The paradox of Islamization . . . has been that in expanding the scope of Islamic authority and making it…
Piety, publicity, and the paradox of Islamization
Islam
Freedom’s fascists: Hate speech and the new European far right
Far right parties have metamorphisized: they are now anti-Islamic rather than anti-Semitic; as populist parties they rely on mass mobilization…
Proximate enigmas
I’m delighted—and daunted!—for this chance at engaging the rich discussions of this forum. Nothing I say in this short space…
Compulsory things: Some reflections on Hirschkind and Doostdar
In an illuminating exchange, Charles Hirschkind and Alireza Doostdar debate the compulsory quality of modern scientific reasoning. Doostdar, in The…
A liturgy of the soul
Reading and responding to Knot of the Soul deeply signifies a longstanding dialogue with my friend and interlocutor Stefania Pandolfo.…
On continuity and rupture: A reply to Elshakry and Quadri
By pulling at different threads of the book’s argument, Elshakry and Quadri expose a basic tension between the book’s emphasis…
Encountering another science
The Lighthouse and the Observatory’s learned account of nineteenth-century Egyptian astronomy’s imbrications with religion, empire, and the social realities and…
In-capacities of the soul: A reply to Largier and Iqbal
“It is the other who can see my form.” My friend Omnia El Shakry, also a participant in this forum,…
Listening to the torment of existence
On the one hand, the story of modern Islam across multiple disciplines has for decades been organized by a figure…
Knot of the Soul: Voices, textures, resonances
More than any other book I have read recently, Stefania Pandolfo’s Knot of the Soul made me ask myself time…