The Politics of Post-Essential Islamic Liberation Theology: The Difference and Intersection between Farid Esack and Hamid Dabashi

Abstract

Farid Esack and Hamid Dabashi are two critical Islamic liberation theology scholars who redefined the discourse on 'self and 'other' in contemporary Islamic thought. These two scholars engage with the self and other category of pluralism and the employment of theodicy in Islamic liberation theology. Using pluralism to clear the space for a liberating praxis is the task of Esack, while Dabashi uses the idea of theodicy to challenge the existing consensus on and reconfigure the liberation in Islamic liberation theology. Moving from the otherness of Muslims to the multiplicity of otherness - the various manifestations of self and other - in a pluriversal horizon of liberation, this article deploys both Esack's and Dabashi's notions of self and other towards building a new politics of Islamic liberation theology.