Said’s refusal of essentialist claims about Islam trapped him between two equal failures

Evidence

While this was the reality of the relationship between religion and politics, leading theologians went out of their way to demonstrate the opposite as a way to uphold their credibility. They have consistently done so through history, thereby creating the impression that religion and politics were more closely intertwined than they actually were. Not surprisingly, Orientalists—whose view of the world is driven by texts—fall easily into the trap of not separating religious claims from actual reality. That said, there are examples of more practically minded theologians, such as al-Ghazali (1058–111), who openly advocated a division of labor between the caliph and the sultan. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 294 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Similarly, is it not this kind of conservattve Orientalistic logic which underlies the recent Iranian debate on whether the ‘Islamic Republic’ may be described as democratic? The official Islamic line, which prevailed, argued that ‘Islam’ can not accept any additional qualifiers since it cannot be but Islam. In other terms, just as it makes no sense to speak about classical, medieval or modern Islam – considering that Islam is always Islam –similarly, it makes no sense to talk about an Islamic republic being democratic, considering that the Islamic republic is always Islamic and cannot be anything else. Hence, Khomeini’s statement in one of his many interviews about the Islamic republic: ‘The term Islam needs no adjective, such as democratic, to be attributed to it… The term Islam is perfect, and having to put another word right next to it is, indeed, a source of sorrow.’ — Sadik Jalal al-‘Azm, Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse, 173 (#complicates, via linked claim)

For Ye’or, there is only one Islam, a single fanaticism that has remained unchanged since the era of the Prophet, now intent on reducing a cowed Europe to vassal status. As an analysis of contemporary European history, this is flat-out barking gibberish, which falls somewhere between hyper-Zionist propaganda, at UNIV OF WISCONSIN on July 20, 2012 rac. — Matt Carr, You Are Now Entering Eurabia, 40 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Zakaria and Lewis framed Islam’s failure through rival racist essentialisms. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 500; Essentialist claims about Islam collapse when tested against European history. — Matt Carr, You Are Now Entering Eurabia, 40; Said’s twin claims about Orientalism rest on an unresolved tension. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 612 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Religious claims overstated the unity of religion and politics in Islam #complicates (0.78) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 294
• Essentialist Islamic logic mirrors Orientalist essentialism by refusing qualifiers like democratic. #complicates (0.75) — Sadik Jalal al-‘Azm, Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse, 173
• Essentialist claims about Islam collapse when tested against European history. #complicates (0.72) — Matt Carr, You Are Now Entering Eurabia, 40