ABSTRACT
The Muslim societies confront today the challenges of a post-modern society. The crucial question is whether these countries can combine their religion with the two key sets of institutions of post-modernity: the market economy and the rule of law or human rights. We suggest a cautiously optimistic answer, but such a developmental path is only one of several future scenarios. Islamic fundamentalism pushes these countries in another direction. The Muslim civilisation has shown that it can accommodate the postmodern society in countries like Tunisia, Morocco Mali, Senegal, Bangladesh, Malaysia and India with its giant Muslim minority. However, post-modernity is hardly accepted in several other Muslim countries where the threat of Islamisation is all the time present. Several future roads of development are possible in the future for different Muslim countries. The key challenge comes from politics and not economics, as Weber believed.
