Between Modernity and Post-Modernity The Islamic Left and Dr. Hasan Hanafi's Thought: A Critical Reading By Kazuo Shimogaki (Japan: The Institute of Middle Eastern Studies, International University of Japan, 1988) 177 pp.

Abstract

Kazuo Shimogaki 's working paper, number fourteen in the IMES
series, is a critical essay of The Islamic Left, a so-far one-time-only
privately produced journal. Three of its five articles are written by Hasan
Hanafi, a professor at Cairo University, and a summary/translation of
Hanafi's first and most important article. The essay itself abounds in
grammatical and typographical errors, while the swnmary/translation is
done very well. There is enough evidence that Shimogaki has a sharp
mind, and I anticipate eagerly future works.
Unfortunately, Shimogaki 's subject matter is not very enlightening,
even though many reasons are given for the study of The Islamic Left.
Hanafi is located firmly in a reformist tradition with al Afghani and
• Abduh. He has all the prejudices of an Egyptian Arab, 1 indulges in endless
analyses of the "reality" of the Muslim world (with the smug conviction
that his gaze is universal), revels in a knee-jerk hatred of Sufism,2
and makes his case for technological boosterism. He also takes for
granted the "backwardness" of the Muslim world, as if the prime accomplishment
of western civilization (which is the creation of nuclear
weaponry-what else has engaged the wealth and brain power of the
United States as much?) was bungled by Islamic civilization.
Shimogaki attempts to reform Hanafi in light of postmodernity, but
his own understanding of postmodernity is sketchy (in other words, very
postmodern). Seeing postmodemity teleologically, Shimogaki writes that
Hanafi "has not yet reached the newest thought movement in the West, ...