Analyzing and reading the paradoxical tendencies of modern secularism in the thoughts of contemporary political thinkers in the Arab world

The idea of secularism in the Arab world has had different foundations, structures, theorists, reactions and functions. The present study examines the typology of secularism among the Arab world's thinkers through an analysis of five contemporary modern thinkers and philosophers from the west to the east of the Arab world. The main question of the paper is what are the structure and the typology of secularism in the Arab world? In response to the research question, the article shows that, there are two orientations and structures in the Arab world about secularism. The first one is reactionary introversion or localism and the second one is Westernism extroversion in the Arab world. The reactionary introversion orientation considers the main cause of the Arab world's problems is receded from the original Islamic traditions, and considers secularism and Western values to be the cause of the destruction of the Arab world. This current is following kind of Islamic radicalism and dogmatic idea in political and social life in the Arab world. The second current by choosing the maximum support of secularism; is Westernism and considers the elimination of Islamic traditions from the political and social life as its’ main goals. Some thinkers have also chosen the middle way. The method of the present article is based on a qualitative analysis of the main texts of the five philosophers in the Arab world including Elmessiri, Al-Jundi, Abed Jaberi, Nasr Hamed Abu Zayd and Nassif Nasar.