Politics of Desecularization: Law and the Minority Question in Pakistan (Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics)

Over time the Pakistani state has moved from accommodating the Ahmadiyya community as full citizens of the state to forcibly declaring them non-Muslim and eventually criminalizing them for their religious beliefs. Politics of Desecularization deploys the 'Ahmadi question' to theorize a core feature of modern public Islam - its contested and unsettled relationship with the nation-state form. It posits that our current understandings of modern religious change have been shaped by a highly limited number of national cases in which states have been successful at arriving at stable ideologies about religion. Pakistan, however, epitomizes polities that are undergoing protracted political and cultural struggles over religion's proper place in the state. The book's gripping account shows that these struggles are carried out in social sites as diverse as courts, legislative assemblies, and newspapers. The result in Pakistan has been the emergence of a trajectory of desecularization characterized by official religious nationalism. The movement away from secularist practices and toward political Islam is a prominent trend across Muslim polities. Yet this shift remains under-theorized. Why do modern Muslim polities adopt policies that explicitly cater to religious sensibilities? How are these encoded in law and with what effects? Sadia Saeed addresses these questions through examining shifts in Pakistan's official state policies toward the rights of religious minorities, in particular the controversial Ahmadiyya community. Looking closely at the 'Ahmadi question', Saeed develops a framework for conceptualizing and explaining modern desecularization processes that emphasizes the critical role of nation-state formation, political majoritarianism, and struggles between 'secularist' and 'religious' ideologues in evolving political and legal fields. The book demonstrates that desecularization entails instituting new understandings of religion through processes and justifications that are quintessentially modern. Cover Half-title page Series page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Rethinking Desecularization 1 Colonial Genealogy of Muslim Politics 2 Democratic Exclusions, Authoritarian Inclusions 3 Politics of Minoritization 4 The Nation-State and Its Heretics 5 Courts and the Minority Question Conclusion After Secularization Appendix A Text of Objectives Resolution, Preamble to the Constitution of Pakistan Appendix B Text of Anti-Islamic Activities of the Qadiani Group, Lahore Group, and Ahmadis (Prohibition and Punishment) Ordinance, 1984 Bibliography Index A fascinating account of how Islam can be deployed or resisted to shape minority rights and religious change in Muslim societies.