The Islamic Secular (original) (raw)
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The Construction and Deconstruction of Secularism as an Ideology in Contemporary Muslim Thought
Asian Journal of Social Science, 2005
This article starts with a sketch of the encounters and experiences of modern secularism in four areas of the Islamic world (Turkey, Arab world, South Asia and Southeast Asia); these point to the diverse conditions and constructions that have become central issues of regional and trans-regional discourse: laizism through reform, nationalism through decolonization, Islamic nationalism through state formation, and tolerance through traditional multi-ethnic environments. In analysing the basic writings of five exemplary modern Muslim thinkers, it is shown that modern Islamic thought, tied to the idea of mutual exclusive ideological constructions of secularism and Islamism, remains ambiguous while at the same time facing the factual unfolding of secularism in Muslim countries: the works of Mawdudi contain absolute denial of secularism; al-Qaradawi argues for the strict opposition and separation of the secular and the religious; al-Attas denies that Western processes of religious secularization are applicable to the development of Islam. On the other hand, Iqbal and Rahman, although maintaining a clear distinction between the secular and the religious, point to coinciding dimensions of religious and secular dimensions in modern political and social life. The reflection of the secular and the religious is highly shaped by historical and political influences as well as by ideologization, thus creating obstacles for fruitful conceptual reconstructions of the given dimensions of the coincidence of both -Islam and the secular conditions of modern society. A.J.S.S. 33:3 (363-383) also available online © 2005 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden see www.brill.nl 364 • Muhammad Khalid Masud
Islamicate Secularities: New Perspectives on a Contested Concept
Historical Social Research, 2019
Cite as: Dressler, Markus, Armando Salvatore, and Monika Wohlrab-Sahr. 2019. “Islamicate Secularities: New Perspectives on a Contested Concept,” Historical Social Research, 44 (3): 7-34. Abstract: In the colonial era, new distinctions and differentiations between religious and non-religious spheres took shape within inner-Islamic discourses, partly as a product of encounters with Western knowledge. This introduction conceptualizes these distinctions and differentiations in relation to Islam, drawing on Marshall Hodgson's concept of the Islamicate, which we employ for our heuristic notion of Islamicate secularities. It charts the paradigmatic conflicts that shape the contested fields of Islamic and secularity/secularism studies. The introduction discusses the epistemological and political context of these debates, and argues that theoretical and normative conflicts should not hinder further empirical inquiries into forms of secularity in Islamicate contexts. It also explores promising theoretical and methodological approaches for further explorations. Particular emphasis is laid on the historical trajectories and conditions, close in time or distant, that have played a role in the formation of contemporary Islamicate secularities.
Islamicate Secularities in Past and Present
Historical Social Research, 2019
Quote as: Dressler, Markus, Armando Salvatore and Monika Wohlrab-Sahr (eds). 2029. Islamicate Secularities: Past and Present, in Historical Social Research 44(3). All papers are accessible through https://www.gesis.org/en/hsr/full-text-archive/2019/443-islamicate-secularities-in-past-and-present Partly as a product of encounters with Europe, accelerated in the last 150 years, Islamicate societies developed new epistemic distinctions and structural differentiations between religious and non-religious spheres and practices. This special issue conceptualizes these distinctions and differentiations as “Islamicate secularities”, thereby connecting Marshall Hodgson’s notion of the “Islamicate” with the concept of “Multiple Secularities”. The individual contributions address the question of secularity in relation to Islam with a variety of spatial and temporal foci that range from Turkey to China and Indonesia, from the present to the colonial era and even precolonial contexts. The issue thus provides an array of perspectives on how Muslims have engaged with religion in relation to social and political conflicts and how this has led to contested reifications of ‘Islam’ and its boundaries, especially in relation to politics. As preliminary result, a tendency towards ‘soft distinctions’, kept under the umbrella of ‘Islam,’ emerges. Quote the Introduction as: Dressler, Markus, Armando Salvatore, A., and Monika Wohlrab-Sahr. 2019. Islamicate Secularities: New Perspectives on a Contested Concept. Historical Social Research, 44(3), 7-34. In the colonial era, new distinctions and differentiations between religious and non-religious spheres took shape within inner-Islamic discourses, partly as a product of encounters with Western knowledge. This introduction conceptualizes these distinctions and differentiations in relation to Islam, drawing on Marshall Hodgson’s concept of the Islamicate, which we employ for our heuristic notion of Islamicate secularities. It charts the paradigmatic conflicts that shape the contested fields of Islamic and secularity/secularism studies. The introduction discusses the epistemological and political context of these debates, and argues that theoretical and normative conflicts should not hinder further empirical inquiries into forms of secularity in Islamicate contexts. It also explores promising theoretical and methodological approaches for further explorations. Particular emphasis is laid on the historical trajectories and conditions, close in time or distant, that have played a role in the formation of contemporary Islamicate secularities. Keywords: Secularity, multiple secularities, Islamicate secularities, Islam and politics, Marshall Hodgson.
Secularism, Secularity and Islamic Reformism
Companion, HCAS Multiple Secularities, 2019
If we consider Islamic Reformism, it becomes very clear why it is im- portant to distinguish between secularism and secularity as the Multiple Secularities approach does. ‘Secularity’ denotes a situation in which religious and secular aspects are distinguished, both in terms of struc- tural differentiations and in terms of conceptual distinctions. ‘Secular- ism’, by contrast, refers to the political demand for greater separation between religion and the secular. Islamic reformists have rejected secu- larism almost unanimously as an external political regime that evolved in Christian Europe and is alien to Islam. However, they have been operating with the conceptual distinction between religion and the secular. They have elaborated this distinction firmly within an Islamic framework to the extent that, in a sense, Islam itself has taken the place of ‘secularity’, as will be shown.
Working Paper Series of the HCAS "Multiple Secularities - Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities", 2019
Debates about the usability of the concept of ‘secularity’ in academic research are not merely theoretical. Standpoints are also politically informed and arguments are sometimes emotionally charged. To some, merely using the term ‘secularity’ seems to inflict violence upon certain objects of research or even upon themselves. Others object to applying the concept beyond a particular arrangement of secularity, lest that defense-worthy arrangement be undermined. Taking a step back, however, the actual hermeneutical problem and historical question still seems rather clearly to be this: is it possible to uncouple the link between secularism as a political regime and secularity as an analytical concept with broader historical purchase? In this paper, I argue that the basic approach of Multiple Secularities is indeed the commendable way forward, but could be refined and improved, also by learning from the valid points of its critical alternatives. Thus, this paper aspires to shed light on two basic questions, namely, how to take ‘secularity’ beyond the modern West, and, as a logical prior, why take ‘secularity’ beyond the modern West in the first place?
Muslim Societies and the Challenge of Secularization: An Interdisciplinary Approach
2010
It took considerable time to prepare and finalise this book. The main idea of publishing a multidisciplinary discussion on Muslims, globalisation and secularism took place in 2006 at the EASA (European Association of Social Anthropology) Biennial Conference in Bristol, England. I wish to thank all the participants of the workshop Muslim diaspora, Euro-Islam and the idea of the secular for their contributions, active discussion, criticisms and suggestions. Muslim Societies and the Challenge of Secularization: An Interdisciplinary Approach has brought together fifteen, both junior and senior, scholars from not only different academic disciplines and traditions but also regions. I wish to thank all the contributors for their hard work, for discussing their chapters with me and for their patience. In particular, I wish to thank Prof. Bryan Turner, who is my co-editor of the book series Muslims in Global Societies, for his support during the extended time in which the book took shape. A special thanks goes to the hard working team at Springer, and in particular to Ms Willemijn Arts and also Ms Ingrid van Laarhoven, with whom many email exchanges took place. This manuscript travelled with me to different parts of the world, from Scotland to Australia and then finally to Singapore. I further wish to thank the Asia Research Institute, at the National University of Singapore, for the time it has provided in allowing me to finish the manuscript so that today you can read it.