POLITICIZING THE SOCIAL SCIENCES: ISLAM AND CULTURE AS SOCIO-POLITICAL FACT

Abstract

One possible way for a Muslim social scientist to respond and contextualize Islamic discourse is to mediate and cultivate a common perception and understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim readership through an understanding of Islam as a socio-political construct. In this paper, the discussion of Islam as socio-political fact is used to illustrate the impact of Western social sciences on the study of Islam. Through the appropriation of notions of transculture and the politics of identity, post-colonialism and postmodernism, the sociology of Islam is expanded as a paradigm through the understanding of strategic essentialism to deconstruct hegemonic terms of political discourse in academia.