Ensaio Politica

Mahmood, S. (2006), “Secularism, Hermeneutics, and Empire: The Politics of Islam Reformation”, Public Culture, 18 (2), pp. 323-347

“The fact that this normative secular religiosity commands such uncritical acceptance among liberals and leftists alike should, I want to argue, be thought through far more carefully than is customary. This is, in part, because for those of us who want to think critically about what the U.S. imperial venture represents in the Muslim world today, this consensus constitutes the Achilles’ heel. We know, on the one hand, that the unabashedly imperial goal of the United States to secure its domination in Muslim lands is morally flawed. But on the other hand, many of us remain suspicious, if not afraid, of the kind of religiosity that the Islamic resurgence has facilitated in Euro-American cities and in various parts of the Muslim world. The fear is that orthodox Islamic practices — from the veil to public prayers to abidance by rules of sexual segregation — are expressions of a fanatical literalist mentality and, as such, a threat to the entire edifice of our liberal political system. Thus the unequivocal opposition to U.S. occupation of the Middle East is often seasoned with caveats about the necessity to fight the irrationality of Muslim beliefs and practices through cultural, if not military, means.” Pp. 344

Neste artigo, o objectivo da autora é desconstruir a ideia de secularismo, moldada pelos discursos americanos, e que este é necessário no mundo muçulmano.
A autora começa por definir alguns conceitos chave, para completo entendimento do seu artigo. O secularismo, cujas origens remontam ao século XVII, consiste na separação entre a instituição “Estado”, e a instituição “Igreja”. Este princípio assenta na ideia de que, o Estado, uma instituição central e autoritária, é independente da religião, e os seus intuitos políticos não estão relacionados com a mesma. Deste modo, a religião é praticada apenas pela escolha individual de cada