Secularizing Islamists from University of Chicago Press at the Book Checkout

Secularizing Islamists
Secularizing Islamists
Subtitle:
Jama'at-e-Islami and Jama'at-ud-Da'wa in Urban Pakistan
Book Category:
Political Science > General
Author:
Humeira Iqtidar
Binding:
Hardcover
ISBN 10:
0226384683
ISBN 13:
9780226384689
Price:
USD 40.00
Publication Year:
2011

Publisher Info

University of Chicago Press.

Inquiry
Book Description

Secularizing Islamists? provides an in-depth analysis of two Islamist parties in Pakistan, the highly influential Jama'at-e-Islami and the more militant Jama'at-ud-Da'wa, widely blamed for the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India. Basing her findings on thirteen months of ethnographic work with the two parties in Lahore, Humeira Iqtidar proposes that these Islamists are involuntarily facilitating secularization within Muslim societies, even as they vehemently oppose secularism. This book offers a fine-grained account of the workings of both parties that challenges received ideas about the relationship between the ideology of secularism and the processes of secularization. Iqtidar particularly illuminates the impact of women on Pakistani Islamism, while arguing that these Islamist groups are inadvertently supporting secularization by forcing a critical engagement with the place of religion in public and private life. She highlights the role that competition among Islamists and the focus on the state as the center of their activity plays in assisting secularization. The result is a significant contribution to our understanding of emerging trends in Muslim politics.

 
Ordering/Distributor/Wholesaler Information

  • Bill Kennedy Avicenna Partnership Ltd. P.O. Box 501 Whitney Oxfordshire OX28 9JL +44 7802 244457 [email protected]