Although he declares that one of the great evils of the...
Although he declares that one of the great evils of the present day is "the unscrupulous exploitation of the Third World by Western multinational corporations," [^19] he does not show how this exploitation has affected the formation of the whole process of Islamic resurgence.
Watt's effort to present a true picture of the conflict between Islam and modernity is highlighted by his failure to grasp the complex composition of Islamic epistemology and its successive transformations through the system of the Shari'ah.
He argues, for instance, that the traditional Islamic image "is making it difficult for Muslims to adjust adequately to life at the end of the twentieth century." [^20] Isn't the role of theology in any religious system to constantly adapt its main presuppositions to the exigencies of the changing world? In conclusion, Watt fails to integrate the historical reality of Western exploitation of the Muslim world into -coherent system of analysis.
William Montgomery Watt, Islamic Fundamentalism and Modernity (London and New York: Routledge,1988). [^15]. Mohammed Arkoun, Essais sur la pensee islamique (Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 1984), especially chapter eight. [^16]. Watt, p. 22. [^17]. See Fazlur Rahman, Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), and Akbar Ahmed, Postmodernism and Islam (London: Routledge Press, 1992). [^18]. Watt, p. 43. [^19]. Ibid., p.102. [^20].