Formation of Opposing Modernity in Islamic Countries: Studying Formation and Reviewing Social Thoughts of Nursi & Asadabadi

Opposing modernity is the term which represents the attempts by Muslim scholars in the early 20th century in challenging modernity and its resulting orientalist logic in a postcolonial condition. Through reversing the core ideas of orientalism under the guise of concepts such as 'the question of collapse and underdevelopment', 'the idealistic conception of progress and backwardness', and 'selective confrontation with the Western civilization', this discourse of modernity tries to adapt Islam to conditions of the mainstream logic and to defend the constructed 'authentic' with the aid of the 'modern'. Using discourse analysis framework and relying on the logic of reversed orientalism, this paper aims to read a part of this confrontation and to analyze its resulting discourse through comparative review of social thoughts of Nursi and Seyed Jamal. A critical review of these two scholars should shed light on how their theoretical attempts in defending Islam and its institutions against colonial invasion, have resulted in a reproduction of the colonial logic because of being caught in an orientalist trap.