Debating Islam, Secularism, Democracy and Muslim Polity -- Islam, Public Religions and the Secularization Debate1 -- Muslim Thinkers and the Debate on Secularism and Laïcité -- Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Tariq Ramadan on Secularisation: Differences and Similarities -- Islam and Democracy in the Twenty-First Century -- Moving Out of Kazanistan: Liberal Theory and Muslim Contexts -- Muslim Modernity: Poetics, Politics, and Metaphysics -- Turkish Secular Muslim Identity on Display in Europe -- Hidden Bodies in Islam: Secular Muslim Identities in Modern (and Premodern) Societies -- Secularization and Dynamics of Muslim Lives in Glocalised Contexts -- Contentions in the Making: Discussing Secularism Among Scottish Muslims -- Muslim Women’s Narratives on Religious Identification in a Polarising Dutch Society -- Hamburg, Muslims and Imams: The Challenge of Secularism -- American Muslim Women: Narratives of Identity and Globalisation -- A State of Islam: Modernity and Muslim Life in Twenty-First Century Australia -- The Search for Shared Idioms: Contesting Views of Laiklik Before the Turkish Constitutional Court -- Afterword.

Is Islam compatible with democracy and the West? How do Muslim communities understand the concept of the secular? How have contemporary Islamic scholars addressed the topic and why? How does living in a secularized context affect the everyday lives of Muslim women living in the west? What about the so-called 'secular' Muslims? These and other questions are discussed in Muslim Societies and the Challenge of Secularization: An Interdisciplinary Approach. A timely collection which, for the first time, explores these themes from a strong interdisciplinary approach. This book provides theoretical and ethnographic discussion of both the experience of Muslims vis-a-vis the idea of the secular as well as the revival of the discourse of secularism within the western context. Through its interdisciplinary approach and the case studies of different Muslim communities, this book avoids some of the clichés and essentialism which often affect the analysis of secularization and Islam. The collection aims to open a discussion and provide glimpses into current studies on the topic.