Secularization, Laicization, and Challenges to Feminist Reform in the Islamic World
Jamal J. Elias explores some of the dilemmas that are faced not just by women's movements in the Islamic world, but also by social involvement groups in general, in their attempts to assert themselves as legitimate voices within modern sovereign society.
When people talk about Islam, they frequently make two kinds of arguments, at two extremes. One is to argue for Islamic exceptionalism; the other is to talk in terms of Islam being just another religion, like Judaism or Christianity or Hinduism, in its relationships with the state and with society in general. The usual Islamic-exceptionalism argument is that Islam is a religion like no other, in that Islam does not allow for any separation between the sacred and the social rule, or in Christian terms, between the secular and the sacred. Muslims frequently say things like, "Islam is not just a religion, but a way of life."
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