Mustapha Cherif – författare

In the spring of 2003, Jacques Derrida sat down for a public debate in Paris with Algerian intellectual Mustapha Cherif. The eminent philosopher arrived at the event directly from the hospital, where he had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the illness that would take his life just over a year later. That he still participated in the exchange testifies to the magnitude of the subject at hand: the increasingly distressed relationship between Islam and the West, and the questions of freedom, justice, and democracy that surround it.As Cherif relates in this account of their dialogue, the topic of Islam held special resonance for Derrida - perhaps it is to be expected that near the end of his life his thoughts would return to Algeria, the country where he was born in 1941. Indeed, these roots served as the impetus for their conversation, which first centers on the ways in which Derrida's Algerian-Jewish identity has shaped his thinking. From there, the two men move to broader questions of secularism and democracy; to politics and religion and how the former manipulates the latter; and to the parallels between xenophobia in the West and fanaticism among Islamists.Ultimately, their discussion is an attempt to tear down the notion that Islam and the West are two civilizations locked in a bitter struggle for supremacy and to reconsider them as the two shores of the Mediterranean - two halves of the same geographical, religious, and cultural sphere."Islam and the West" is a crucial opportunity to further our understanding of Derrida's views on the key political and religious divisions of our time and an often moving testament to the power of friendship and solidarity to surmount them.

In the spring of 2003, Jacques Derrida sat down for a public debate in Paris with Algerian intellectual Mustapha Chérif. The eminent philosopher arrived at the event directly from the hospital where he had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the illness that would take his life just over a year later. That he still participated in the exchange testifies to the magnitude of the subject at hand: the increasingly distressed relationship between Islam and the West, and the questions of freedom, justice, and democracy that surround it.   As Chérif relates in this account of their dialogue, the topic of Islam held special resonance for Derrida—perhaps it is to be expected that near the end of his life his thoughts would return to Algeria, the country where he was born in 1930. Indeed, these roots served as the impetus for their conversation, which first centers on the ways in which Derrida’s Algerian-Jewish identity has shaped his thinking. From there, the two men move to broader questions of secularism and democracy; to politics and religion and how the former manipulates the latter; and to the parallels between xenophobia in the West and fanaticism among Islamists.   Ultimately, the discussion is an attempt to tear down the notion that Islam and the West are two civilizations locked in a bitter struggle for supremacy and to reconsider them as the two shores of the Mediterranean—two halves of the same geographical, religious, and cultural sphere. Islam and the West is a crucial opportunity to further our understanding of Derrida’s views on the key political and religious divisions of our time and an often moving testament to the power of friendship and solidarity to surmount them.

Savant, guerrier, mystique, l’émir Abdelkader est un être hors du commun. Ayant tenu tête aux armées françaises de 1832 à 1847, il épouse le destin de l’Algérie indépendante tout en devenant un trait d’union entre l’Orient et l’Occident. Initiateur du droit humanitaire et fondateur d’un État moderne, pourfendeur du colonialisme mais ami de Napoléon III, défenseur d’un islam moderne et d’une spiritualité de la fraternité, il est une figure rare de l’ouverture aux autres, de la conciliation et du respect des religions. C’est la vie de cet homme d’exception, de ce visionnaire magnanime, maître spirituel alliant rationalité et résistance, foi et réformes, que Mustapha Cherif nous invite ici à redécouvrir. Son œuvre et ses combats sont un modèle à méditer pour nos temps troublés. Loin des compromis sans consistance et plus loin encore des affrontements dans la violence, l’émir Abdelkader a perpétué l’héritage soufi de l’islam, la voie universelle du Prophète, de la juste mesure et du « bel-agir », sans exclusion aride ni concession facile. Plus que jamais, il est temps pour nous, hommes du XXIe siècle, de retrouver l’enseignement vivant de ce héros moderne. Philosophe et islamologue, spécialiste du dialogue des cultu­res, des religions et des civilisations, Mustapha Cherif est professeur des universités et a été professeur invité au Collège de France. Lauréat du prix Unesco pour la culture arabe et le dialogue des cultures, il est l’auteur d’une dizaine d’ouvrages, dont L’Islam, tolérant ou intolérant ?

Ce livre est le récit d’une rencontre, au moment même où, entre l’Occident et l’Orient, nous sommes dans l’intolérance ou du moins l’absence de dialogue et la méconnaissance.À l’intellectuel algérien Mustapha Chérif répond l’un des maîtres de la philosophie française, lui aussi originaire d’Algérie, autour de la relation à l’autre, des rapports entre l’Islam et l’Occident, du dialogue des civilisations, de la liberté, de la justice et de la démocratie. Plus qu’un hommage à l’auteur de Spectres de Marx et de Voyous, cet ouvrage est une façon inédite de nous faire de nouveau entendre sa parole en liaison directe avec les tensions les plus aiguës de notre temps. Philosophe et islamologue, spécialiste du dialogue des cultures, des religions et des civilisations, Mustapha Chérif est professeur à l’Université d’Alger et a été professeur invité au Collège de France. Il a également été ministre et ambassadeur d’Algérie. Il est l’auteur de L’Islam. Tolérant ou intolérant ?