Contrary to conventional wisdom, Muslim-majority societies are generally in a “post-Islamist” (not post-Islam)
social (not political) condition. What is the relationship between the sacred and the secular in such a post-Islamist condition, where both secular and Islamist authoritarianism challenge the rise and success of a post-Islamist democratic polity? This paper examines this question in three interrelated sections: The first section problematizes the rise and revival of the idea of “Muslim exceptionalism”, which suggests that Muslim culture is exceptionally and inherently incompatible with secular democratic values. Revived after the crisis of
contemporary post-Islamist social movements in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), this discourse characterizes Muslim culture and religion with authoritarianism and ties this to the crisis of secular democracy in the MENA region and beyond. It will be shown that this idea is shared by some seemingly opposing views, including Orientalism, Orientalism in reverse (religious and nationalist nativism), and a particular reading of cultural relativism.
This section problematizes the epistemological roots, intellectual flaws, and political implications of this discourse.
The second section conceptualizes the idea of a post-Islamist democratic polity and how it may resolve the false dichotomy between the sacred and the secular in Muslim majority contexts. It demonstrates how a progressive post-Islamist discourse demystifies the myth of Muslim Exceptionalism, challenges both the ethnocentric idea of Western universalism and cultural particularism, and offers a third path toward an alternative and multiple modernities and democracies in Muslim contexts.
The third section examines a concrete case of the post-Islamist condition in post-revolutionary Iran at the societal and state levels, as well as the prospects and challenges ahead for reconciling the sacred-secular binary and establishing a post-Islamist democratic polity in the country.
