The New Secularism in the Muslim World

Across the Muslim world, religion and politics have come increasingly to be mixed in the past century, with devastating consequences. But there are signs that the ascendancy of political Islam may be coming to an end. In this context, the experience of Central Asia and Azerbaijan as Muslim-majority states that insist on secular laws, courts and education is a much-overlooked model that is bound to attract greater interest.This is the first study of the Central Asian model in the realm...
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Across the Muslim world, religion and politics have come increasingly to be mixed in the past century, with devastating consequences. But there are signs that the ascendancy of political Islam may be coming to an end. In this context, the experience of Central Asia and Azerbaijan as Muslim-majority states that insist on secular laws, courts and education is a much-overlooked model that is bound to attract greater interest.This is the first study of the Central Asian model in the realm of the interaction of religion and the state, which examines its particular characteristics as well as how it relates to other frequently-touted models in the Muslim World.