Does it matter if you are Muslim? Lately it seems to matter very much. By drawing our attention to the…
Political Islam and emancipatory politics
politics
The Battle for the Catholic Past in Germany: An introduction
Why has public criticism of the German churches for their conduct during the Nazi era been disproportionately directed at the…
Taking the Islamic in “the Islamic state” seriously
I want to focus on Salomon’s argument that the secular state—in this case the British colonial one—is in the business…
Salafism in Nigeria: An introduction
Studying Salafism is important not just for analyzing jihadist movements or clarifying twentieth-century Muslim history, but also for better understanding…
When is the Islamic state? Historical time and the agenda of Islamic studies
From the Islamic revolutions in Iran (1978-79) and Sudan (1989) to the recent emergence of ISIS, the concept of an…
New itineraries in the study of Islam and the state
From Wael Hallaq’s The Impossible State to Shahab Ahmad’s What is Islam?, recent scholarship on Islam and the state has…
Mere Civility and Jeremiah Wright
Reporters who covered the Jeremiah Wright controversy during the 2008 United States presidential campaign would have benefited from reading Mere…
Underestimating the force of the New Evangelicals in the public sphere
Lessons from Colombia, South America
God in the Enlightenment
In a speech before the Brexit vote, Boris Johnson offered a controversial historical pedigree for his campaign to leave the…
The Politics of Islamic Law: An introduction
My new book, The Politics of Islamic Law, presents an approach to the study of religion, comparative politics and law…