Inventing Islam(ism): De-Islamization under Secular Authoritarianism in Bangladesh

Abstract

The presence of Islamism in Muslimistan necessitates a secular age, as only in a secular age does it become possible to be for or against Islam due to the decentering of Islam as the default organizing premise of Muslim societies. Within this fundamental de-Islamization or secularization of Muslim societies, further de-Islamization is made possible by secular power’s ability to dictate and even produce Islam, which continues to perpetually shift the meanings of secularism and Islamism in accordance with the European Enlightenment’s notion of progress. The banality and universality of secularism, and markedness and provinciality of Islam(ism), ensure that only the (perceived) absence of secularism and (perceived) presence of Islamism are felt – never the other way around. Bangladesh’s recent authoritarian turn, its social engineering during secular authoritarianism, and the recent calls for democratization – all point towards the secularist politics of de-Islamization which invents Islam(ism) in de-Islamization, and which then explains the failings of secularism through the regime and Bangladesh’s “Islamist character”. The implications include a never-ending de-Islamization process, spelling the end of the post-Islamism thesis, as post-Islamism becomes an impossible state. Secular power invents in post-Islamism a new Islamism, delaying the post-Islamist moment ad infinitum.