1 Postcolonialism and Islam/ism: theory, academy and the contours of public debate

Studies ’ at York4 include Islam in their lists of topics to be addressed). This papers aims to challenge the established assumptions that put postcolonialism and Islam/ism in an explanatory relationship by looking at their divergent theoretical and political agendas and, in the last instance, at the contrasting worldviews conveyed by these two projects. This link between the two terms, between postcolonialism as a theoretical framework and Islam/ism as a social cum ethical movement and position in social research is claimed to be two-fold: historical, by reference to the historical experience of colonialism; and theoretical by reference to the postmodern/poststructuralist turn. By using the term Islam/ism the paper does not aim to focus on the military or violent action of Islamist activist groups or Islamist states (for instance Iran or Saudi Arabia). Instead the paper looks at those threads within social theory which have developed a sympathetic stance toward the argument of Muslim groups advocating that the accommodation of religious consciousness-and-practice in the public space is an indispensable component of their identity not only as human beings (for the issue is not limited to questions of consciousness and private beliefs) but as citizens whose life cannot be meaningful and whose freedom cannot be fully enjoyed unless the markers of their Islamic faith are visibly perceptible. In other words, b