Arabs in the 1950s separated private religion from public politics
Evidence
This strategy, however, flew in the face of reality and was doomed to fail. Had the Orientalists actually bothered to study the facts on the ground, they would have concluded, as Walter Laqueur did in 1956, that what “is decisive is that Islam has gradually ceased to be a serious competitor of Communism in the struggle for the souls of the present and potential elites in the countries of the Middle East.” If that was true of communism, it was even more so of nationalism. Shockingly, Arabs, like other people, were capable of separating religion in their private lives from politics. This is, of course, a shock only to those mired in Orientalist traditions, and in the following chapter we will see that this separation of politics and religion has a long history in the ironically misnamed “Muslim world.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 229
Categorization
- XREF: Challenges the Islam-is-inseparable caricature that the reader’s alternative tradition (Rana, etc.) also dismantles. — connects to: India’s 1947 secularist founding contrasts with its communalist present.; Postwar Muslim-majority nations embraced secular nationalism, contra Orientalist claims — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 310; Religious claims overstated the unity of religion and politics in Islam — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 294 (+2 more)
- QUESTION: The claimed long history of secularism in the ‘Muslim world’ invites following the next chapter.
Broader Connections
- Postwar Muslim-majority nations embraced secular nationalism, contra Orientalist claims
#corroborates(0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 310 - Religious claims overstated the unity of religion and politics in Islam
#corroborates(0.70) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 294 - Islam has practiced de facto separation of religion and politics since the eighth century
#expands(0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 284 - The 1967 Six-Day War destroyed Arab nationalism’s political legitimacy
#qualifies(0.40) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 328