The Islamic Secular: Comments

Abstract

Professor Sherman Jackson’s essay “The Islamic Secular” challenges the popular conception within the Muslim community that norms are either “Islamic” or “un-Islamic.” Insofar as popular Muslim consciousness accords legitimacy only to the “Islamic” and grants only grudging, if any, legitimacy to the “non- Islamic,” this intervention is welcome and profoundly needed. But his ambition here goes beyond correcting misconceptions within the community itself: It is also an intervention in debates about the secular, secularization, and religion in western academic discourses. In the brief space allotted to me to respond to this very rich and important essay, I will limit myself to the arguments he directs toward the terms mentioned above and his argument that the “Islamic” secular presents a different phenomenon ...