The problem on which this paper is based revolves around the conditions that make possible a distinction between traditional or “classical” forms of morality and modern moralities. The author aims to understand the possibility of an epistemological and behavioral framework that allows for the rise of a totally novel form of citizenship. One conclusion which the author arrives at is that modernity made itself felt in the Arab countries through a series of mostly disjointed, piecemeal and superficially modified and “Islamicized” efforts. The author argues that the present impasse in Arab thinking on citizenship will persist until the dichotomy between collective identity and the episteme of “obedience” and individual identity and the episteme of “the individual” is bridged.