the relation of religion
to politics is not direct, rather, it is a relation
through religious values. The procedural every day politics is
left for the professionals. However, to decide to launch a war and
evaluate whether it is a just war or not is something else. In this case, we
revert to the absolute ethical and religious values. In such a case specialists are not capable of taking the decision, for
the mind of the specialist is instrumental. In this way, we can formulate a new
social contract. (dialogue: consciousness of the other
is a necessity)
His
Works
Works
Published in Arabic
On
Modernity Thought
·
The Profane Paradise: Studies and Impressions
on the American Civilization, the Arabic establishment of studies and
publishing,
·
The Secrete Societies in the World, Dar Elhelal, Elhelal Book,
·
The problematic of partiality: a cognitive
vision and a call for new views, authoring and editing, two volumes, the
Engineers' Syndicate,
·
The thought of enlightenment and its
contradictions, Dar Nahdat Masr,
·
The Issue of the Woman between Freedom and Female
Centrism, Dar Nahdat Masr,
·
Secularism Under
Scrutiny, with Dr. Aziz Al'azma, Dar Elfikr,
·
The World from a Western View, Dar Elhelal, Elhelal Book,
·
Humans, Civilization and the Complex Models: a
theoretical and Practical study, Dar Elhelal, Elhelal Book, 2002.
·
The Materialist Philosophy and Dismantling of
Humans, Dar elfikr,
·
Language and allegory
between monotheism and unity of existence, Dar Elshorouk,
·
Partial Secularism and General Secularism, two
volumes, Dar Elshorouk,
·
Zionism and the Modern Western Civilization,
Dar Elhelal, Elhelal Book,
·
A Defense of Human: a theoretical and practical
study in complex models, Dar Elshorouk,
·
Modernism and
Postmodernism, with Dr. Fathi Eltereiki, Dar Elfikr,
·
A Cognitive Studies in Western Modernism, Dar Elshorouk,
On Zionist
Thought
·
The End of History: an introduction to study
the structure of the Zionist thought, Al-Ahram center
for political and strategic studies, Cairo, 1972, the Arabic establishment of
studies and publishing, Beirut, 1979.
·
The Encyclopedia of Zionist Terms and Concepts:
a critical vision, , Al-Ahram
center for political and strategic studies,
·
Jewish Minorities
between Commerce and Nationalist Claim, the
·
The Zionist Racism, little encyclopedia series,
Ministry of Arts and Culture,
·
Jews, Zionism and Israel: a study in the
propagation and decline the Zionist vision to reality, the Arabic establishment
of studies and publishing, Beirut, 1976.
·
The Zionist Ideology: a case study in sociology
of knowledge, two volumes, the national council for culture, arts and
literature, Alam Alma'refa,
Kuwait, 1981, 1988.
·
The
·
Zionist Colonialism and the Naturalization of
the Jewish Character: a study in some of the Zionist concepts and Israeli
exercises, The Arabic establishment for research,
Beirut, 1990.
·
Soviet Jewish Migration: a method in
observation and Information analysis (Dar Elhelal,
Elhelal Book,
·
Secrets of the Zionist Mind, Dar Elhusam,
·
Zionism, Nazism and the End of History: a new
civilized vision, Dar Elshorouk, 1997, 1998,
2001.
·
Who is the Jew?, Dar
Elshorouk,
·
Encyclopedia of the history of Zionism, three
volumes, Dar Elhusam,
·
Jews in the Mind of Those, Dar Elma'aref,
·
The Hidden Hand: a study in the secret
destructive and secrete Jewish movements, Dar Elshorouk, 1998, 2001, the general organization for the
book,
·
The Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism and Zionism:
a new interpretive model, 8 volumes, Dar Elshorouk,
·
Zionist Lies from the
beginning of Settlement to the Aqsa Uprising, Dar
Elma'aref, Cairo,
2001.
·
Zionism and Violence from the beginning of
Settlement to the Aqsa Uprising, Dar Elshorouk, Cairo, 2001.
·
From the 'Intifada'
to the Palestinian Liberation War: the effect of the 'Intifada' on Israel, several prints, Cairo, Damascus,
Berlin, New York, Electronic publishing, 2002.
·
The Fall of
·
The Jewish Functional Groups: a new
interpretive model, Dar Elshorouk,
·
An Introduction to the study of the
Arab-Israeli struggle: its roots, coarse, and destiny, Dar Elfikr,
·
The Protocols, the Jews and Zionism, Dar Elshorouk,
·
On the Zionist terminology and discourse, Dar
Elshorouk,
·
The Zionist Comprehension of Arabs and the
Armed Discourse, Dar Elhamraa,
·
The Jewish Homogeneity and the Jewish
Character, Dar Elhelal, Elhelal Book,
·
The Concise Encyclopedia, two volumes,
Dar Elshorouk,
·
Zionism and the Spider strings, Dar Elfikr, Damascus, 2006.
Literature
and Critical Works
·
Selections of the
English Romantic Poetry: some basic texts and some historical and critical
studies, the Arabic establishment of studies and publishing,
·
Palestinian, it was, and still: the hidden and
recurrent subject of the Palestinian poetry, self publishing, Cairo,
2002.
·
Studies in Poetry, the International library of
Elshorouk,
·
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poem 'The Rime of
the Ancient Mariner', seven parts, printed in Arabic and English, translation
and comments,
Children
Fictions
·
The Princess and the poet: a story for
children, Alfata Alarabi,
·
A collection of fictions, 7 stories, Dar Elshorouk,
·
Songs to the beautiful things: a poem for
children, Dar Elshorouk, Cairo,
2002.
Translations
·
Israel and South Africa: with others, the
general organization for information, 1979.
·
The
·
West and the World, by Kevin Riley, translation
with others, two volumes, the national council for culture, arts and literature,
The World of Thought, Kuwait,
1985.
·
Openings of the Calm, by Steven Soundaiem and John Weidman, translation with others,
Ministry of
Biography
·
My Journey from the seeds to the fruits: a
non objective non subjective Biography, the general
organization of the palaces of culture,
·
The Songs of the Experience, Perplexity, and
Innocence: a poetic Biography, quasi subjective, quasi
objective, Dar Elshorouk,
Works
Published in English
·
·
A
Lover from
·
Israel
and South Africa: The
Progression of a Relationship (North American, New Brunswick, N.J. ,
1976; Second
Edition 1977; Third Edition,1980; Arabic Translation, 1980).
·
The
·
Three
Studies in English Literature:
(North American,
·
A
Translated
Works
·
Zionism, translated by Louaa Roupary, an Iranian
translation of the encyclopedia of the history of Zionism, Gap wantesharat organization, Tahran,
1994.
·
Israel-Africa
Do Sul: A Marcha Deum Relacionamento, a translation to Portuguese of the book
'
·
A translation to the Turkish language of a
study in English titled, 'Toward a more complex and general model of secularism,
published in 'Secularism
in the Middle East', ed.
John Esposito and Azzam al- Tamimi, Istanpole, 1997, , London,
2000.
Studies About
Him
·
A conference in College of Economics and
Political Science about the Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism and Zionism , 29-31
Mars, 2000.
·
In the World of Abel-Wahab Elmessiri, a book about his works, with participation
of several major writers, 2004.
·
Emessiri in the Eyes of his friends and
critics, an Honoring book in a series " Honored Scientists", contains the works
of the conference, "Elmessiri: the vision and the methodology", held in the
higher council of culture-Egypt, Dar Elfikr, Damascus,
2007.
Awards and Honor
Certificates
·
Honor
Certificate from the association
of the Indonesian thinkers, 1994.
·
Honor Certificate from
·
Honor Certificate from the International
Islamic
·
International Educators, Hall of Fame
1996
·
Honor Certificate from the syndicate of
physicians,
·
Honor Certificate from Albehera Governorate, 1998.
·
Honor Certificate from the union of the
Indonesian students, 1999.
·
Honor Certificate from Faculty of Sharee'a and Law,
·
Award of the best book,
·
Best book award,
·
Honor Certificate from FATH, Palestinian
Organization, 2001.
·
Sultan Al'owees
award,
·
Honor Certificate from the 17th
convention of the Arab writers,
·
Honor Certificate from the Arab Physicians
Syndicate, 2003.
·
Suzan Mubarak award
for best writer in children literature, 2003.
·
The Honor National
Award in literature, 2004.
Articles
and Lectures
Professor Elmessiri wrote many articles in both
Arabic and English in different magazines and newspapers, such as, Al-Ahram, Alhayat, Alsharq Alawstat, Alsha'ab, Minbar Alsharq, Al-insan, Political
readings, Palestinian Affairs,
Al-Araby, New York
Times - Journal of
Arabic Studies - Journal of
References
and Sample Texts
Following is a list of a sample of his articles
and dialogues and some of the articles written about him and some of his texts,
most of this material is in Arabic.
Articles
·
The
Israeli feelings in the post-Zionist era
·
The
Zionist state and World Jews
·
Introduction
of the New Wasat Party
·
Arabs,
Muslims and
the Nazi genocide of the Jews (in English)
·
Modernism
and the Scent of Gunpowder (in English)
·
Progress
and
Science (in English)
Dialogues
·
Professor Elmessiri to 'Althaqafia'
Elmessiri
tries to found a New Islamic Modernity
·
Alblagh makes a dialogue with Dr. Abel-Wahab Emessiri around
Prerequistes of the Contemporary Arabic
Activity)
·
A meeting with Algazira Satellite channel
Abel-Wahab Elmessiri..A journey of thought and literature
part1
Abel-Wahab Elmessiri..A journey of thought and literature
part2
·
Elmessiri
Speaks of his Life – Islam on line
·
Dr. Abdel-Wahab
Elmessiri in a dialogue with 'Albaheth Al-Araby" newspaper: Consciousness
of the Other is a Necessity
·
In a talk to 'Culture
Today'
Articles
About Him
·
Elmessiri
and the Conceptions Prolematic – Dr. Saad Elbazeghy
·
Elmessiri
and the rare moments of enlightenment – Khaled
Alawad
·
Centrality
of Monism or defending the human through raising the 'philosophy of
surpassing' – Algazira Althaqafyah
·
Elmessiri
and Western Modernity – hagag Abulkhair
·
Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri the exempler
of the organic intellect – Dr. Mahmoud Abdel-Fadeel
·
The
Philosopher of the thinkers and the layman – Fouad Elsaeed.
·
Liberation of the Arabic mind from superstitions – Hamad Abdel-Aziz Al-Eisa.
·
Abel-Wahab Elmessiri and the interpretive model – the functional
groups – Abdallah Dalkus
·
Emessiri
defines 10 signs of the fall of Israel – Iman
Abel-Mon'em.
·
Elmessir: The protocols are fake
and believing in it is a defeat – Islam online.
·
Elmessiri:
the Zionist conspiracy is a big lie – Islam
online.
·
Elmessir…a unique Arabic exempler
of knowledge integration – Basiouny Fathy
·
Elmessiri
books an effective weapon against Zionism – Samira
Sulaiman.
·
Jury
decision, Professor Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri – the
winner of the humanistic and futuristic award, 2000-2001, Sultan bin Ali Al'ewas cultural foundation.
·
Elmessiri; the last leave – Sayar Algameel.
·
Abdel-Wahab
El-Messiri: A scholar and three
wolves (in
English)
·
In
memoriam: Dr Abdelwahab El-Messiri (in English)
§
Selected
Texts of His Works
·
The term 'Secularism' – a chapter of
his book 'Secularism under scrutiny'.
·
Some
internal contradictions in enlightenment thought – a chapter from his book
'Enlightenment and its contradictions'.
·
The
Zionist criticism of the Jewish character – a chapter from his book 'Zionism
and violence'
Sources
·
The site of Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri
By: Samir Abuzaid