Islam: How Could It Have Emerged after Christianity?

Repetition has an exemplary status in Slavoj Žižek’s philosophy. This chapter explores the possibilities of repeating Islam. Is it possible to read Islam the way Žižek reads Christianity? Žižek’s innovative reading of Christianity, the chapter argues, can serve as a “model” for reading Islam and that Žižek provides us with tools and methodologies to undertake such a reading. The focal point is Žižek’s reading of Christianity and the possibility of its repetition on Islam. The reading that Žižek provides of Christianity can be repeated, not copied, in reading Islam. The chapter contends that Žižek provides a cogent and coherent methodology for reading Islam in a way which makes it relevant to our struggles for liberation and emancipation on a universal level because he provides the means to read Islam politically.