Introduction

Abstract

Since the so-called ‘war on terror’ started with the dramatic events of 9/11, a previously scholarly debate has entered public discussion in the form of a reductionist Roy (2007) question: is Islam compatible with secularism and hence democracy? The question, today, is widely considered and can be found in many spheres; from within academic work Casanova (1994; Cesari and Mcloughlin 2005; Roy 2007) to Internet forums in various, yet often repetitive, variations. Although from different perspectives, both the academic and the popular debates focus upon Islam in an attempt to find a satisfactory answer to the riddle. In such an effort, Islam, secularism, democracy and the ‘West’ become pillars of a dangerously essentialised discourse. As in the case of the concept of ‘fundamentalism’ see Marranci (2009), Islam, secularism, laïcité (see ‘Muslim Thinkers and the Debate on Secularism and Laïcité’ by De Poli, this volume) are not, in the mass media as well as in certain academic discourses, discussed as processes but rather as ‘things’, or in anthropological jargon, ‘cultural objects’ Geertz (1973). In Muslim Societies and the Challenge of Secularization, the authors, coming from different academic disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, history, legal studies, political sciences, Islamic studies and religious studies, shall offer a debate that attempts to deconstruct the simplified, and often oxymoronic, discussion about the relationship between Islam and secularism and provide a new way to discuss the topic.