by Marina Schneider
On April 4 and 5, 2025, Dr. Azfar Moin, Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin and Dr. Alex Kregar, Global Fellow at Habib University Karachi, Pakistan, hosted a conference on Islamic Distinction.
The conference was organized to reflect on the tense relationship between the Islamic confession of faith, messianic movements that sought to suspend or modify the central oaths of Islam, and the latter’s affinity for secular politics with a particular focus on the modern period. In theoretical terms, the theme of the conference also focused on the impact of Talal Asad’s idea of Islam as a discursive tradition on the anthropological study of Islam. The organizers suggest a modified framework—through the metasemiotic frame of the shahada, or confession of faith, and its transformation or abandonment by messianic groups. Their goal was to find a more expansive understanding of Islam and religion more broadly that not only accommodated orthodox and scriptural forms, but also the lesser studied varieties of messianic Islam that eschew the textual tradition, such as the Alevis of Turkey who prioritize music and poetry in their religious practices.
Dr. Alan Strathern, Professor of Global History at the University of Oxford, gave the keynote lecture, outlining his framework on secularity based on his earlier conceptions of religion as informed by immanentist and transcendentalist religious cultures in world history. Strathern’s work takes a broad long-durée global approach to understanding religious phenomena. In his talk, he situated the seeds of the religious tension with the state in the Axial Age (800-200 BCE) that witnessed the rise and spread of transcendentalist religions such as Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Greek philosophical traditions that all privileged the ideal of an existence divorced from the pursuit of life and flourishing in this world. In biblical religion, this ideal took on the form of the doctrine of salvation in the hereafter. Strathern noted an affinity between ancient immanentism and modern secularism in that both milieus sought to make life in the world more bearable without the demands of salvation as espoused by Transcendentalism. Overall, Strathern set out three types of secularities:
- Religion is diminished or removed from political life;
- Religion is separated from the secular in conceptual and institutional terms (extracted);
- Religion is subordinated to the state through the sacralization of the ruler or state itself.
Through his global perspective, Strathern argues against a strict break between pre-modern and modern forms of politics, instead saying that the tension between the state and transcendentalist religion is continuous, although it takes different forms across time. While Strathern’s talk did not focus solely on Islam, his way of understanding secularity and its three forms resonated with many of the papers that addressed the tension between Islam and the modern nation state.
Some examples of the range of topics from the conference include Hikmet Kocamaner’s talk on the Eyüp Sultan Shrine, which focused on how secularity creates particular types of religiosities: for example, how the Turkish Diyanet attempts to purify Islam of heterodox traditions through shrine visitation protocols. Erol Köymen spoke about a complaint filed against the Muslim call to prayer in Cologne, Germany, examining both the sonic and religious pluralist dimensions of the law. Yasmin Moll discussed rhetoric between Muslim preachers and the first Muslim media channel in Egypt. Sadia Saeed traced the recurring figure of the Zindīq in Islamic history, contrasting usage of the term in anti-Ahmadiyya polemics from Modern Pakistan with the persecution of Manicheans in the 8th century. Aneeq Ejaz presented his work on the way Islam was enshrined in the Pakistani constitution as well, to name just a few of the excellent talks delivered over the two-day conference.
In the eleven papers presented, a number of themes emerged connecting the papers to each other and the keynote. One theme drew attention to the tensions between modern states and religion in Turkey, Pakistan, and Germany. Power struggles between state and religious law were especially pertinent case studies. Another theme that emerged was orthodoxy and heterodoxy, how these terms and practices are defined, debated, and performed in society. Time was also an important subject of conversation. Historical, religious, and messianic temporalities all shaped the topics of enquiry. These are merely a few of the themes that emerged, showcasing further avenues for intellectual discourse. In theoretical terms, the conference acknowledged Asad’s contribution while also exploring some of the limitations of Asad’s framework. It illustrated that expanded analysis and new questions emerge from introducing other intellectual models that address scriptural forms of Islam as well as lesser studied varieties of messianic Islam that eschew the textual tradition. The talks and conversations that took place encouraged new analytical dimensions to understanding the development of monotheistic religions such as Islam. Through these dialogues, the conference participants suggested enhancements that could be made to the intellectual toolkit for engaging with Islam in its many complex varieties.
Marina Schneider is a PhD student in the Department of Religious Studies at UT. Her research focuses on religion and the material culture of Medieval Spain.