Ali Eteraz on post-Islamism:
…since 2001 we have devoted far too much time to the Islamic reform cult of personality. Faced with an increasingly complicated world, the time for heightened sophistication is now. Structural and political discussions – for example, about separation of mosque and state, the making of a Muslim left, the ideas of Muslim secularists, the debate over Islamic liberal democracy and the emergence of a post-Islamist Islam – are a completely overlooked part of this thing called “Islamic reform”. The true and original goal of Islamic reform was to help voiceless Muslims and minorities. The social transformation necessary for creating such a landscape requires acknowledging that Islamic reform is at its heart a political, not merely religious, project.
Read the full article here
P.S. Ali’s optimism on Tehreek-e-Insaaf needs a bit of a reality check. I don’t blame him as the Great Cricketer is increasingly attracting the attention of the educated urban elites in Pakistan and abroad.
