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Necessary but Insufficient: A Historical Critique of Abdullahi an-Na’im’s Model of the Secular State
By Daniel Bessner.
Published by The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences
| Format | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Article: Print | $US10.00 | |
| Article: Electronic | $US5.00 |
In “Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari’a,” Abdullahi An-Na’im presents the institutional pillars he maintains will sustain future secular Islamic societies. They include the institutions of constitutionalism, human rights, and citizenship, as well as state empowerment of its constituency and this constituency’s active participation in national civil-political discourses. An-Na’im’s model, while provocative, does not consider whether historical case studies demonstrate that these pillars are the requisite structural foundations of a functioning pluralist liberal-democratic society. To study the historical applicability of an-Na’im’s model, I adopt the “critical-case” methodology proposed by Harry Eckstein, whereby I study a historical scenario where an-Na’im’s thesis is most likely to succeed. For my most-likely case, where all of his pillars are present, I examine the experience of post-partition South Asian Muslims living in the United Kingdom. I conclude that the legal structures an-Na’im supposes will safeguard the secular state are necessary but insufficient for the engendering of minority participation in a nation’s public spheres. His model ignores factors crucial to stimulating minority participation in the state, including: the economic conditions of the minority group; embedded cultural, political, and institutional racism; cultural predilections of the minority community that do not encourage civic participation; and the cultural disconnect that may exist between a minority’s private and a society’s public spheres. My conclusion indicates that secular Islamic juridical scholars must incorporate extra-institutional considerations into their models. Only in this way can these scholars address and improve the lived realities of the communities they study and consequently engender minority participation in a state’s civic sphere.
| Keywords: | Secularism, Pluralism, Minority Rights, Shari’a, Constitutionalism, Human Rights, Citizenship, Participation |
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International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Volume 4, Issue 6, pp.69-82. Article: Print (Spiral Bound). Article: Electronic (PDF File; 1.178MB).
Daniel Bessner
Ph.D Candidate, History Department, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA