Salafism: Modernity from the Perspective of Leo Strauss

Abstract

This research aims to reveal the philosophical views of Leo Strauss, and his attempts to refer back to ancient modernity and Western theology.  It contained an introduction and chapters that discussed modernity as transforming the course of political philosophy, the criticism of modernity in the need to return to the old, and the legacy of Strauss related to the ministry of neoconservatives. It concluded that Strauss was not a political activist, but rather a political philosopher, approaching politics from a purely philosophical aspect. Although the neoconservatives extracted some of his ideas from their practical contexts, and dealt with them with superficiality, this does not justify making him their spiritual father, and he bears all their burdens. By calling for a return to the ancient political philosophical heritage, as well as the theological heritage, it represents a Salafist tendency on the horizon of Western philosophy, and it takes the strongest resentment on every claim to move away from this heritage.