Politics of Desecularization
Law and the Minority Question in Pakistan

A fascinating account of how Islam can be deployed or resisted to shape minority rights and religious change in Muslim societies.

Sadia Saeed (Author)

9781316505571, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 November 2018

284 pages, 5 tables
22.9 x 15.1 x 1.6 cm, 0.44 kg

'The book's strength lies in its combining of political and social developments with judicial analysis. An in-depth examination of case law generates fresh insights about the repercussions of political norms, laws, and statues on legal debates about religious freedom in courtrooms. Saeed not only consults case law and statutes, she has gathered an impressive array of interview data from lawyers, judges, state attorneys, politicians, and former ministers who actively shaped the discourse around the question of religious freedom in general, and the treatment of Ahmadis in particular. The interviews with major actors are quite revelatory, both in terms of getting a fuller sense of events and how actors recollected their own role in those defining moments.' Faisal Kamal, Politics and Religion

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.

Acknowledgements
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.

Subject Areas: Religious & theocratic ideologies [JPFR], Political ideologies [JPF], Politics & government [JP], Society & social sciences [J]