Reflections on the Global Civilization

Globalization has brought different civilizations and peoples into new and closer contact. But this novel intimacy has not always led to greater understanding. There is an urgent need to work towards a global civilization based on principles of peace, mutual respect and tolerance. It is precisely that goal which the participants attempt in this classic dialogue. Inspired by the encounters between Buddhism and Islam as they exchanged ideas and goods along the Silk Road, it brings together a Sufi Muslim from Iran and one of the world's most influential lay Buddhist leaders to explore the vibrant areas of common ground between the Islamic and Buddhist traditions. Coloured by Sufi philosophy and by Buddhist thought and practice, and drawing on a diverse selection of thinkers - including Rumi and Hafez, Rabindranath Tagore, Jurgen Habermas and Antonio Gramsci - Reflections on the Global Civilization offers a profound meditation on conflict, loss and injustice, as well as the vitality of interfaith discussion. It shows that Islam and Buddhism have much to offer, not only to each other, but also to the world as a whole.

Majid Tehranian (1937-2012) was the first Director of the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research and Professor of International Communication at the University of Hawaii. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard University, he was a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Club of Rome. His publications include more than 25 books and 100 articles.Daisaku Ikeda is the President of Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist network with some twelve million members in over 190 countries throughout the world. He is the author of over 100 books on Buddhist themes, and received the United Nations Peace Award in 1983.

Part I: Secularization, Islam and the Predicament of Identity
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Enlightenment Project and Secularization in the West
Chapter 2: Modernity and Islam in Egypt: The Struggle for Self-Representation and the Problems of Orientation
Chapter 3: Islam and Modernity: The Predicament of Identity
Chapter 4: Narrating Islam, Modernity and Muslim Identity
Chapter 5: Egyptian Writing and the Search for Authenticity
Part II: States of Cultural Contestation and the Struggle for Self-Definition
Chapter 6: Narrating the Nation: The Rise of Egyptian (Territorial) Nationalism
Chapter 7: The Rise of Easternism and National Re-definition
Chapter 8: Conclusions
Part III: States of Ambivalence
Chapter 9: Introduction
Chapter 10: From Sacred to Secular: Time and Space, Alienation and Exile
Chapter 11: The Transformation of Social Formations
Chapter 12: The Plight of Women: Vulnerable, Powerless and Subjugated
Chapter 13: Ambivalent Identities and the Sacred
Chapter 14: Conclusion