Citizenship between Islam and the West: An Approach to Origins, Meaning, and Similarities.

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is approaching the question of citizenship through a conceptual and historical comparison of this pivotal value between Islam and the Western ideology. The paper consists of three chapters. The first chapter presents the concept of citizenship in the light of both Arabic Islamic perspective and the Western perspective. The second chapter shows the balance between the value of citizenship in Islam and in the Western ideology keeping in mind both levels; the historical and the intellectual. The third chapter discusses the question of citizenship being a practical mechanism in modern multicultural societies to help create a sense of community that might in return contribute in reducing phobia among the members of community. The researcher concludes that citizenship nowadays stands as a very crucial value covering all aspects whether social, ethical or political. It is shared by all philosophies, cultures and religions. It did not stem of the Western democracy as claimed by some Western philosophical and intellectual theories. Rather, citizenship must be viewed as a realistic consequence of Man’s existential requirements for earth development as viewed by Ibn Khaldoon. Though conflict prevails all human relationships and is not motivated by humans’ natural inclination for geographic influence or by the need for strategic expansion for controlling economy, money and media, the reality is that such a conflict takes place for reaching the highest position of reality which lies at the heart of philosophy, religion and law. All these various fields of knowledge with all its mechanisms seek to claim the truth