Modern societies in the Middle East have been shaped by processes of secularization, leading to a state of secularity on two levels: structural differentiations and conceptual distinctions between religion and the secular. Overt promotion of secularism failed to gain wider societal acceptance, especially among those who perceive a tension or contradiction between secularity and Islam. While some scholars share this view, recent works point out conceptual distinctions between the religious and the secular in Islam. After a snapshot of scholarly approaches, this chapter attends first to structural differentiations and then to conceptual distinctions of secularity. It largely focuses on the formative period of modernity but also adds a historical and contemporary dimension. Acknowledging the hegemony of colonial powers in configuring secularity both historically and conceptually, but highlighting Islamic variations and precolonial resources of secularity in the Middle East, this chapter furthers a research perspective on the varieties of secularity in global modernity and their plural genealogies.
The Middle East in global modernity: Analytic polycentrism, historic entanglements and a rejuvenated area studies debate