The Cultural Muslim, Secularization and the Academic Study of Islam

It is acknowledged at the outset that some of the issues raised in this paper are contentious. This is an openly critical-reflective piece that seeks to examine a largely neglected feature of Muslim society: the cultural Muslim. This will invariably involve dealing with issues and debates surrounding Westernization, secularization, and modernity. At the core of this debate is where religion is located within each paradigm, but more importantly how it is understood by various points of view to interact with all three. Secularization here is understood as defined by Steve Bruce: a process by which religion is increasingly (in all its various manifestations) destabilized within society. Religion may not be disappearing, but as some argue, may be returning or being “revived.”