Islamist and liberal discourses are intimately linked, not opposites

Evidence

Nonetheless, it would be a mistake to disregard the extent to which al.. Ghazali’s Islamic activism was shaped by the liberal discourse of early nation.. alism, with its emphasis on women’s public visibility. This infl is evident in al..Ghazali’s position that Muslim women should play an active role in pub.. lic, intellectual, and political life (such as running for public offi or holding the position of a judge), with the important caveat that these responsibilities should not interfere with what she considers to be women’s divinely ordained obligations to their immediate kin ( al..Hashimi 1990 ) . In espousing this po.. sition, al..Ghazali departs from the views of the male religious establishment of her time. Similarly, the language of “women’s rights” fi an important, if at, tenuated, place in al..Ghazali’s speeches and writings and is often invoked to emphasize that Muslim women and men are equally called upon to serve God. Al,Ghazali’s modern st religious activism illustrates how the histories of Is, lamism and secular liberalism are intimately connected, a connection that is, nonetheless, saturated with tensions and ambivalences. — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 509

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that Islamism and secular liberalism are co-constituted, saturated with tension rather than opposed, resists a one-line takeaway and reframes how the two traditions are usually narrated.
• XREF: Parallels the graftings/trees article’s logic of hybrid infrastructure — here ideological rather than botanical alliances form entangled structures.
• SEED: Article angle: ‘the liberal DNA inside today’s Islamic revival’ — how nationalist-era feminist discourse seeded Islamist women’s activism that then disavows its own origins.