Branding Islam: Islam, Islamism and political Islam have become new brands in the West

Branding Islam: Islam, Islamism and political Islam have become new brands in the West

By Afiya Shehrbano

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

One such concern is over the endeavour to study Islam and Muslims with reference to faith-based politics. This suggests that now western academia too refers to our identities first and foremost with reference to religion. This narrow lens on how we accept or resist religion and its expressions leads to divisiveness. Women, for example, become symbols for western audiences representing either the progressive modern potential of a nation in question or, as veiled, regressive, threatening reminders of what the wrong kind of religious politics can potentially lead to. In other words, such an approach suggests there is little space for Muslims to be anything other than a religious category. And increasingly, academics (whether apologists or critics of Islamic politics) are complicit in essentialising Muslims in this process.

http://www.newageislam.com/branding-islam--islam,-islamism-and-political-islam-have-become-new-brands-in-the-west--/muslims-and-islamophobia/d/1119