How (Not) to Take ‘Secularity’ Beyond the Modern West: Reflections from Islamic Sociology

Zemmin, Florian (2019). How (Not) to Take ‘Secularity’ Beyond the Modern West: Reflections from Islamic Sociology (Working Paper Series of the HCAS “Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities. 9). Universität Leipzig: Kolleg-Forschergruppe 'Multiple Secularities - Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities'

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Debates about the usability of the concept of ‘secularity’ in academic research are not merely theoretical. Standpoints are also politically informed and arguments are sometimes emotionally charged. To some, merely using the term ‘secularity’ seems to inflict violence upon certain objects of research or even upon themselves. Others object to applying the concept beyond a particular arrangement of secularity, lest that defense-worthy arrangement be undermined. Taking a step back, however, the actual hermeneutical problem and historical question still seems rather clearly to be this: is it possible to uncouple the link between secularism as a political regime and secularity as an analytical concept with broader historical purchase? In this paper, I argue that the basic approach of Multiple Secularities is indeed the commendable way forward, but could be refined and improved, also by learning from the valid points of its critical alternatives. Thus, this paper aspires to shed light on two basic questions, namely, how to take ‘secularity’ beyond the modern West, and, as a logical prior, why take ‘secularity’ beyond the modern West in the first place?

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