A critique of Hassan Hanafi's analysis of  contemporary movements and crises in Egypt and Islamic world'

Hassan Hanafi, the contemporary Egyptian intellectual, has analyzed contemporary intellectual movements in Egypt and the Islamic revolution in Iran. He classifies Egyptian contemporary thoughts into three major movements: religious reformism, liberalism, and secular scientific movement. These three movements, he believes, have turned into two antagonistic trends: Salafism and secularism. In their identification of the problems existing in the Islamic world, these three movements have similar attitudes. However, they have different solutions for the problems. He finally introduces a fourth trend alternatively called “post-fundamentalism”, “enlightened Islam”, or the “Islamic left” which does not accept a single interpretation of truth and promotes relativism and dialogue. Finally, the paper elaborates on Hanafi’s analysis of the Islamic revolution in Iran and the crises in the Islamic world.