ABSTRACT
Largely, though not exclusively, as a legacy of the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, Islamic faith has become synonymous in many corners of the media and academia with violence, which many believe to be its primary mode of expression. The absence of a sophisticated recognition of the wide range of Islamic subjectivities within contemporary culture has created a void in which misinterpretations and hostilities thrive. Responding to the growing importance of religion, specifically Islam, as a cultural signifier in the formation of a postcolonial self, this multidisciplinary collection is organized around contested terms such as secularism, Islamopolitics, female identity, and Islamophobia. The overarching goal of the contributors is to facilitate a deeper understanding of the full range of experiences within Islam as well as the figure of the Muslim, thus enabling a new set of questions about religion’s role in shaping postcolonial identity.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|36 pages
History of the Muslim other
chapter 2|18 pages
The two-faced Muslim in the early modern imagination
part II|46 pages
Secularism and Islamopolitics
chapter 4|14 pages
Unmasking Allah
chapter 5|15 pages
The terror of symbols
part III|36 pages
Female agency and subversion
part IV|63 pages
Islamophobia
chapter 10|13 pages
Mistaken identities
chapter 11|18 pages
From nawab to jihadi
part V|50 pages
Postsecular re-thinking