Islamist politics is best read through ethics, not state and law

Evidence

Asad argues forcefully that it does represent a modern form of political criticism of the state, which is part of a tradition of social criticism that finds expression in the Friday sermons delivered in the larger mosques (Asad, 1993:213). … The religious criticism in this chapter is an undeniably vigorous expression of political opposition to the Saudi ruling elite… I have aimed to provide an account that suggests the limitations are due not to a permanent incapacity to contemplate change, still less to an intrinsic contradiction between religion and reason. The limitations are part of the way a particular discursive tradition, and its associated disciplines, are articulated at a particular point in time. (Asad, 1993:232) It is from such a perspective, acknowledging the role of religion within a particular articulation of socioeconomic and political structures, that Asad is able to present an impressive critique of the account favored by Halliday that Western secularization is the only mode forward. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3520 (#complicates, via linked claim)

It is from such a perspective, acknowledging the role of religion within a particular articulation of socioeconomic and political structures, that Asad is able to present an impressive critique of the account favored by Halliday that Western secularization is the only mode forward. In fact, Asad engages in such a debate with Clifford Geertz, another proponent of the “West is Best” paradigm, and rejects the notion that “the existence of ideological (religious) politics within a given society indicates that it is not yet fully modern” (Asad, 1993:233). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3522 (#complicates, via linked claim)

By treating sovereignty as the violation of prohibitions, Bataille reopens the question of the limits of the political. Politics, in this case, is not the forward dialectical movement of reason. Politics can only be traced as a spiral transgression, as that difference that disorients the very idea of the limit. More specifically, politics is the difference put into play by the violation of a taboo. — Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 33 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Islam is politically constitutive yet positioned outside the political; Political Islam is modern state criticism, not traditional rejection of change — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3520; Islamist and liberal discourses are intimately linked, not opposites — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival…, 509 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Political Islam is modern state criticism, not traditional rejection of change #complicates (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3520
• Religious politics can be fully modern without secularization #complicates (0.74) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3522
• Politics is the transgression of taboos rather than the forward movement of reason #complicates (0.71) — Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 33