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Religious Secularity

Reconciliation between Political Islam and Secular Democracy

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Muslim Secular Democracy

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Abstract

By the close of the 1970s, the widely accepted secularization thesis had begun to wane. Its critics pointed to a number of cases that confirmed the trend toward religious resurgence and Islamic revivalism. Iran’s 1979 revolution had not only provided evidence of an upsurge in political Islam, but it had also seen the overthrow of a secular regime and its replacement by an Islamic state. Initially, it served as an inspiration for Islamic movements around the world, revealing for Islamists the possibility of claiming political power. Three decades on, however, the events of the Arab uprisings highlight a dramatic shift in this perception. Although Islamists have claimed tremendous influence in the post-Arab uprising, they continue to operate within the secular democratic framework. Any notion of an Islamic state is noticeably absent from their lexicon. Inclusive secular states such as Turkey and Indonesia have become models for political emulation.

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  1. Naser Ghobadzadeh
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Lily Zubaidah Rahim

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Ghobadzadeh, N. (2013). Religious Secularity. In: Rahim, L.Z. (eds) Muslim Secular Democracy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137282057_2

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