Fear of Secularism: Islamist Narratives on a Doctrinal Threat

Secularism takes up a central role in Islamist threat perceptions and has historically played a major role in its development. This chapter explores the way twentieth-century Islamists across different geographical contexts have filled content into the concept of secularism by analyzing their narratives. It appears that secularism is not linked to notions of peace, neutrality, rationality, or modernity as a hegemonic European narrative prescribes, but rather opposite, secularism is equated with ideas about lordship of man over man, colonialism, and Godless atheism. Rather than providing a detailed account of individual ideologues and their context, the main purpose is to draw out a recurring ideological trend that has colored Islamist narratives across time and contexts, namely resistance toward doctrines of secularism, and the fear of religious decay. The chapter, however, also shows variations in how secularism and the secular is understood and framed by Islamist ideologues, and argues that—just like the case of secularism—it is too simplistic to claim that Islam or Islamism represents one line of demarcation between the sacred and the profane only.