Islam and Post-orientalism: Debates Concerning Comparative and Historical Sociology

TLDR: A brief historical overview of the recent history of the sociology of Islam can be found in this paper, with a modest proposal for the integration of the study of Islam into the main body of comparative and historical sociology paying attention to the legacies of Marshall G. Hodgson's The Venture of Islam, Karl Jasper's work in the so-called Axial Age religions, and Robert Bellah's Religion in Human Evolution.

Abstract: The chapter provides a brief historical overview of the recent history of the sociology of Islam. Unlike the historical and anthropological study of Islam, the sociology of Islam had a late start around the middle of the last century. The study of Islam has been controversial being heavily influenced by political events in the West such as 9/11, the invasion of Afghanistan and the rise of ISIS. Much of the debate has been dominated by Edward Said’s influential Orientalism (1978). Although Said’s work offered an important critique of western understanding of the Orient, his focus was primarily on the humanities rather than social science. I call more recent scholarship ‘Post-Orientalism’, because it includes the study Islamic communities in the West and not only the Middle East and Asia. Indeed Islam is now studied as a global religion. However, much of the sociological research has been concentreated on examples of Islamophobia. I refer to this research as advocacy rather than science in part because it obscures the many examples of successful Muslim communites in the secular West. I conclude with a modest proposal for the integration of the study of Islam into the main body of comparative and historical sociology paying attention to the legacies of Marshall G.S. Hodgson’s The Venture of Islam, Karl Jasper’s work in the so-called Axial Age religions, and Robert Bellah’s Religion in Human Evolution.