The muscular liberals are marching into a dead end

In yesterday's Guardian, Madeleine Bunting takes a few shots at what she calls "Muscular liberals". If I read her aright, she means those who have in other fora been called "fascist liberals", those whose liberalism is ideologically rigid and based on an almost fundamentalistic adherance to Enlightenment values and have a hard time acknowledging that there are other viewpoints that may have reason even if not framing it in post-Enlightenment scaffolding. Her last couple of paragraphs particularly grabbed me.
"Here is a quick list of some of the Enlightenment legacy that we need to keep working on: the relationship of reason to emotion and faith (of all kinds, not just religious, most particularly our faith in humanity); a broader account of human nature beyond the bankrupted belief in the perfectibility of man; more meanings of freedom than the freedom to shop; a much better understanding of what individuality is (rather than the sham version we see lauded today) and its relationship to the collective. From such work, new understandings of progress could emerge.
For the muscular liberals so loudly and so emptily proclaiming their own superiority, it is anathema to suggest that the insights of Islam might have a bearing on many of these issues and could even contribute to a renaissance in western thought. But it's worth reminding them that it's done just that before."
A lot there for Christians to agree with and engage with. Interesting that Islam gets the plaudits but, just maybe in God's providence, Islam could be the way back for western societies to re-engage religious matters on an equal footing with 'secular' thought and for western Christians to re-engage with the emerging western culture in a globalised world?
Guardian Unlimited | Columnists | The muscular liberals are marching into a dead end: