Politicizing the social sciences: Islam and culture as socio-political fact

One possible way for a Muslim social scientist to respond and contextualize Islamic discourse is to mediate and cultivate a common perception and understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim readership through an understanding of Islam as a socio-political construct. In this paper, the discussion of...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mohd Yusof, Danial
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia 2008
Subjects:
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/32353/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/32353/1/ikim_1.pdf
Description
Summary:One possible way for a Muslim social scientist to respond and contextualize Islamic discourse is to mediate and cultivate a common perception and understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim readership through an understanding of Islam as a socio-political construct. In this paper, the discussion of Islam as socio-political fact is used to illustrate the impact of Western social sciences on the study of Islam. Through the appropriation of notions of transculture and the politics of identity, post-colonialism and post-modernism, the sociology of Islam is expanded as a paradigm through the understanding of strategic essentialism to deconstruct hegemonic terms of political discourse in academia