I want to focus on Salomon’s argument that the secular state—in this case the British colonial one—is in the business…
Taking the Islamic in “the Islamic state” seriously
politics
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…
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…
Secularization histories as cultural-political programs
In a The Immanent Frame post on buffered selves, Charles Taylor commented that “The process of disenchantment, involving a change…
CFP: Putting Truth in the Second Place: On Compromise, Religion and Politics
As part of the COMPROMISE research project at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen will host an international…
Postdoctoral fellowship in religion, politics, and global affairs
The Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and the Buffett Institute at Northwestern University invite applications for a two-year postdoctoral…