A Fundamental Fear
A Fundamental Fear: Eurocentrism and the Emergence of Islamism uses critical theory to examine the Islamists’ political projects and their depictions. Scholars are divided between those who believe in a religious or national essence to the Muslim community (essentialists) and those who reject this...
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International Institute of Islamic Thought
2005
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oai:doaj.org-article:d2273d4a80ec4af08d3f7e6b488d316d2021-12-02T17:26:06ZA Fundamental Fear10.35632/ajis.v22i2.17102690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/d2273d4a80ec4af08d3f7e6b488d316d2005-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/1710https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 A Fundamental Fear: Eurocentrism and the Emergence of Islamism uses critical theory to examine the Islamists’ political projects and their depictions. Scholars are divided between those who believe in a religious or national essence to the Muslim community (essentialists) and those who reject this assumption (anti-essentialists). In regards to a Muslim essence, Sayyid identifies two existing scholarly camps: Orientalists assume an ahistorical, acontextual Islamic essence that drives and shapes Muslim society and activity through most places and ages. Anti-Orientalists, as manifested in such writers as Hamid El-Zien, assert that there is not one “Islam,” but only many “Islams.” According to this view, Islam and indeed all religion cannot exist as an analytic category having a self-sustaining, positive, fixing, universal, and autonomous content; rather, religion is only manifested through particular contexts. While acknowledging an intellectual debt to Edward Said, whose critiques fed the anti-Orientalist camp, Sayyid argues for a middle path between Orientalist and anti-Orientalist understandings. Orientalists claim that the relationship between Islam and Islamism is direct, whereas anti- Orientalists claim that the relationship is merely opportunistic – Islam is what Marxists might call “superstructural” (a surface action over deeper, more real material contests) and is driven by a false consciousness. Picking theoretical fruit from writers who explored signs, ideas, and language, among them Slavoj Zizek, Roland Barthes, and Jacques Lacan, the author asks Zizek’s general question: “What creates and sustains the identity of a given ideological field beyond all possible variations of its ideological content?” (p. 44). Analysts typically find themselves unable to answer this question without reasserting a new Orientalism. Sayyid asserts that despite the malleability of Islamic symbols and Islamist programs, Islam has retained its specificity, a term by which he means the traces of its original meaning articulated at the foundation, traces that have been invoked repeatedly. Islam is a crucial nodal point, à la Jacques Lacan, retrospectively giving meaning to other elements, be they Sufi discussions, debates on fiqh, or other discourses (p. 45) ... Anas MalikInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 22, Iss 2 (2005) |
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Islam BP1-253 |
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Islam BP1-253 Anas Malik A Fundamental Fear |
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A Fundamental Fear: Eurocentrism and the Emergence of Islamism uses
critical theory to examine the Islamists’ political projects and their depictions.
Scholars are divided between those who believe in a religious or
national essence to the Muslim community (essentialists) and those who
reject this assumption (anti-essentialists). In regards to a Muslim essence,
Sayyid identifies two existing scholarly camps: Orientalists assume an ahistorical,
acontextual Islamic essence that drives and shapes Muslim society
and activity through most places and ages. Anti-Orientalists, as manifested
in such writers as Hamid El-Zien, assert that there is not one “Islam,” but
only many “Islams.” According to this view, Islam and indeed all religion cannot exist as an analytic category having a self-sustaining, positive, fixing,
universal, and autonomous content; rather, religion is only manifested
through particular contexts.
While acknowledging an intellectual debt to Edward Said, whose critiques
fed the anti-Orientalist camp, Sayyid argues for a middle path
between Orientalist and anti-Orientalist understandings. Orientalists claim
that the relationship between Islam and Islamism is direct, whereas anti-
Orientalists claim that the relationship is merely opportunistic – Islam is
what Marxists might call “superstructural” (a surface action over deeper,
more real material contests) and is driven by a false consciousness.
Picking theoretical fruit from writers who explored signs, ideas, and
language, among them Slavoj Zizek, Roland Barthes, and Jacques Lacan,
the author asks Zizek’s general question: “What creates and sustains the
identity of a given ideological field beyond all possible variations of its ideological
content?” (p. 44). Analysts typically find themselves unable to
answer this question without reasserting a new Orientalism. Sayyid asserts
that despite the malleability of Islamic symbols and Islamist programs,
Islam has retained its specificity, a term by which he means the traces of its
original meaning articulated at the foundation, traces that have been
invoked repeatedly. Islam is a crucial nodal point, à la Jacques Lacan, retrospectively
giving meaning to other elements, be they Sufi discussions,
debates on fiqh, or other discourses (p. 45) ...
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| format |
article |
| author |
Anas Malik |
| author_facet |
Anas Malik |
| author_sort |
Anas Malik |
| title |
A Fundamental Fear |
| title_short |
A Fundamental Fear |
| title_full |
A Fundamental Fear |
| title_fullStr |
A Fundamental Fear |
| title_full_unstemmed |
A Fundamental Fear |
| title_sort |
fundamental fear |
| publisher |
International Institute of Islamic Thought |
| publishDate |
2005 |
| url |
https://doaj.org/article/d2273d4a80ec4af08d3f7e6b488d316d |
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AT anasmalik afundamentalfear AT anasmalik fundamentalfear |
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