Modernity and Atheism: The Impact of Western Philosophies on Muslim Youth and Critique from an Islamic Perspective

Abstract

The topic of the present research paper is the phenomenon of increasing religious scepticism and atheism among Muslim youth, the symptomatic reaction to the hegemonic confrontation with Western modernity. It assumes that this trend is not chiefly a theological renunciation but rather a wider psychosocial restructuring towards a secular world of materialism, radical individualism and constraining conception of scientific rationality. The research adopts a multidisciplinary approach, examining historical, socio-educational, and digital processes that allow transferring and internalizing this worldview. The article provides a systematized critique in an Islamic sense, as modern atheism is a form of contemporary shirk (idolatry), which propels created notions, including the sovereign self or materialist scientism, to supremacy. It also dismantles the epistemological constraints of secular reason that is found outside of revelation. The main argument is that Islam youth atheism is a symptom of the unresolved tension between the holistic paradigm of Tawhid and the disintegrating modernity worldview. Therefore, a good response should not be apologetic but provide a proactive, intellectually sound and holistic alternative that tackles the intellectual, educational and psychological aspects of this crisis thus reasserting the narrative of a self-assured, modern Islamic identity.