Need to understand the modern world

I really like this quote from the end of Seyyed Hossein Nasr's book A Young Muslim's Guide to the Modern World:

What needs to be remembered in conclusion is that Islam is a living reality while the modern world is, also for the moment and despite its falling apart from within, still a powerful force to be reckoned with in the arena of history. Muslims, therefore, whether they are among the youth or of the older generation, have no possibility of surviving as Muslims, individually or as members of a great civilization and the ummah of the Prophet, without being able to respond to the challenges which the modern world poses for them. They must understand the modern world in depth and intelligently and respond to its challenges not simply emotionally but on the basis of authentic knowledge of that world by relying upon knowledge of the Islamic tradition its fullness.(251)

10/25/09 addition:

Also this quote from Abdal Hakim Murad goes along the same lines: "What Muslims acknowledge, whether traditionalists or modernists, is that most of ulemaa (scholars) in the west really need to know what the modern world is,” he added in this pretty good article on the Cambridge Muslim College initiative.