ePub Recalling the Caliphate: Decolonisation and World Order by S. Sayyid in History

Review

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful. Rigorous and thorough analysisBy Shvetal VyasReCalling the Caliphate provides an insightful analysis of Muslim presence in the world today and does so without falling into religious or sociological clichés. Instead of saying “Muslims are like this because of (insert religious edict) or because of (insert sociological explanation); the book looks at Islam as “the name that gives Muslims a name”. Sayyid looks at some conceptual categories that are often used to understand and frame the ‘Muslim question’. These include categories such as secularism; democracy and diaspora. He then effectively deconstructs each of these categories. He demonstrates that they are not neutral or value-free instruments of analysis but instead shape our perceptions in specific ways and do the work of keeping Muslim practices outside the limits of the normal. It is not; therefore; the Muslim world that we are looking at that is the necessary object of analysis but the lens through which we look.To illustrate; let us take the case of secularism. Secularism is the demand for the separation of one’s political self from one’s religious and cultural selves. Close observation of the politics of any nation across the world would show that this is an ideal observed in words but rarely followed in practice. Instead; secularism becomes a conceptual category that makes it possible for Western and Westernised commentators to berate the prevalence of the “religious/superstitious” worldview in Muslim societies.Armed with an accurate aim; a razor-sharp analysis and a sense of humour; Sayyid dismantles a host of conceptual categories. This makes the book useful to not just the specialist interested in the Muslim world but to any post-structuralist scholar desirous of engaging with critical thinking on language; representation and reality. Sayyid draws from a wide variety of sources and is the rare academic who quotes as often from non-Western writers and thinkers as Western ones.In the final four chapters of the book; Sayyid tackles the question: “What would a Muslim politics look like?” Again eschewing the obvious; Sayyid does not offer simplistic religious or political answers. He looks at certain Muslim political formations that already exist; such as the Organization of Islamic co-operation; which consists of fifty-seven member countries; the idea of Islamic states and Islamic economies or the category of the ummah as a community of Qu’ran worshippers. Sayyid brings the same acuity of analysis to these formulations; and makes the argument that these formulations need not be essentially and automatically Muslim.It is in this context that a return to the Caliphate can be articulated. Sayyid notes the various demands for and fears of a return of the Caliphate. At the same time; his argument is that the vision for the Caliphate is also a political demand; political in the sense that it requires a change in the way in which the world is ordered. In a formulation that is beautiful in its simplicity and poignant in its possibility; he states that recalling the Caliphate is “building a world in which the presence of Muslims is not a scandal”. I can think of no better possibility than that.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Rigorous and thorough analysisBy Shvetal VyasReCalling the Caliphate provides an insightful analysis of Muslim presence in the world today and does so without falling into religious or sociological clichés. Instead of saying “Muslims are like this because of (insert religious edict) or because of (insert sociological explanation); the book looks at Islam as “the name that gives Muslims a name”. Sayyid looks at some conceptual categories that are often used to understand and frame the ‘Muslim question’. These include categories such as secularism; democracy and diaspora. He then effectively deconstructs each of these categories. He demonstrates that they are not neutral or value-free instruments of analysis but instead shape our perceptions in specific ways and do the work of keeping Muslim practices outside the limits of the normal. It is not; therefore; the Muslim world that we are looking at that is the necessary object of analysis but the lens through which we look.To illustrate; let us take the case of secularism. Secularism is the demand for the separation of one’s political self from one’s religious and cultural selves. Close observation of the politics of any nation across the world would show that this is an ideal observed in words but rarely followed in practice. Instead; secularism becomes a conceptual category that makes it possible for Western and Westernised commentators to berate the prevalence of the “religious/superstitious” worldview in Muslim societies.Armed with an accurate aim; a razor-sharp analysis and a sense of humour; Sayyid dismantles a host of conceptual categories. This makes the book useful to not just the specialist interested in the Muslim world but to any post-structuralist scholar desirous of engaging with critical thinking on language; representation and reality. Sayyid draws from a wide variety of sources and is the rare academic who quotes as often from non-Western writers and thinkers as Western ones.In the final four chapters of the book; Sayyid tackles the question: “What would a Muslim politics look like?” Again eschewing the obvious; Sayyid does not offer simplistic religious or political answers. He looks at certain Muslim political formations that already exist; such as the Organization of Islamic co-operation; which consists of fifty-seven member countries; the idea of Islamic states and Islamic economies or the category of the ummah as a community of Qu’ran worshippers. Sayyid brings the same acuity of analysis to these formulations; and makes the argument that these formulations need not be essentially and automatically Muslim.It is in this context that a return to the Caliphate can be articulated. Sayyid notes the various demands for and fears of a return of the Caliphate. At the same time; his argument is that the vision for the Caliphate is also a political demand; political in the sense that it requires a change in the way in which the world is ordered. In a formulation that is beautiful in its simplicity and poignant in its possibility; he states that the recalling the Caliphate is “building a world in which the presence of Muslims is not a scandal”. I can think of no better possibility than that.0 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Sebraeverything worked perfect! Thank you