Historicity Current

8/3/2019 Historicity Current

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Adis Duderija, Ph.D. candidate, School of Social and Cultural Studies, University of

Western Australia

E mail: [email protected]

tact details (must contain all authors' names, affiliations and contact details)


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The historical influences in the construction of religious identities among

contemporary generations of western born Muslims

Abstract : The aim of this article is to briefly outline the historical development and

background behind the construction of distinct Muslim identity ( The Self) at both

individual and civilisational level ( Islamo-Arab ) vis--vis the religious Other (Judeo-

Christian /Western civilisation) and to understand its influence on the processes

shaping different identity constructions among western born generations of Muslims.

Keywords : western born Muslims,religious Identity,Islam, Christianity, historical

development of Identity

1.) Introduction: Religious Identity in the context of immigrant religious minority:

Studies on western Muslims identities have highlighted a number of factors that

influence their modification, formation/construction, retention and transmission.

These include the processes of secularisation, modernisation and

globalisation(Ameli, 2002), transnationalism (Mandaville,2004;Allievi and

Nielsen,2003),the impact of geopolitics and the state of international affairs(Waardenburg ,2003), the broader socio-economic, political and legal contexts of the

host societies(Allievi and Nielsen,2003;Kibria,2007) and the diversity within the

Muslim communities themselves such as ethnicity, family and socio-economic

background, the length of immigration experience, age or gender(Jacobsen,2006). For

example, Cesari(2006,52) identifies the following dimensions of western Muslim

minorities as being particularly important in the construction of their identities: the

meta-discourse on Islam, the influence of dominant cultural and political

frameworks, the complex interaction between religion and ethnicity, the influence of global Islam, the state collusion between religion, ethnicity and social marginality and

intra-Muslim theological diversity. While I do not dismiss the significance of these

factors, this article focuses on religious aspect of their identity and the importance of

the historical component in the construction of Western Muslims identity .

uscriptk here to download Manuscript (excluding authors' names and affiliations): historicity. docClick here to view linked References
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The reason for this is that a number of studies have shown that members of

immigrant minority religions, including Western Muslim communities, consider

religious identity as their primary locus of identity formation and maintenance,

including the second and subsequent generations (Duderija,2007a). This phenomenon

is the outcome of a number of forces associated with globalisation such as themigration experience which de-links particular cultures, ethnicities and religions from

particular territories/societies thereby inducing a more assertive re-structuring and re-

examining of inherited identities(Roy,2004). This increased instability in the way

identities are constructed helps create space for new identity potentialities. The social

forces underpinning globalisation also favour particular identity sources in relation to

which an individuals identity might be predominantly or exclusively constructed. In

the context of minority immigrant communities, including that of the Muslim

communities, and especially for the western-born/raised Western Muslims, that locus

is increasingly assumed by religion (Duderija,2007a).

This article, thus ,in line with the works of Hashmi(2003) and Peek (2005), is based

upon the premise that the concept of religion can be a key factor in the development

of ones identity both in the sense of believing (i.e. identity at the level of individuals)

and belonging ( i.e. identity at the level of a community/group/civilisation).This is

especially so in the context of immigrant minority culture as in the case of western-

born Muslims as their religious identity has come to the fore as a more enduring and

ultimate means for self-definition.(Gilliat,1994,190) .Indeed, the minority group

experience and the politicization of Islam have for many Western Muslims been

expressed in the form of the Islamization of the self (Rippin,1993,117).

This is what the author refers to as religious based identity construction in which

religion is the primary locus of identity construction and in which religion forms the

core and plays a master role, to use Hammonds(1998) terminology, in the overall

identity of some western-born Muslims.

However, it ought to be noted from the start that this religious based Muslim identity

is not constructed along identical or unvarying points of reference(Ismail,2004).

Indeed, Waardenburg (2000,59)and Cesari(2004b,91) observe that Europe, and

western societies in general, are an arena in which different versions and traditions of

Islam compete with each-other and different types of being a Muslim exist.


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Which mechanisms and processes contribute towards this heterogeneity and diversity

of constructing the Muslim Self? Understanding western Muslim religious identity

construction and its variant manifestations is of paramount importance given the

current geo-political and international relations in the age of war on terror. There

are additional reasons for this that go beyond the terror threat thesis . Firstly,understanding this process would shed light on the future direction of religious

identity construction in Western born Muslim individuals and communities. Secondly,

gaining a better insight into the factors and mechanisms involved in the formation of

western born Muslims identities will help illuminate the nature of the relationships

between non-Muslims and Muslims living in Muslim minority societies of the

West(Waardenburg,2000,55-56) several such mechanisms have already been

identified elsewhere(Duderija,2008) and the purpose here is to discuss one of them,

namely the historicity or the historical influence behind the contemporary

constructions of western Muslim identities (The Self) vis--vis the religious other, in

this context the Judeo-Christian /western civilisation and the individual members of

this civilization (The Other).

Prior to doing this, an elaboration of the broader strategies involved in Muslim

identity construction in the context of immigrant minority religion is required.

2.) The Self-Other boundary: The significance of the mutual identity dialectic

religious identity construction among new Muslim immigrant communities

Hussein considers that the three most important elements that impinge on the

formation of a Muslim identity are threefold: the concept of Self, the concept of

territory and the concept of community(Hussein,2004,122-125). The concept of Self

is constructed in relation to believers relationship with God as based upon the key

Quranic concepts such as tawhid (Gods unity and uniqueness) , taqwa( God

consciousness) , istikhlaf ( vicegerency of human beings) , dhikr ( remembrance of

God) and rabbaniyah ( believers spiritual relationship with God).The concept of

territory as espoused by the classical Islamic thought that has no direct link with the

Quran and Sunnah bodies of knowledge, links Islam and its adherents with a

particular territory. According to this theory Muslims, the Self, are to live in dar al

Islam ( abode of peace/Islam) and other regions described variously as dar al kufr (

abode of unbelief) , dar alahd/ dar al sulh ( abode of treaty) and dar al amn ( abode

of security) are identified as the religious Other. Most classical schools of thought

discourage or prohibit Muslims from living in them. The concept of community is


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associated with the well known concept of ummah, the worldwide religious

community of Muslims , and that of wala or loyalty to ones religion.

Jacobsen (2006,109-149) on the other hand, in the context of discussing the religious

identities and practices among Norwegian Muslims distinguishes three horizons of

action in terms of which Muslim youth orient themselves and in relation to whichtheir identities and practices are shaped. They include : the global Muslim ummah , the

notion of a Euro-Norwegian Islam and the family and the ethnic diaspora. She further

maintains that each of the horizons is constituted according to different principles of

inclusion/exclusion, values and objectives (Ibid,109). This articles approach and

level of analysis emphasises and focuses on the communal or group dimension of

the religious identity of Muslims identified by both Hussain and Jacobsen .

This is so for several reasons. Firstly, the politicisation of Muslim identity in the

current international climate as well as the new immigrant minority status of the

Western Muslim community largely facilitate this communal, group universalistic

,ummah aspect of the Muslim identity(Duderija,2007).Secondly, in the context of

Muslims in Europe both majorities and minorities construct collective ,monolithic

identities(Verkuyten and Yildiz,2007).Thirdly, group-based identity , furthermore

plays a significant role in defining and ordering the relationship between the Self and

the Other(Kaya,2005,11). Fourthly, throughout history and , especially during the

period of the Middle Ages during which the genesis and the formation of the

discursive parameters within which the nature of the dynamics of Islamo-Christian

group identity construction emerged and was established (as will be discussed below)

, Islamo-Arab and Judeo-Christian religious identities have been primarily , if not

exclusively, based at the level of groups and communities and not at the level of

individuals.

The dynamics affecting this group based identity for those belonging to the new

immigrant minority religion, such as Western Muslims, can particularly be well

conceptualised in terms of what here is termed the Self-Other mutual identity

construction dialectic.

This notion of Self and Other mutual identity construction is attested to in a number

of studies done on western Muslims. For example, in the context of identity

construction among western-born Muslim youth living in France and Germany

Hashmi asserts that the idea of the Self as opposed to the Other seems particularly

applicable for young people of ethnic immigrant origins.(Hashmi,2003,59). Roy


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(2004,45)echoes this view. Similarly, in the context of western nation-states Green

argues that it is [t]he immigrant [that] represents the Other.(Green,1997, 57). In a

similar fashion, Waardenburg(2000,41) intimates that

in relation to the identity of Muslims in Europe, there is an aspect of thecondition of otherness that seems particularly relevant, namely the effect of marginalization, discrimination and exclusion in relation to the apprehension of the self and the non-self. In principle Muslims are the Other for non-Muslimsand vice-versa.

Hashmi avers that in the context of immigration immigrants and immigrant religions

are often perceived as single homogenous groups and that the process of generating

self-images, for both the immigrants(The Self) and the host society ( The Other) is

based upon how they see themselves as being viewed.(Hashmi,2000,166-170).

Similarly, Yinger(1970,315) asserts in a that the formation of religious identities

among minorities is influenced by attitudes shown towards them.

Brodeur(2004,188) agrees with this analysis by averring that the constructions of

Islam(s) and Muslim identities whether real or imagined

are never generated solely on the basis of pure internal Islamic developments ;they are rather the fruit of a binary Self/Other interdependent processes that are

best understood as existing somewhere in between local and global, past andfuture, here and there.

Moreover, he maintains that the construction of Muslim identity relies on the

constant dialectical interplay between the Self and the Other(Ibid,190). Religion, and

thus religious identity, in particular, has and is being shaped through the strains and

tensions in the oscillation between benevolence towards and distrust of the Other

taking place in the broader framework of the self-images and the images of the Other

at civilisational level(Hoefert and Salvatore,2000,15-16). According to Haensch the

construction of these Self images and that of the Other are a continuous process thus

are subject to change. Furthermore, she argues the process of migration and meeting

of cultures lead to both the reflection on the self-image and a reflection on the

previous image of the Other( Haensh,2000,143).We refer to this phenomenon of identity construction as a Self-Other mutual identity

construction dialectic.

Given the above, the religious identity construction in the context of western-born

generations of Muslim, can be particularly well conceptualised in terms of the Self-

Other mutual identity construction dialectic. By this it is meant that not only do the


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views of the religious Other impinge upon the view of the religious Self but also that

the view of how the religious Other views the religious Self also affects the way one

constructs the view of the religious Self and vice versa. The way in which these

perceptions of Self and Other are mutually constructed and the way they delineate

between the Self and the Other impact upon the nature of this Self-Other mutualidentity dialectic. The nature of Self-Other mutual identity construction can either be

characterised as antagonistic, exclusivist and oppositional according to which the Self

is constructed in civilisationally isolationist, antagonistic and oppositional lines vis--

vis the Other. On the other hand the nature of the Self-Other mutual identity

construction can be a civilisationally inclusivist and hybrid one according to which

the sense of Self is constructed along inclusivist and civilisationally hybrid lines vis-

-vis the Other.

This sense of religious Self and the religious Other operates at both individual

as well as group level since religious identity encompasses both the sense of believing

(individual) and that of belonging ( to a broader religious community/civilisation). In

the context of this article, for reasons outlined above, by the term the Self we refer

to the socio- religious identity of western-born Muslims as based upon the

civilisational ummah understanding of their religious identity . By the term the

Other, we understand the broader socio-cultural society of the West as based upon its

Judeo-Christian civilisational foundations.

3.) Historicity of religious identity construction and its effect on the Self-Other

boundary mutual religious identity construction dialectic

Having outlined the rationale behind adopting the Self-Other mutual identity

construction dialectic when examining the way western born generations of Muslims

construct their identity I turn my attention now how this process unfolded in the past

and whether or not , or to what extent, the same historical forces influence the

contemporary identity constructions among western born generations of Muslims.

Hoefert and Salvatore, in examining the importance of transcultural politics in the

inter- cultural/civilisational formation of Self and the Other have suggested that

contextual factors are largely responsible for not only Self identity construction but

also that of the Other(Hoefert and Salvatore,2000). These contextual factors

primarily in the form of stereotypes- in turn have a historicity component as they are

passed from generation to generation (Ibid). Indeed, Ismail asserts, that [T]aking into


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account sociality and historicity of religion is central to understanding the production

of religious identity in the public sphere.(Ismail,2004,630). Leonard(2003,51)

similarly maintains that Muslim identities, like other identities, are characterised by

instability, construction in context, and reinterpretations of the past in the present .

Brouder (2004,188) also argues that meaningfully integrated self-understanding isrooted both in history and the future of ones primary community of identity which, as

outlined above in the new immigrant context, is often their Muslim identity.

Lapidus(2001,48), furthermore, considers that in the construction of modern Muslim

identities there is a striking degree of historical structural continuity and that in

some cases contemporary Islamic states and Islamic religious movements are simply

direct continuations of past ones. Similarly, Ameli(2002,89) asserts that History -

and also current interpretations of history- enter crucially into analysis of

contemporary Muslim identity. Thus, the process of identity construction has what

here is termed a historicity component. Variant understandings/readings of these

contextual and historical aspects of religious identity construction can help shed light

on the variant ways of constructing the Muslim Self among contemporary Muslims,

including the western born generations.

4.) The analysis of the historical development of the distinct Self Muslim Identity

construction vis--vis the Judeo-Christian/Western civilisation

In the context of the importance of historicity in understanding the dynamics

surrounding the construction of contemporary Muslim identities, Ameli(Ibid) asserts

the following,

if Muslim identity should be evaluated according to the determinative factorsinvolved in the construction of identity, and if these factors have themselves

been subject to radical transformation in historical terms, it then becomesnecessary for the analyses to present a historical overview of these factors.

The relevance of this historical dimension is further substantiated by the fact that, in

the words of Cesari(2004a,223)

What we profess to know about Islam is to a large extent the product of a visionconstructed upon centuries of conflict, political as much as religious. The fluidand often paradoxical reality of Muslims-from their most private behaviour totheir most public is frequently obscured by the mass of stereotypes that have

built up over the centuriesMany such stereotypes descend from theOrientalist tradition of Orientalism. While the most conspicuous forms of Orientalism have been profoundly modifiedits more latent forms ( the resultof these amassed stereotypes) continue to exert influence on


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cultureMuslims and Islamic society are thus permanently denied anycapacity for change.

One author who has highlighted the importance of history in the understanding of

identities among contemporary British born generations of Muslims is Ameli (Ibid).

In his book, he devoted to it one complete chapter titled Historical Analysis of

Muslim Identity. In his investigation of British Muslims identity and the role of

globalisation in this dynamic Ameli has identified historical forces as one of the

three factors which influence religious identity construction among the western born

generation(s) of Muslims. He based this approach to identity construction upon the

broader premise that religious identity is a byproduct of multiple interactions between

religion, society and the individual. Furthermore, he considers religious identity as an

output of the interaction between overt social structures and the latent understanding

of the religion whose meaning, nature and impact have changed dramatically over

time and especially in the recent past (Ibid,110-111). Religious identities, he argues

further, are not just a result of religious idealism, but are social, political, economic

and cultural constructions and cannot be studied apart from the social changes that

have taken place throughout the course of Islamic history (Ibid). Therefore for Ameli,

without having a clear understanding of what these factors meant in the past, one

cannot understand contemporary Muslim identities. Additionally, his historical

analysis of the Muslim identity demonstrated that it has never been a static and

immutable phenomenon(Ibid,275).

Amelis analysis, unlike mine, is not based upon a Self-Other mutual civilisational

identity dialectic and he does not highlight the importance of the construction of the

Other on the construction of the Self and vice-versa. Instead, he discusses how in

terms of the turning points in the sociological dimension of human society one can

point to changes in identities that have taken place within three broader social

structures(Ibid,90). According to Ameli, within these structures, Muslims haveexperienced six distinct periods. The factors that have been responsible for the

transition from one period to the another are the result of changes in the understanding

of religion, economic affiliation or structure, as well as political and social factors.

Within each period, one can identify a pattern or overarching schema within which

the identity of Muslims throughout their history can be assessed(Ibid.).The factors I


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identify in terms of the historicity of identity construction also include Amelis.

However, I analyse them from the point of view of our theoretical framework that is

based upon the Self-Other boundary and a mutual civilisational identity construction

dialectic. Our periods partially overlap with those of Ameli. However, periods are

based upon major socio-political and religious events that have had a major effect onthe nature of the dialectic between the two civilisations.

a.)The Prophetic Era (600-622 AD)

The context of the emergence of Prophet Muhammads Message in 7th century Hijaz

was such that it took place alongside other already well-established religious

communities most important of which were, apart from Arabian pre-Quranic beliefs,

Judaism, Hanifiyyah and Christianity.

The very fabric and nature of the Message embodied in the Quran clearly depicts

many of the events and the nature of the relationship between the Muslim community

and the non-Muslim Other and vice-versa. From the outset it is essential to point out

that the Quranic attitude (and Muhammads praxis) towards the non-Muslim Other is

highly contextual in nature and therefore ambivalent or context-dependent. The

aspects of religious identity continuity and commonality with other faiths are

intertwined with those of the emergence and emphasis on the Muslim identity

originality and distinctiveness. This leads Waardenburg to assert that Looking back

at the interaction of the new Islamic religious movement with the existing religious

communities, we are struck by the importance of socio-political

factors(Waardenburg,2003,99;cf.Waardenburg,1979). Apart from the socio-political

factors religious ideas were also significant since the Quran based gradual shaping

of the Muslim religious identity is inextricably linked with the religious identity of

others, notably Jews and Christians (Zebiri,1997;Donner,2002-2003). Thus, the

religious aspects of and the inter-actions between various religious communities at the

time of the actual period of Revelation led to the genesis of a religious identity for

Muslims and played a very important role in its construction (Zebiri,1997).

For most of the Muhammads Prophethood the construction of a Muslim identity took

place in circumstances characterised by the fight for religious survival, inter-tribal

conflicts and the constant presence of external threats, firstly coming from the

Makkan tribal leaders whose ethico-religious and socio-economic belief system


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(muruwwah) and worldview Muhammad rebelled against, and later from the side of

the main Jewish tribes of Medina and so called munafiqun or Muslim hypocrites.

Another trend significant for this study is the ever growing religious self-

consciousness of the Prophet of Islam (and his early community). Whilst attempts to

find common ground and syncretism featured more frequently during the earlier periods of his life,later periods stressed features constituting specific identity and

what distinguished one [i.e. Muslims] fundamentally from others

(Waardengurg,2003,44). The early Muslim view of the Byzantines in the days of

Prophet Muhammad Shboul(2004,242) echoes the observation that the attitudes of

the Muslims developed from sympathy and affinity, reflected in the early Quranic

verses, to awe and apprehension of Byzantiums military power, scorn of Byzantine

wealth and luxury, and finally anticipation of open antagonism and prolonged

warfare. Jews and Christians were recognised as recipients of previous revelations

(Ahl-Kitab) and were awarded the status of dhimmis .

Another point to be considered in this period is the Quranic concept of a hanif /

millat Ibrahim seen as a primordial monotheistic Urreligion based on belief in the

One, True God as embodied by Abrahams Message (Arabic - Ibrahim ) which is

considered as the universal norm and as potentially the final evolution in

Muhammads attitude towards the religious Self and the

Other(Waardenburg,2003,87-94). It is, however, unclear, whether the Prophet of

Islam himself identified historical Islam as the only or merely one possible

realisation of the primordial religion, the Hanifiyyah , on earth(Ibid,106-107).

Additionally, an Islamo- centric view of Muslim perceptions of the religious other

stem from a certain interpretation of the nature of Qurano-Sunnahic teachings. This

view is based upon the premise that the Quran is a source of empirical knowledge

of the religious Other that is to be applied universally, ahistorically and

decontextually.

In his study of the extent to which Prophet Muhammad and Quranic scripture

emphasised confessional distinctiveness Donner demonstrated that scripturally( or

based upon the Quranic evidence) in early Islam the community of Believers was

originally conceptualised independent of confessional identities(Donner,2002,12)

and that


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It was only later apparently during the third quarter of the first century A.H., afull generation or more after the founding of Muhammads community thatmembership in the community of Believers came to be seen as confessionalidentity in itself-when, to use a somewhat later formulation of religiousterminology, being a Believer and Muslim meant that one could not also be aChristian, say, or a Jew.

In other words, Donner adduces a substantial amount of evidence that it could be

argued that Quranically (some) Jews and Christians qualify as muminun (believers)

as well as muslimun ,i.e. those who submit to God(Donner,17-24;28-34).

b.) The Era of Four Rightly Guided Caliphs (622-661 AD)

It is difficult to track the development of Muslim consciousness and the construction

of religious identity among the leaders of the post-Prophetic Muslim community vis-

-vis the non-Muslim Other due to a scarcity of available literature on first centuryIslam in general. However, the trend to form a religiously distinct identity amongst

the early Muslim community seems to have increased with the rapid expansion of

Arab conquests of non-Arab lands and as their need for self-definition vis--vis- the

Other became more common place (Donner,1998,282). This tendency is noticed by

Donner(2002-2003,46-47) who maintains that

It seems likely that the relinquishing of a broader identity as Believers and thecrystallization of a separate identity as Muslims, distinct from other monotheisms, took place concomitant with the increasing emphasis on the

importance of Muhammads prophetic or apostolic status among Believers.

Importantly the emphasis of Muhammads Prophethood claim, as evident in the

evolution of the wording of the shahada,argues Donner, began only when some Jews

and Christians began to challenge his [Muhammads] prophetic status.( Ibid,66-67).

Additionally, during this period the internal schisms triggered by political

disagreements increasingly evolved into theological and doctrinal ones. This, in turn,

further highlighted the need to Self-define oneself antagonistically vis--vis the Other,

in this case also the Other kind of the Muslim-Other. This phenomenon is best

understood in the emergence of a number of Muslim sects such as the Khawarij,

Murijah, and the Alids etc. during this period. The universal basis for the

construction of religious identity embodied by the spirit of Hanifiyyah /millet Ibrahim

started to become more suppressed although the confessional identity of believers at


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this time was still inclusive of some Jews and Christians(Donner,2002-2003,28). In

this context Donner (Ibid.) makes a very interesting assertion:

It is therefore, not entirely capricious to suggest that for the first few decades of

the Islamic era ,the Believers may have been quite ready to accept among their

number those Christians and Jews who shared their zeal to spread the messageof God and the Last Day , and who agreed to live piously by the law ,even

though the theological implications of some passages in the Quran would

eventually exclude the ahl-kitab (i.e. Jews and Christians) from the ranks of

Believers.

Thus, argues Donner, the broader and looser confessional identity of believers

(muminun ) which could subsume the Christians , Jewish and Zoroastrian

communities started to be replaced by the more distinctly defined identity of

Muslims(Donner,1998,277;284). Like in the case of many other key concepts forming

the Islamic Weltanschauung, the word mumin underwent a semantico-contextual

change being equated with the word Muslim. The concepts of Ahl -Kitab and dhimmis,

instead, gained broader legitimacy and were applied to other religious communities

such as the Zoroastrians in Islamic Persia or, with the expansion of the Mogul Empire

in the 15 th and 16 th centuries, to Hindus in the Indian subcontinent.

During this time-period Arab-Islamic civilisation, although now expanding well

outside the Arabian Peninsula, was still in its infancy and was dominated by

numerous internal political and theological conflicts, thus civilisational interactions

giving rise to potential transcultural spaces were not significant enough to influence

religious identity construction at the civilisational ummah level.

c.) Period from the end of the 7 th to the beginning of the 9 th Century

This period saw the rise and the fall of the first Muslim dynasty, the Umayyads.

Although internal- conflicts and discussions about what constituted a Muslim from a

doctrinal view-point continued well into the 11 th century; this era saw a growing

civilisational and political consciousness of the Muslim community and its distinct

religious identity formation.


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From the end of the 7 th century until the decline of the Ottoman Empire in the 17 th

century, the relationship and the nature of civilisational interactions between Arabo-

Islamic and Christian civilizations 1can be seen in the context of two political

colossi engaged in permanent political conflict and warfare and the grip of religious

dogma on the identity of the respective religious community members on social enmass level(Waardenburg,2003,133-137) .Subsequently, the images/imagination of

the Other and the Self were increasingly constructed in terms of ideological and

religious conflict (Ibid.) Islam was seen as Christian heresy by both Christians in

Muslim and non-Muslim lands and an outright threat to the true religion of

Christianity. Additionally, Byzantine Christianitys socio-political, cultural and

religious pressure on Islam was a trademark of this period and further facilitated the

religious distinctiveness of Islam vis--vis Christianity. 2 Both religious communities

were eager to stress their own distinctive character by indicating the unique spirit of

their own religious truth and its historical continuity(Ibid,58)as well as to construct

the identity of the Other in purely religiously exclusivist terms(Ibid,481).Thus, the

main issues of the Muslim Christian debate were formulated as early as in this

Umayyad period(Ibid,136).

d.) Beginning of 9 th until 11 th century

The fall of Umayyad Dynasty (750 A.C.) and the subsequent rise of the Abbasid

Dynasty witnessed increased assertiveness of Islamic dogma, religious ideology and

Islamisation of society. Abbasids need to demonstrate superiority of Islam vis--

vis the non-Muslim majority and assert the originality of Islam was not only used to

justify their own coming to power, but also to prevent its [Islams] dilution by

already existing religions (especially Christianity). (Zebiri,1997,45) 3

Islam as a religious and socio-political force was increasingly felt. Despite the

existence of wide areas of peaceful interaction, the entire polemical and refutational

corpus of literature written in both Byzantine Christian and Muslim territories (mainly

Arab and Persian) at that time took place against a background of war and political

tensions expressed in a Christian /Heathen (from a Christian point of view) or Dar-ul-

Islam /Dar-ul-Harb (from a Muslims point of view) dichotomous and binary division

of the world. In this context Shboul(2004,245) remarks: 1 First Byzantine East and than the Latin West.2 At this point in time represented solely by Byzantine Christianity in the eyes of the Muslims.3 At the time of the Abbasids rule the territory under Muslim rule included large number of populacewhich were non-Muslim and outnumbered those who were.


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To the Muslim Arabs the rivalry between them and Byzantines was military, political, religious, cultural and also economic. The preoccupation of the Arabswith Byzantium as the enemy[however] is more evident in official writings ,inthe works of historians, geographers, poets and other men of letters, in legaltexts and in popular literature and far less evident in religious polemics.

The demarcation of the Other, however, at both the individual and civilisationallevel, was increasingly conceived in purely religious terms(Hoefert and

Salvatore,2000,21) rather then just political, cultural or economic. Furthermore,

Quranic commentators and jurists of this period increasingly considered Christians

as polytheists or unbelievers choosing to uphold more austere interpretations of the

Quran and Sunnah(Zebiri,1997,22).

e.) From end of the 11 th to the 15th century

Until the 11 th century, encounters between Muslim and Christian civilisations were

almost exclusively limited to the Byzantine East. From the 11 th century onwards, as

the attitude of Byzantium translated into that of a defensive war another,

transculturally more dominant and more influential civilisation was developing,

namely the Latin Christian West. The Muslims had had little interest in Western

Europe prior to this time-period largely considering Christian inhabitants of the Latin

West as uneducated barbarians(Zebiri,1997,22). However, from the 11th century

onwards and in tune with the ups and downs of the Crusading drive 4 Europe, and its

Latin West headed by the Pope, was seen as an increasing threat to the civilised world

of Islam. The view of the Muslim Other in the eyes of the Crusaders is thought to

have both initiated and perpetuated the representation of Muslims as evil and

depraved, licentious and barbaric, ignorant and stupid, unclean and inferior,

monstrous and ugly, fanatical and violent(Sardar,2002,2). Throughout this period

Latin Christianity viewed the Muslim religion as the arch-antagonist describing it in

one instance as doctrina falsa et diabolica (Hoefert,2000,45). As

Mastnak(2003,206) asserts, Christians:

Made [the Muslims] the quintessential,normative, enemy of Christianity andChristendom, the Muslims now represented infidelity itself. They were regardedas the fundamental enemy, the personification of the very religion of Antichrist.

4 Zebiri(1997,24) includes several other factors/motives as also responsible for the nature of relationship such as competing commercial interests between emerging nation-states in Europe, Popesdesire to unite Christendom and regain control of Holy Places in Jerusalem for pilgrimage purposes etc.


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The Muslim world became no less than the antithetical system, the socialAntichrist.

The Christian knowledge of Islam during this period was confined to ecclesiastic

groups and was both scanty and stereotypic(Malik,2004,68). The stereotypes about

Muslims inherited from Byzantine Christianity were largely passed on to the LatinWest. According to Zabiri(1997,26) the period from 1250-1400 Western images of

Islam [were] highly imaginative and contained elements of pure

invention/fabrication. Terminology used for Muslims during this era included (apart

from the term Muslims) terminology such as Moors, Mohammedans, Mahometans

and Turks (Malik,2004,70).Based on these stereotypes the historical figure of

Muhammad was given most violent epithets [such as] the pseudo-prophet, the

hypocrite, the liar, and the adulterer(Meyerdorff,2004,222).

Polemics sharply increased with the rise of the powerful Ottoman Empire and the fall

of Constantinople in 1453. The so-called Turkish Threat was to dominate

Christian-Islamic civilisational interactions and attitudes for the next two and a half

centuries and was to give rise to the image of unitas christiana among various

Christian sects(Hoefert,2000,47). Mastnak(2003,207) points out that the Western

Christians were able to draw on the existing hostility toward the Muslims to invoke a

sense of unity and community which later on developed into the formation of a new

Western unity.

During this period both communities making up the respective civilisations were

aware of the total opposition between causes held and defended by the Self and the

Other which they used for purposes of political legitimisation and re-enforcement

(Waardenburg,2003,157). Within each civilisation communities were organised along

religious lines thus linking nation and religion and projecting the religion of the Other

as the ideological antagonist(Ibid.). Interpretations of the Other religion were full of

misunderstandings and were characterised by structural intolerance towards [other]

religious groups with no attempt to reformulate own claims of absolute truth in light

of the claims of the religious other(Ibid.). This resulted in the development of a

religiocentric, centripetal and nearly solipsistic, religiously fixed worldview of both

civilisations(Ibid.,158) in which religious identity was considered as something

religiously and socially given, primarily by the religious community to which one

belongs, with own tradition and authority.(Ibid.,56).


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Both civilisations were blinded by their own light, as Waardenburg(2003) vividly

puts it, developing distorted views placing the religion of the Other as the enemy.

Additionally, both civilisations were too caught up in conflict in order to exercise

intro-and retro-spection so that in broader circles people deeply felt the two religions

as mutually exclusive due to the deep loyalties towards [their] own respectivecommunities(Ibid,159).

f.) The period between the 15 th and the 17th centuries

The period between the 15 th and the 17th centuries saw the rise of the European

states political power. Commencing in the fifteenth century it lasted until the end of

the Second World War. At the beginning of the 17 th century the Ottoman Empire was

well in its decline and the economic and military superiority of the West was on the

rise.

During the pre-Enlightenment period of the 15 th and 16 th centuries a process of

profound epistemological change in which knowledge was generated and categorised

took place. The essentialist approach to Islam and Christianity inherited during the

Medieval Ages continued so that the dichotomy of Christian /Turk became the most

powerful and important tool of Otherisation of the period(Hoefer,2000,48) replacing

the medieval Christian/Heathen binary Weltanschauung . The concept of religio was,

however, no longer seen in its medieval form as being restricted to the semantic field

of religious practice 5 [but as] religion as a generic concept(Ibid.,56), an

epistemological change, which later was to give rise to occidental

ethnography(Ibid.,57). The main Christian writers of the time such as Luther,

Shakespeare, Locke, Calvin all used the word infidels in the context of

Turks/Muslims(Malik,2004,74). A similar attitude prevailed among Muslim writers

on Christianity(Zebiri,1997,26). Religion, therefore, was still considered the central

distinguishing civilisational criteria.

Throughout this medieval period, it can be safely asserted, that the negative and

stereotypical images of Islam provided the anti-thesis to Europes own self-image,

thus serving to bolster its own identity in face of perceived external threat and on

more popular level satisfied demands for imaginative stimulation(Ibid).

5 With exclusive reference to Christian belief.


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17

Fundamentally same arguments apply for the manner in which the Christian West was

constructed by the Islamic civilisation for the purposes of self-definition (Ibid.)

Through the periods described so far iidentities embedded in these civilisations

operated within the socio-cultural structures entrapped in a traditional worldview.

How do we characterise traditional identities? According to Ameli(2002,91-92) in atraditional worldview identities are taken for granted, are stable and predictable. They

are based on the guiding tradition within which people belong to a circle of social

life within clearly demarcated and stable social and cultural settings. Thus, identities

were not able to be transformed in a fundamental way, nor were they constructed as a

result of a conscious choice at either individual or collective level. Rather they were

based on past history. Religious identities, in particular, were integrated, continuous

and solid. The reasons behind this characterisation of traditional religious identity

were, thus, to be found in the very nature of traditional societies and the worldview in

which they were embedded. Traditional societies were governed by limited social

intercourse and their focus was primarily on internal cultural relations. The means of

transport and communication were very restricted. Change took place very slowly. As

a result throughout the period considered thus far social norms and mores as well as

understandings of the religious tradition did not alter significantly and were largely

maintained by consistency in social stratification, cultural roles, psychological

motives, rewards and incentives present in respective civilisations.

g.)The Period from the 17 th to the 19 th century

The beginning of this period marks the advent of modernity in the West. Whilst in the

previous period, from a sociological viewpoint, identities could be described as being

traditional in the sense described above; this era marks the transmission towards the

development of modern societies and modern identities. The period from the 17 th to

the 19 th century in the Christian West was characterised by a number of momentous

events, which had a decisive effect on the nature of contemporary Western civilisation

(and by default its dynamic/relationship with Muslim civilisation). The process of

Entkirchlichung , the rise of secular democratic nation-states, scientific and industrial

revolutions further strengthened the military and political superiority of the Western


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18

civilisation 6 and underscored its distinctiveness from the Muslim civilisation which

largely remained in its medieval form.

This era witnessed dissemination of more informed views about the Other in both

camps as the advent of modernity distorted the concept of self-identity in a myriad of

ways(Ameli,2002,74). The period saw, for example, poliarisation between liberal andconservative Christians in their respective attitudes towards Islam, which was more

detached from inherited perceptions (Zebiri,1997,27). However, the body of

knowledge generated by the Christian-Western civilisation during the Enlightenment

period can be considered as the cradle of methodological essentialism based on a

view of Islam as the Other(Hoefert and Salvatore,2000,23). It was during this epoch

via a series of civilisational distinctions with respect to Islam that Europe shaped the

Self image of a civilisation based on a unique model of rationality and objective

knowledge, the unique site and source of modernity(Ibid.). This lack of proper

information about Islam only added to stigmatisation which especially during the

closing centuries of the Ottoman Empire turned into a virile form of Islamophobia

helping the West define its own identity(Malik,2004,79).

This epistemologico-methodological framework was, of course, embodied and

manifested itself to perfection in the rise of the Orientalist discourse in the late 18 th

and early 19th centuries.

h.) The Colonial Post Colonial period

All of the encounters between the two civilisations as described so far had an element

of power in them, be that power military, political, economic, demographic or legal in

nature. The difference in the power balance between the two civilisations reached its

peak in the 19 th century. During this time-period a majority of Muslim lands came

under the military, economic, political and cultural dominion of the European powers.

Therefore, the West was conceived by colonised Muslims primarily in terms of a

foreign aggressor and coloniser and an aggressive military and political body.

Parallel to the period of expanding European colonialism, Christian missionary

activity was taking place. Both of these civilisational forces came to be characterised

in similar terms by the subjugated Muslim societies. Missionaries were considered to

be serving Western civilisational interests characterised by liberal secularism,

6 The term western rather than Christian civilisation will be used from this point in time due to the factthat societal changes in the West listed above religion was no longer considered the dominant marker of its civilisational identity.


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19

imperialistic tendencies, dehumanisation, domination and

meaninglessness.(Zardar,1991,2) These perceptions, in turn, became deeply

embedded in the consciousness of most Muslims forming part of the [overall] anti-

Western rhetoric [and were] constantly re-newed by manifestation of neo-

colonialism in the present(Zebiri,1997,30;32).The essentialist constructions of the Other embedded in the epistemological

frameworks of the Enlightenment period, in turn, gave rise to the phenomenon of

Orientalism which remained faithful to the earlier essentialist images of the Self on

the basis of the stereotypical Other, in this case the Muslims. The phenomenon of

Orientalism, due to the enormous impact it had on relations between Islamic and

Western/Christian civilisations and their identity constructions, requires a further

comment.

The real importance and the historical uniqueness of the Orientalist discourse, argues

Pieterberg et al. (2000,72-73) lies in:

its universality and its power to determine what should be consideredobjectively scientific and valid knowledge, and thus the power to shape theidentity, culture and history, not only of its subjects, but also of its object. Inother words, the historical uniqueness of Orientalism does not merely lie in thefact of Otherisation, but in the result of this Otherisation: the designatedOther, the Orientalised Oriental, has come to accept his Otherisation as histrue and scientifically valid Self.

Some colonial versions of Orientalism, 7 and the rise of Islamic religious extremism in

its Neo-Traditional Salafi version in the second half of the 20 th century 8 can be

conceived as the accumulative product of the history of mutual essentialist

civilisational identity construction between Muslim and Christian Western

civilisations based on , in the words of Said (1985,89), the essentialist:

Representation of other cultures, societies, histories; a [particular] relationship between power and knowledge; the [particular] role of the intellectual and[particular] methodological questions that have to do with the relationship

between different kinds of texts, between text and context, between text andhistory.

7 It must be acknowledged, however, that European scholarship on Islam , especially its Germanauthors , exhibited high(er) levels of scholarly objectivism in their approaches and methodology to thestudy of Islam. For critique of Saids thought see Ibn Warraq Edward Said and the Saidists inSpencer(2005,474-516).8 For more,on this contemporary Islamic movement see Duderija,(2007,b) and Duderija (2007,c).


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h.) The Post-Colonial period to Present

With the arrival of the skilled and unskilled immigrant labour into western countries

and the technology and communication revolution this period has witnessed the

formation of multiple, largely expended transcultural public spheres thus increasing

the civilisational and personal interaction between Islamic and Christian-western

civilisations. Although occurring in earlier times, albeit on a much smaller scale, a

diversification of the civilisational experience of the Other is now taking place on a

more significant level so that we can. As a result, at the conceptual level, perhaps for

the first time we can talk about the different sub-sections of the respective

civilisations (as well as individuals) experiencing or construing considerably different

views of the Other. In the context of Muslims I differentiate between several

Muslim attitudes towards the West and the construction of the Other.

Waardenburg points out that during the period under consideration different Wests

were experienced and perceived by different Muslim individuals and groups. 9 He

categorises the current Muslim socio-political and cultural discourse on the West as

follows:

The Orient Occident/East-West mutually exclusive, essentialist

interpretation,

The West as a political concept and political adversary,The West linked to modernity and modern society (use of reason, scholarly

knowledge, economic development, technological progress),

The West as associated with a particular way of life (with little concern for

lasting values, religion and tradition),

For neo-fundamentalists, the West is seen as the embodiment of modern

jahiliyah and a danger to the Muslim way of life due to its obsession with

materialism; a place where secularity dominates; a society in which people

are bereft of any higher spiritual truths, norms and values; a society in

which people easily fall victim to desire, vice and lust; a Godless society

with human made idols.(Waardenburg,2003,48-49)

9 And, of course ,vice-versa.


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21

In its more radical form this neo-fundamentalist version of the Islamists

(based on the ideologies represented/embodied by, for example, Maududi,

Qutb) conceptualises the West in terms of an aggressive, self-imposing

political, economic and cultural enemy trying to permeate, westernise and

secularise the Arab-Muslim East to a point at which Muslim identity andauthenticity is entirely lost (Ibid.,251). Furthermore ,the Islamists view of

own Self, argues Waardenburg, is based upon notions of:

-Renewed affirmation of Islamic identity and a rejection of Westerncriticism of Islam or of particular situations in Muslim countries,

-Continuous emphasis on the ideological historical conflict-ridden process between the two civilisations,-Development of a self-defense mechanism against perceivedencroachment of the West and its fending off by the development of anidealised superior alternative model of the Islamisation of the world and

knowledge,-The emphasis of the ideology of secularism as stemming from the Westand being the real enemy of Islam,-Highly critical claims of Western modernity, colonialism and neo-

imperialism and of the process of westernisation of Muslims societiesand Islam, and-Development of an Islamic epistemology distinct from that of Western

scholarship(Ibid.,251-254)

Thus these neo-fundamentalist Islamists, to use Waardenburg terminology,

envisage as normative the relationship between Western and Muslim identities and

their respective civilisations that emphasises distinctiveness and mutual exclusion.Using our terminology they engage in a civilisationally exclusivist and antagonistic

Self-Other mutual identity construction dialectic.

In a more sympathetic view of the West and with an apologetic approach to its own

tradition, the West is conceived in terms of technological and scientific progress, 10 a

rational modern (in opposition to traditionally based) society based on the principals

of the rule of law(Ibid.). As such these principals are worthy of imitation and are

considered Islamic. However, the Wests perceived lack of spiritual, moral, ethical

and religious dimensions are heavily criticised by those who have this approach to the

West. The West is considered a threat not only to itself but to Muslim societies 11

considered to be increasingly coming under its influence(Ibid.).

10 Islamists largely share this view too.11 Especially the Muslim communities in the West, which are seen as particularly vulnerable.


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In its secular 12 version, Muslim discourse on the West is considered the only source

of modernity leading towards progress and (material) well-being. The West embodies

the ultimate expression and the very pinnacle of political, economic, societal and

cultural development and is to be largely blindly and uncritically imitated and/or

followed(Ibid.).

In progressive Muslim 13 view the socio-political and cultural processes which have

brought about epistemological and ontological changes in the Western worldview and

resulted in the advent of modernity are considered by as a result of a dynamic process

of civilisational interaction and mutual construction through transcultural,

transpolitical and trans-social processes. Muslims within this school of thought

advocate for a modern episteme in the humanities, arts and social sciences along with

a critical and serious engagement with the inherited Islamic tradition (turath).

Additionally, this modern episteme could be also applied within the framework of the

socio-cultural context of Muslim majority societies resulting in the genesis of another

distinct type of modernity(Hanafi,2000).

For most Westerners, argues Waardenburg(2003,6-7), the advent of (post) modernity

has radically altered the way people identified/identify with religion and how they

place and integrate their religious identity into their overall identity. Religious

identity, if existent at all, is considered as just one along side many others and is

juxtaposed horizontally next to them without any hierarchical order evident(Ibid.)

In the majority of Muslim countries, however, especially at the time when the first

Muslim immigrants after the Second World War were arriving in various Western

countries, the traditional ethico-religious and socio-cultural worldview 14 still largely 15

prevailed. 16 In these traditionally based societies with traditionalist Weltanschauung

12 Secular Muslims are here defined as those Muslims who claim an epistemological break with the

Islamic tradition as embodied in the primary sources of the Islamic worldview, Quran and Sunnah anddescribe themselves as non-practicing Muslims.

13 On Progressive Muslims see Safi (2003) and Duderija (2008,b).14 Traditional worldview is here taken in the sense of the Arab mind as discussed by Arabintellectual Adonis(pseudo-name) ,Ali Ahmad Said Isbir. See Mansoor (2000).15 There were of course a number of immigrants such as those who fled the Khomeini regime in Iran ,for example, who do not fit this category.16 This is perhaps best reflected in strong resistance to changes in Muslim Family Law in countrieswhich otherwise have modernised other aspect of their nation-state , including other aspect of thelaw.


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and plural identities,(Roy,2004,Dweyer,1999) on whose basis being genuinely

engaged in mainstream Western society and remaining genuinely Muslim is not seen

as a contradiction in terms (Schmidt,2004;Samad,1998) A variety of terminology is

used to describe this type of being a Muslim such as modernist

Muslims(Cesari,2004b,87-90) rationalists Waardenburg,2000,61) or enlightenedrationalists(Gilliat,1994,186)

For example, Gilliat (Ibid,236) refers to this type of being a Muslim in a following

manner:

There is an important minority of young Muslims in Britain who are not onlydevoted Muslims, but also fully participating in the wider society when it comesto general social life[T]hey appear to be confident in their religious identity,and they do not rely on outward signs of this identity to bolster their inner sense of

being Muslim. As a consequence they can mix freely with non-Muslims in thewider society, without feeling threatened, or compromising their Islam. They are

perhaps the ones who most aspire to being recognised as British Muslims.

Mandaville and Hunter (2002,220) note this type of western Muslim identity in the

context of European Muslims when stating that

there are observant Muslims who view Western norms ,popular culture, and

lifestyles as mostly compatible with Islam. They do not see inherent conflict in

their dual identities as Muslims and Europeans.

Roy (2004)terms this a reformised liberal view of Islam. Cesari also points to the

existence of similar reformist trends [in Islam] as a result of western freedom of

expression and cultural globalisation.(Cesari,2004 a) Marechal et al. refer(2003,14)

to it as liberal. Madood and Ahmed (2007) notices the same and labels it as moderate.

In this article this type of identity construction is described as progressive religious

identity. 17 This type of identity should not be confused with what is usually termed

symbolic religious identity which denotes a poor and fragmented knowledge of

religious norms, a low level of ritual observance, but yet a strong feeling of

identification with religion and religious community(Gans,1996) which also exists

among western-born Muslim youth(Eid,2002,37). In other words this progressive

consider their religious identity to be traditionally authentic and derived from a

particular interpretation of the normative sources.

17 See footnote 13.


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This way of being and feeling 18 a Western Muslim is founded on the Self-Other

mutual identity construction dialectic that can be characterized as civilisationally

inclusivist and hybrid according to which the sense of Self is constructed along

inclusivist and civilisationally hybrid lines vis--vis the Other. This type of western

Muslim identity is line with the notion of the definition of a community of Believersthat was originally conceptualised independent of confessional identities during the

early era of Islamic thought 19 and signifies a clear rupture with the predominant mode

of the historicity of the mutual Self-Other identity construction that developed

afterwords .

On the other hand we are seeing that the same processes of immigration, de-

ethnicitisation and de-culturation facilitate the formation of identities on purely

religious grounds(Roy,2004) have been largely responsible for puritanical and

fundamentalist movements of Islam(Cesari,2004a,93,102-103) and a creation of

what Hermansen(2003,309;cf. Ebaugh and Chafez 2000; Nielsen,1997) terms the

culture free identity Islam. Gardners(1993) study of Bangladesh community in

East End of London indicates that transnational migration processes and practices can

lead to puritanism, increased religious zeal and what she terms orthodoxy based on

scripturalism. This type of religious-based identity attempts to purify Islam of

cultural influences and redefine it in along purely religious lines.(Roy,2004,121) Eid

refers to this type of religious identity as non-symbolic or ultra- orthodox identity

which develops parallel alternatives to mainstream institutions and cultural systems

shielded from Western influences [] facilitating Islam-based neo-communalist

tendencies and Islamisation of ethnic identities internal dimension(Eid,2007,51).

Hashmi(2003,219) also detected similar socially isolationist tendencies among some

of the participants in her study who emphasised their Muslimness through adoption of

external religious markers/signifiers such as the headscarf. Dassetto (2000)as well

found that certain Muslims developed these socially isolationist inclinations.

Mandaville (2007)notices that among second and third generation of immigrant

families in Britain conservative and politically extreme rendition of Islam is evident

18 The importance of emotional commitment in identity formation among western Muslims has beenoutlined in Marranci (2006).19 See pp.8-9 in this article.


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whose function is to, in the context of multicultural Britain, keep together the diverse

components of identity in cohesive manner. Haddad and Smith (2003,42) similarly

assert that this type of being a Muslim which has gathered some adherents among

some university students in United States see the [Muslim] community as

permanently maintaining its separateness ,difference and distinction in diaspora.According to Hermansen (2003,310) many aspects of this version of Islamic identity

are based on:

A mindless and rigid rejection of The Other and the creation of recaptured,rule- based space where one asserts Muslim difference based on gender segregation, romantic recreations of madras a experiences and the most blatantlyapologetic articulations of Islam..replac[ing] spirituality with arrogance and asmug pride in ones superior manifestation of visible symbols of identity.

It is this type of affirmation of pure culture-free religious identity of the alienated,

marginalized and disempowered Muslim youth that is most frequently associated with

global militant Islam (Roy,2004,232-287)This, in words of Roy, wide-spread(Ibid.)

neo-fundamentalist component of the contemporary Islamic resurgence among

western born generation Muslims(Ibid.,315-317), is exhibited by engaging in what

Noor (2003,322)terms the rhetoric of oppositional dialectics in which the question

of Islamic identity is primarily approached on the basis of the trope of the negative

Other which manifests itself in a number of forms: secularism, the West, international

Jewry/Zionism, capitalism etc. Cesari (2004a,53-56;95-109;54; cf.Cesari,2003,264-

265) also identifies this type of religious identity operating within a binary

Weltanschauung those appeals to accultured western Muslims youth labeling it

orthodox 20 in which Islam is the positive and the West is the negative. Citing Gill,

Gilliat(1994,186) describes them as

Muslims with a strong and fervent faith [who] seem to defy all the secularist,liberal trends[T]hose who hold to unswerving convictions [that] may beregarded as adhering to a system of beliefs and practices which treat scripturalabsolutism as the way to counter pluralism and relativism engendered bymodernity.

This way of being, feeling and constructing a Muslim identity ,therefore ,can be

seen as a continuation of the historicity of the Self-Other mutual identity construction

between the Islamo-Arab and Judeo-Christian civilisations in the post-formative

20 Cesari also uses alternative terminology such as Wahhabi and Salafi.


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27

period 21 characterised by an antagonistic, exclusivist and oppositional identity

construction according to which the Self is constructed in civilisationally isolationist,

antagonistic and oppositional lines vis--vis the Other which as it outlined above

was, as outlined above, the predominant method of identity formation.

6.) Conclusion:

The long history of Christian Muslim mutual identity construction at both

civilisational and individual levels, apart from the early Islamic formative period,

largely emphasises the religious uniqueness and distinctiveness of the respective

faiths based on a particular interpretation /understanding of their religious tradition. It

is important to highlight that the contextual background within which civilisational

interactions and the creation of transcultural spaces took place was dominated by

confrontational political, military, economic and cultural overtones and that this

fostered antagonistic and religiously exclusivist construction of Self as well as that of

the other. This mutually essentialist paradigm spanning many centuries perpetuated

stereotypical images of Self (either Christianity or Islam) and the Other( Islam or

Christianity) upon which religious identity construction was based and inherited. In

more recent times a diversification of religious identities within faith communities has

transpired. Some types of being a Muslim that the author refers to as progressive, do

not subscribe to this antagonistic and reactionary construction of Muslim Self vis--

vis the other whilst other contemporary constructions of the Muslim Self, are , in

essence, a continuation of the medieval Self-Other mutual identity construction

dichotomy as in the case of NTS.

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