Sometimes, context is everything. For much of the twentieth century, at least since the 1920s in Egypt and the 1900s…
Liberating shari’a
secularity
A secular state must deliver
It is hard to disagree with the main arguments of Abdullahi an-Na'im's impeccable book: a healthy religious life requires a…
An Islamic case for a secular state
If the state is going to enforce any principle from Islamic sources, according to Abdullahi An-Na‘im, then it should implement…
Being Benedict
The recent visit of Benedict XVI to the U.S. demonstrates once again the uncanny ability of the most influential popes…
A man with a mission
Abdullahi An-Na'im is a man with a mission. As the expatriate Sudanese law professor told The New Yorker writer George…
Islam and authority
In his new book, Abdullahi an-Na`im argues that Muslims need a secular state to live their religious lives. Alongside his…
Secularism and critique
What are we to think of the idea, entertained by Rawls for a time, that one can legitimately ask of…
Secularism and the paradoxes of Muslim politics
Few books in Islamic studies have been as eagerly awaited or intensely debated prior to publication as Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na`im's…
Anti-secularist failures
I guess it's to be expected that in today's fashionable anti-secularist perspective an act of secular criticism that calls for…
“Recognizing” religion
Religion appears in liberal theory first and foremost as an occasion for tolerance and neutrality. This orientation is reinforced by…