Islam and Secularism in Post-Colonial Thought: A Cartography of Asadian Genealogies PDF
Preview Islam and Secularism in Post-Colonial Thought: A Cartography of Asadian Genealogies
Islam and Secularism in Post-Colonial Thought “Hadi Enayat’s incisive and timely intervention demonstrates convincingly that contemporaryscholarshiponIslamandsecularismoftenendsupreproducingthe same aporias and essentialisms that it claims to oppose, sometimes lapsing into positions of theoretical incoherence. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to think clearly about contemporary questions of religion, reason, politics andpower.” —ZiadElmarsafy,HeadofDepartment,PostgraduateandResearchChair, DepartmentofComparativeLiterature,King’sCollegeLondon “ThreeyearsagoHadiEnayatredrewthefieldofjudicialstudiesinPahlaviIranby providing, based on copious documentation, counter-narratives to prevailing views of the inherently political character of justice under Reza Pahlavi. Now he hastakenontheapproachesputforthbyTalalAsadandsomeofhisfollowers—a communityofscholarsEnayatreferstoas‘Asadian’—todrawattentiontosomeof the misguided assumptions underlying their work and problematic conclusions followingfromit.EnayatdocumentsthetendencyinAsadianperspectivestoread IslamichistorybackwardsthroughthelensofcontemporaryIslamistmovements. HeshowshowAsadianperspectivesre-essentializeboththeWestandtheMuslim world in sweeping statements and binary thinking. He also adumbrates the con- descension involved when critical thinkers in the Muslim world are accused of ‘buying’ into Western secularist discourses, and as such presumed to lack the autonomy for formulating independent ideas for internal reform. As Enayat per- suasively shows, such a perspective amounts to nothing less than assuming the authorityofdiscerningwhoisandwhoisnota‘true’Muslim,whostandsinside, whostandsoutsidethetradition.” —MirjamKünkler,ProfessorattheSwedishCollegiumforAdvancedStudy HadiEnayat Islam and Secularism in Post-Colonial Thought A Cartography of Asadian Genealogies HadiEnayat AgaKhanUniversity London,UnitedKingdom ISBN978-3-319-52610-2 ISBN978-3-319-52611-9(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-319-52611-9 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017937898 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsof translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology nowknownorhereafterdeveloped. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthis publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesare exemptfromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformation in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishernortheauthorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespectto thematerialcontainedhereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.The publisherremainsneutralwithregardtojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitu- tionalaffiliations. Coverillustration:PatternadaptedfromanIndiancottonprintproducedinthe19thcentury Printedonacid-freepaper ThisPalgraveMacmillanimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerInternationalPublishingAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland For Nahid jan P A REFACE AND CKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book will critically assess the work of a group of post-colonial scholars whose work constitutes a powerful and increasingly influential critiqueofsecularismandliberalismasWesternimpositionsonMuslim societies.Itarguesthatthisbodyofscholarshiprepresentsanemerging traditiondesignatedhereas‘Asadian’afteritsmostinfluentialexponent Talal Asad. Six themes are identified in the work of these scholars in connection with the secular: (i) Christianity, colonialism and imperial- ism, (ii) violence, governmentality and the ‘othering’ of the modern nation-state(iii)religiousandsecularcriticismandIslamasa‘discursive tradition’ (iv) the body, the self and agency (v) secularization theory and its discontents (vi) genealogies of religious freedom and minority rights.Inexploringthesethemes,thebookhighlightsthecontribution of this tradition of thinking about the secular as well as some of its omissions and inconsistencies. More broadly, it attempts to to bring clarity to the debates surrounding these genealogies of the secular as well as advancing a qualified defense of secularism and assessing its possibility in Muslim-majority societies. I would like to thank the following people for reading the manuscript and providing invaluable comments: Phillip Wood, Sami Zubaida, Mirjam Künkler, Joanna De Groot, Ziad Elmarsafy, Charine John, Deniz Kandiyoti, Jean Louise Cohen and Anna Enayat. Conversations with Farid Panjwani were also very helpful in helping me formulate my views. Last but not least, I would like to thank vii viii PREFACEANDACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Alina Yurova and Ben Bailey at Palgrave Macmillan for their assis- tance and Ayswaraya Nagarajan for her patient and meticulous editorial input. It goes without saying that any errors, mistakes or misjudgments are entirely my own. Transliteration of Arabic words is done according to the IJMES system. Finalhamazashavebeenomitted. C ONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 2 Secularism,Christianity andImperialism 7 3 Violence,Governmentality andthe ‘Othering’ ofthe Modern Nation-State 21 4 SecularandReligious ReasonandIslam asa ‘Discursive Tradition’ 39 5 SecularizationTheory andits Discontents 55 6 TheBody, Pain andAgency 65 7 Genealogiesof ‘ReligiousFreedom’ and‘Minority Rights’ 77 8 Conclusion: TheLimits of Asadian Genealogies ofthe Secular 89 9 Epilogue:ProspectsforSecularPluralisminMuslim-majority Societies 97 ix x CONTENTS Bibliography 105 Index 117 CHAPTER1 Introduction Religious toleration was a political means to the formation of strong state power that emerged from the sectarian wars of the 16th and 17th century rather than the gift of a benign intention to defend pluralism. The ideology of political representation in liberal democracies makes it difficultifnotimpossibletorepresentMuslimsasMuslims. TalalAsad InordertobeaMuslimbyconvictionandfreechoice,whichistheonly waytobeaMuslim,Ineedasecularstate. AbdullahiAn-Na‘im Abstract Themainthemesandparametersofthestudyareintroduced.The ‘Asadian’traditionofpost-colonialscholarshipofthesecularisidentifiedand situated in the following three streams of thought: (i) post-colonialism (especially the work of the Subaltern Studies Group), (ii) genealogy as a methodofhistoricalandphilosophicalinquiryand(iii)communitarianism, especially,theworkofAlisdairMacIntyre. Keywords Genealogy (cid:1)Post-colonialism (cid:1)Communitarianism (cid:1) Anti-liberal (cid:1)Secularism ©TheAuthor(s)2017 1 H.Enayat,IslamandSecularisminPost-ColonialThought, DOI10.1007/978-3-319-52611-9_1
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