Part 1: Why I Am Not a Postsecularist

This essay argues that the “postsecular” tendency in contemporary humanities and social sciences relies disproportionately on contemporary political Islam to make its case for a “return of religion.” Furthermore, postsecularism generates a highly misleading view of political Islam as an unmediated and unproblematic return to the tradition of (Sunni) Islam, making it difficult to see that political Islam is in fact a result of the great transformation of Muslim societies under colonial rule.