ABSTRACT
The aim of this contribution is to give an outline of the American debate on some ethically sensitive issues and to make a comparison with the European situation. For this reason, the first part attempts to place the debate within a theoretical framework. Through an analysis of the dialectic between pluralism and universalism, it points out the assumptions and positions of some Muslim intellectuals with respect to the possibility of integrating so-called Western values within the Islamic framework: pluralism and the problem of authority (Abou el-Fadl, Safi), tolerance and the question of identity (Jackson, Wadud). The second part focuses on some specific questions of social ethics: in particular, the issue of human rights in the Islamic agenda (an-Na’im) and, within this framework, the issue of women’s and homosexuals’ (Kugle) rights and gender justice (Wadud, Mattson, among others).
