A New Enlightenment: Cultural Lifeline or Western-centric Hoohah?

Ever since 9/11, various social and political commentators have declared flatly that the only hope for global peace is for the Islamic world to undergo an “Enlightenment” of the type the West experienced a couple of centuries back. Such an Enlightenment would overturn religious misconceptions, dispel ethnic hatred, and bring the Islamic world into harmony with its neighbors and with itself. Sounds good, hmm? One problem: many highly intelligent people don’t see what was so great about the Western Enlightenment, and make a compelling argument that it caused at least as many problems as it solved.