Volume 10, Issue 1, 2013
Axiology of Islam
Haggag Ali
Pages 85-98
Secularism
from Solidity to Liquidity
In contemporary Western and Arab cultural critique, secularism as a worldview is believed to have experienced inherent transformations from solid rational
materialism (the emphasis on reason, science, progress, emancipation, industrialization, and nation building) to liquid non-rational materialism (the celebration
of the body, sex, global markets and consumption). This paper explores the arguments of both Zygmunt Bauman and Abdelwahab Elmessiri who advocate this thesis in the light of the major manifestations of these transformations.