Sadiq Jalal al-Azm Quotes
Sadiq Jalal al-Azm was a Syrian philosopher, professor at the University of Damascus and at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, and one of the most uncompromising secular and rationalist voices of the late twentieth-century Arab intellectual scene. His Self-Criticism After the Defeat, written in the wake of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, mounted a sustained criticism of the religious, political, and philosophical structures of Arab society that had produced that defeat, while his Critique of Religious Thought offered a rationalist demolition of the religious assumptions that he held back the Arab intellectual project. The quotes below are attributed to Sadiq Jalal al-Azm, organized by topic.
Sadiq Jalal al-Azm on Freedom
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Attributed to Sadiq Jalal al-Azm:
“The defense of Salman Rushdie is the defense of every Muslim's right to think for themselves.”
Sadiq Jalal al-Azm on God
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Attributed to Sadiq Jalal al-Azm:
“Religious thought, when it refuses critique, becomes the prison of those it claims to liberate.”
Sadiq Jalal al-Azm on Knowledge
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Attributed to Sadiq Jalal al-Azm:
“Reason is not the property of the West; it is the inheritance of every human being.”
Sadiq Jalal al-Azm on Politics
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Attributed to Sadiq Jalal al-Azm:
“After the defeat of 1967, self-criticism is no longer optional; it is the precondition of any future.”
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Attributed to Sadiq Jalal al-Azm:
“Without secular intellectual courage, the Arab world will continue to suffer the consequences of its own evasions.”