Islamists pursue state power because the nation-state monopolizes legitimate social arenas, not nationalist ideology

Evidence

The main point I underline is that Islamism’s preoccupation with state power is the result not of its commitment to nationalist ideas but of the modern nation-state’s enforced claim to constitute legitimate social identities and arenas. No movement that aspires to more than mere belief or inconsequential talk in public can remain indifferent to state power in a secular world. Even though Islamism is situated in a secular world—a world that is presupposed by, among other things, the universal space of the social that sustains the nation-state—Islamism cannot be reduced to nationalism. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 971

Categorization

• DEFINE: A precise definition of why Islamism’s statism is structural rather than ideological — the state’s claim over social space forces any reformist movement toward power.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: does this structural-state-pressure argument also explain other ‘deprivatized religion’ movements, or resistance movements generally, in secular states?