Islam as a unified category is a modern reductive translation

Evidence

In many significant ways, the concept “Islam” as a generic category in effect represents a modern translation (often crude and reductive) of the various formations that worked together throughout time and space to produce the conditions of possibility for diverse ways of life that had their common denominator reside in a varied subscription to Islamic conceptions of ethics, morality, mysticism, law, theology, philosophy, and economy, or, at times, in as partial a conception as that of religious works (what were generally identified as ‘ibadat). — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 952 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Islam as tradition resists both fixed-structure and belief-collection definitions; Homogenizing Islam as a monolithic culture anchors all Othering frames; Mere translation of Islamic legal texts functioned as codification (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Islam as a generic category is a modern, reductive translation of heterogeneous historical formations. #expands (0.97) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 952
• Religion rather than nationality has been the primary basis of identity in Islam #complicates (0.73)
• The concept of Islam as a unified system supersedes actual Muslim experience #complicates (0.72)